The Washington Post
The U.S. surgeon general released an advisory this past month warning that the country’s children “have become unknowing participants in a decades-long experiment” of social media use.
The trouble is the results aren’t in yet.
There is no question that the nation is experiencing a crisis in youth mental health. In 2021, 42% of high school students in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and 18% said they made a suicide plan. The numbers are bad for younger students, too. They are the worst for teenage girls.
But there are questions about whether the spike in social media use is responsible for the increases in depression and suicide. There are other possible causes, such as economic anxiety or the opioid crisis. The pandemic didn’t help, though these troubles began before it.
A decrease in stigma around mental health conditions could also explain some of the surge: Kids were always depressed. They just weren’t always talking about it, though a rise in mental health-related emergency room visits suggests this is not the whole story.
There’s also the possibility that what’s most harmful for the average kid isn’t social media use itself but rather how it swallows up hours that would otherwise be devoted to the activities that science shows very clearly are beneficial for mental health, such as exercise or, crucially, sleep.
The good news is the contradictions and consistencies in the analyses researchers do have suggest places to probe deeper. The American Psychological Association’s declaration that “using social media is not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people” has somehow served as a talking point for both companies eager to continue business as usual and their loudest critics. But it’s also a clarion call to figure out under what circumstances it is harmful.
The results of robust studies could help platforms come up with interventions that target the most dangerous aspects of their products. Or they could help Congress come up with legislation focused on, say, the way platform design promotes concerning behaviors.
Perhaps restrictions on algorithmic recommendations for children are in order. Perhaps the endless scroll should actually end — or at least users should be prompted to step away or look at something different. Perhaps they should be prompted to go to bed at bedtime. Some apps are already experimenting with features such as these.
Any additional insight can guide parents in setting rules for their own children as well as in understanding what warning signs to watch for.
The surgeon general is right that we lack the evidence to conclude social media is “sufficiently safe” for the tens of millions of kids who while away their days on these sites. Yet so far, the country also lacks the evidence to conclude whether and how it is hurting them.
For now, the best treatment plan is to get those answers and in the meantime for parents to use common sense, making sure their children get exercise, sleep and screenless engagement every now and then.