Shots - Health News The truth about teens, social media and the mental health crisis "As I began to scroll more, I felt my mental, and physical health really suffer." "I realized that the magic I thought Instagram - and all these social media apps - had was really just an illusion," she says. And her relationship with her phone shifted.
It felt like the best day ever."īut within a few months, her time on her phone had increased from one hour to five or six hours each day. "One day, I think I commented, Olive Garden, 'I love you.' And they responded, 'We love you, too.'" Lembke says. Then she got her own phone, she says, "And I remember for the first few months I was in love with Instagram." "So my initial response to this phenomenon was 'OK, there must be something so magical and amazing within these social media apps." "I remember as each one of my friends got a phone, each one of them was getting pulled away from conversations with me, from even playing on the playground," Lembke explains. Here's what teens and young adults say over and over again: Know what you are up against with social media.īack when Lembke was in sixth grade, she really, really, really wanted a phone. I can amplify positive content, and I'm connecting with a lot of people worldwide."
"I've been given a lot of opportunities because of social media. "I do believe social media has great aspects as well," says Rijul Arora, age 26, a digital wellness coach and consultant who leads a project called LookUp India, aimed at helping teens unhook from social media. "And that relationship is completely asymmetric, and it is just harming young people."īy listening to young people, Lembke believes, parents can work with teens to help them minimize the harms of these platforms while maximizing their benefits. "We, Gen Z, have felt so tangibly the impact of being left alone to big tech's profit business model," she explains. They are the experts of these apps - not their parents.Īnd they've been affected by social media more than any other generation, says Emma Lembke, who's 20 and founded the Log Off Movement to help teens have a healthy relationship with social media. While clinicians and psychologists try to come up with remedies to this crisis, some of them are realizing something paradoxical: Teens and young adults may be the best source of advice and solutions. Shots - Health News Major psychologists' group warns of social media's potential harm to kids "I have repeatedly deleted Instagram in an effort to improve my emotional state but then, I reinstall. Nearly two-thirds of respondents gave some version of this advice to future teens: Don't use social media. Many asked their parents to help them stop using it. Some respondents explicitly said social media made them feel depressed.
The study, published in September, reveals a striking awareness about the potential harms social media can have on teenagers' mental health, but also their persistent attempts to counter these harms. "Don't let social media control your life or your self-esteem," another texted. the internet is far off from reality and the more time you spend on it, the more you forget what real life is actually like.," one person wrote. Teens and young adults from across the country answered these questions in a text survey in 2020. "Have you ever felt like you need to change your social media use.?" "What advice would you give to young people who are new to social media?"
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They also have good advice for how to have a healthy relationship with social media. Many teens and young adults struggle with overuse of screens.
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