Human Growth and Development / Unit 10 HGD 1393 review, 2 to 3 minutes
Social Media and Teen Mental Health
The idea
Rates of anxiety and depression among US adolescents rose over the same years that smartphones and social media spread. Some researchers, Twenge and Haidt among them, argue that screens caused much of the rise and call for reduced exposure. In twenty twenty-three the US Surgeon General issued an advisory flagging social media's risks, including for body image, and reported that adolescents spending more than three hours a day on social media faced double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms. Other researchers find the average association small. Orben and Przybylski, analysing three large datasets covering more than three hundred fifty thousand adolescents, found the association between digital technology use and well-being negative but small, explaining less than half of one percent of the variation in well-being. Reviews also link social media to body-image concerns, but these are associations. Benefits are real too: communication, connection for isolated or shy teens, new ideas and collaboration.
In practice
Two fifteen-year-olds each online four hours a day: one comparing her body with influencers' and sleeping badly, the other keeping up with a support group for teens with a rare illness.
Where people slip
The misconception is that research has shown social media caused the teen mental-health decline. The associations are real; causation is contested. Several questions remain open. Does heavy use cause distress, or do distressed teens use more? Does the average hide larger effects for some users, such as those comparing appearance? Do specific uses, passive scrolling versus active posting, matter more than total time? The course states both sides and takes no policy position. Unit one's lesson applies directly: a correlation across a population, even a well-measured one, does not show what would happen if one teen used less. For the exam, know the debate, the small size of the average association, and the difference between correlation and causation.
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