Heavy social media users are twice as likely to be depressed as light users, making it important for parents to consider limiting their teen's access or offering more beneficial activities. (Eightshot Images/Getty Images)
Several Maryland school districts, including Cecil, Carroll, and Montgomery County Public Schools, recently joined the growing number of U.S. school districts taking social media companies like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat, to court, alleging the companies are designed to encourage youth addiction and are fueling a mental health crisis among young people.
“What we’ve seen recently—the game changer—is the actual mental health impact social media is having on students during the school day when they are supposed to be learning,” Cecil County superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Lawson told local CBS station WJZ-TV.
Lawson said students use social media at school when they should be focused on their school work.
“At the moment, when the student is interacting on social media, it’s not an easy thing for a parent to be aware of,” Lawson said. “What we’re looking for is some sort of the fundamental change in the way children are able to access social media in such an addictive way.”
These schools are trying to combat social media’s adverse and often deadly effects. According to Mr. William Shinoff, the lead attorney for the lawsuit, the increased use of social media has led to the schools seeing increased mental health problems.
“It used to be that the issues you dealt with on-campus stayed on campus, but now with social media, it’s 24/7, and the harm to children is getting greater,” Shinoff told Fox News. “We’ve seen an increase in depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and even unfortunately, suicide rates have gone up,” he added.
Stress and anxiety can cause depression in teen girls. (Shutterstock)
Even before the pandemic, from 2013 to 2019, a CDC report found that one-fifth (20.9 percent) of teens aged 12-17 had experienced a major depressive episode. Among high school students in 2019, 36.7 percent reported persistently feeling sad or hopeless in the past year, and 18.8 percent had seriously considered attempting suicide.
Dr. Jean Twenge, an American psychologist who researches and writes about social media’s effect on youth, told San Diego State University in a 2022 interview that “heavy users of social media (five-plus hours a day) are twice as likely to be depressed as non-users. Facebook’s research found that using Instagram led to body image issues for many teen girls.”
Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, and Washington are some other states whose schools have filed similar lawsuits.
Washington’s Seattle Public Schools was the first to file the lawsuit (pdf) in January, alleging that social media companies had intentionally designed and marketed their platforms to attract children and teens, violating the state’s public nuisance law.
“These techniques are both particularly effective and harmful to the youth audience Defendants have intentionally cultivated, creating a mental health crisis among America’s youth,” the Seattle Schools lawsuit states.
Buck County Public Schools in Pennsylvania recently filed a complaint demanding that corporate media companies take responsibility for creating addictive experiences for young social media users.
The complaint alleges that using mechanics akin to gambling, the platforms manipulate users with “Intermittent Variable Rewards” (IVRs) that deliver addicting shots of dopamine as users browse continuous, algorithmic, personalized streams of content and advertisements. The suit says the platforms make frequent changes to maximize screen time and promote excessive, problematic use levels.
“For too long, these companies have exploited developing minds without consequence, exchanging our children’s mental well-being for billions of dollars in ad revenue,” said Buck County Commissioner Chair Bob Harvie at a news event. “The negative effects these platforms have are real, they are serious, they are quantifiable, and they cannot be allowed to continue.”
According to a 2022 Pew Research survey, most young people ages 13-17 use social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat.
During a 2022 interview on Dr. Jordan Peterson’s show, Dr. Jean Twenge said social media is particularly “toxic” for young women and that the negative impact of social media could be seen well before the pandemic, she said.
Smartphones are increasing the anxiety teens are already facing. Limiting screen time and supervising your children's social media can help parents identify when children are dealing with stress and anxiety. (Shutterstock)
“So teen depression has doubled, and that was true even before the pandemic. The rise started in 2011 or 2012. Right as social media moved from optional to mandatory, and right when smartphones were owned by the majority of people, loneliness went up, anxiety went up,” said Twenge. In addition, self-harm, which is “an objectively measured behavior, not something subjected to any kind of self-report bias … among 10 to 14-year-old girls, has quadrupled in the last 12 years.”
Meanwhile, a report titled “Teen and Mental Health: How Girls Really Feel About Social Media” (pdf) published by Common Sense, funded in part by The Bezo Family Foundation, says the relationship between teens and social media is complicated, but their findings confirm that those children that experience the most negative impact on their mental health, are the ones who were struggling with the mental health issue before using social media.
The report claims that no platform is worse than the other, but certain features, like the ability to share location and photos, were problematic.
Masooma Haq began reporting for The Epoch Times from Pakistan in 2008. She currently covers a variety of topics including U.S. government, culture, and entertainment.
