Social media, mental health and our kids
Australia recently moved to ban social media accounts for adolescents under age 16. Teens spend an average of 5 hours each day on social media-related apps, and legislators in the U.S., too, are looking for ways to curb technology's influence.
“We expect more from technology and less from each other.” ― Sherry Turkle
I started teaching at Miami in 2004 and watched smartphones and ear pods gradually take possession of our students as I walked to and from classes. In those early days, students often made eye contact, nodded or even said hello. Today, they rarely do. When I walk my dog or deliver newspapers on campus, even the adults are less friendly, living on their phones.
I used to do a class exercise, asking students to list the upsides and downsides of Facebook (before parents took over that app). They always came up with more negatives than positives but also acknowledged they were “addicted” — and they used that word frequently. Later, I came up with an exercise to see if they could go without their phones for 24 hours. Most could not. Why? As they said, they were addicted.
A 2023 Pew Research Center study reported that 63% of teens (ages 13-17) used TikTok, 60% used Snapchat and 59% used Instagram. Just one third of teens in the study had a Facebook account. A 2023 Gallup study found that if you include YouTube, teenagers spend almost 5 hours a day on social media-related apps, ranging from 4 hours per day for 13-year-olds to 5.7 hours for 17-year-olds. That’s pretty much a half-time job.
If you throw in TV, tablets and computers (with time spent on video games), the average screen time for teens is over 8 hours a day. That’s a full time job.
Last month, Australia decided to do something dramatic: That country’s legislators voted to ban social media accounts for teens and adolescents under age 16. The bill is aimed at addressing the widespread worries about the harmful effects of social media on young people. While legislators realize this will be hard to enforce and many tech-savvy teens will find workarounds, they argue that governments have a role to play confronting systemic problems in the digital world. Under the law, teens and parents will not be prosecuted, but social media companies that violated the legislation could face fines in the $30 million range. They have 12 months to implement the necessary changes.
The U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 report on social media and young people’s mental health does note the upsides of social media: improving connections to family, providing supportive networks, fostering creativity and self-expression, among others. But the downsides are scary. For example, since the advent of social media, we have seen suicide rates among teens climb dramatically. Numerous studies have now documented increases in teen depression and anxiety, lower self-esteem, obsessions with body image, increased obesity and eating disorders, and online harassment. Demonstrating a link between cyberbullying and depression, one study showed two-thirds of teens say they are “often” or “sometimes” harassed online.
A study from National Institute of Mental Health reveals that pre-teen suicide rates (ages 8-12) rose by 8 percent each year from 2008 to 2022. Another study from the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago found that “3 out of every 5 youths (between ages 10 and 24) who died by suicide in the United States had never received a diagnosis of a mental health disorder such as depression.” The American Psychological Association (APA) reported last year that 20 percent of all teens have seriously considered suicide. This rate is even higher among Black and LGBTQ teens.
Journalist Germany Kent has said that social media “can be a never-ending cycle of struggles if you allow what others think and say about you to affect the way you feel about yourself.” Governments, school districts and organizations alike are taking note, though, and looking for solutions.
The Surgeon General has called for a “multi-pronged” approach to monitoring the impact of social media on teens. At the macro level, this would involve legislation. For example, last year France passed a law that requires parents to consent for their children under 15 to have social media accounts. Earlier this year, Florida imposed a ban on social media accounts for children under age 14 and parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds. About 75 percent of the public school districts in the U.S. now have bans or limits on cell phones in schools.
In addition, the Surgeon General advocates that tech companies assess the effects of social media on children and research the impact of their products on mental health. Local communities can also prioritize mental health as Oxford has done through the Coalition for a Healthy Community (www.healthyoxfordarea.org). At the micro level, individual families have created boundaries on social media use by imposing time limits or uploading apps that monitor social media content.
Finally, numerous online resources exist that offer context and advice, including the Surgeon General’s Social Media and Youth Mental Health advisory, the American Psychological Association’s 2023 Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence, and the Center for Youth Mental Health.
Richard Campbell is a professor emeritus and founding chair of the Department of Media, Journalism & Film at Miami.
