The Impact of Social Media on Teenagers’ Mental Health: Is it Fair to Blame Social Media?
Newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal a worrying increase in depression and suicidal thoughts among American teenagers between 2011 and 2021, especially girls and those who do not identify as heterosexual. The CDC’s report adds to mounting evidence of a severe teen mental health crisis in the US that has only gotten worse over the past decade.
Psychologists and lawmakers believe that social media is a significant factor in the surge of teen mental health issues. With smartphones, teens can access the internet easily and spend more time online than any previous generation. A Pew poll conducted last year found that nearly all teenagers use the internet daily, and almost half of them use it “almost constantly.” Social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook are where they spend most of their time online.
To tackle this crisis, public schools in Seattle have filed a lawsuit against several major social media companies, accusing them of exploiting the “vulnerable brains of youth” for profit. Utah Governor Spencer Cox has announced his intention to file a similar lawsuit, and some members of Congress are pushing for legislation to regulate social media use by children, including a legal age minimum for users.
Why this Argument
Despite the abundance of evidence, both through academic research and personal accounts, the cause of the mental health crisis affecting today’s youth remains a contested topic. While many experts assert that social media is the primary culprit behind this issue, others argue that it is not so simple.
One side argues that social media usage leads to negative outcomes such as feelings of inadequacy, isolation, anxiety, stress and sadness, which negatively affect the mental health of American youth. There are also concerns about targeted content, which might lead to online addiction, and exposure to harmful content like eating disorder promotions.
These experts claim that social media algorithms are deliberately designed to maximize screen time, leading to a rise in online interactions at the expense of in-person experiences. However, there are still many other factors that create stress in teenagers’ lives, such as the pandemic, political tension, mass shootings, and climate change fears.
Some mental health experts argue that excessive social media usage may be a symptom of underlying mental health issues, rather than a root cause. It may be necessary to address these issues, such as anxiety or depression, rather than just the behavior itself. Nonetheless, it’s essential to identify the various factors affecting teenage mental health, including social media, to provide adequate support to the youth.
Perspectives on the impact of social media on the mental health of today’s children
Experts who blame social media for causing teen mental health crises say that constant use of social media makes young people feel inadequate, isolated, anxious, stressed, and sad. Moreover, social media platforms are designed to maximize time spent on them, which means that kids are missing out on in-person experiences that would be beneficial to their mental health. Some experts suggest that social media use may be a symptom of mental health problems, not the cause. Others point out that teenagers face many other stressful factors that can cause mental health problems, including the pandemic, political tensions, mass shootings, and fear of climate change.
Critics of the focus on social media as a mental health hazard warn against creating a moral panic that distracts from the more complex causes of the problem. They say that social media is nothing more than a tool for teens to express how they feel about the world and that its use can be both positive and negative.
Some experts point out that social media use can reduce the ability to tolerate the distress of waiting, given that younger generations grew up with the ability to access information at any time. Social media can also replace healthier social activities for children, according to critics.
The stress pandemic affecting everyone, but especially adolescents, is a significant factor in the mental health problems faced by today’s youth, say some experts. Online relationships may not be fulfilling the needs of growing children, and teens may feel more alone and sad than ever after logging onto social media, according to others.
Some experts suggest that social media may be harmless for most but damaging to a small number of kids, leading to dependency and depression. Social media can bombard young people with messages that fuel their anxiety and sadness, but the impact of social media on mental health is complex, and different experiences on social media can vary greatly.
Experts warn that denying teens access to social media could cause incredible harm, and abruptly turning off the internet would make many kids miserable. They say that excess social media usage can be unhealthy among some teenage users, but millions of young people deprived of access to social media would not be a boon to teen mental health