Social Media and Mental Distress

"The Anxious Generation (2024), the run-away best seller by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, argues in no uncertain terms that the "phone-based childhood," which has replaced the "play-based childhood" and is dominated by immersion in social media, is "the major cause of the international epidemic of adolescent mental illness" (p. 139)."

"Social Media and Youth Mental Health, the 2023 advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General, designated adolescent social media use an "urgent public health issue." The following year, the Surgeon General went further, calling on Congress to approve a "warning label on social media platforms" because these media are "associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents." The message conveyed in all of these is basically the same:"

"While all of this adds up to a neat and even compelling explanation, it might obscure as much as it illuminates by laying so much of youth distress at the feet of social media relative to other contributing factors. Those other factors, such as the norms we live by, are not so easy to name and blame."

A Netflix drama, a best-selling book, and U.S. Surgeon General advisories present social media as a central driver of adolescent mental illness. The Netflix series depicts a 13-year-old driven to murder through exposure to the "manosphere." Jonathan Haidt characterizes a "phone-based childhood" dominated by social media as the major cause of an international epidemic of adolescent mental illness. The U.S. Surgeon General labeled adolescent social media use an urgent public health issue and urged warning labels because platforms are associated with significant mental health harms. Concentrated blame on social media risks obscuring other contributing factors, such as societal norms, that are harder to identify and assign blame.

Read at Psychology Today