What it's doing to kids
Most adults chose to join social media. Children didn't. And the research on how it's affecting them is alarming.
Which platforms are they on?
Percentage of American teenagers who use each platform, as of 2023.
Source: Pew Research Center, “Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023”
What experts say
In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a formal advisory warning that social media poses a “profound risk of harm” to children and adolescents. The advisory called for health warning labels on social media platforms, the same mechanism used to communicate risks on tobacco and alcohol.
Social Media and Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory, 2023. [PDF]
The American Psychological Association issued its own health advisory in 2023 recommending that social media use by children under 14 be limited, and that minors have access to platforms only with appropriate safeguards: parental monitoring, content filters, and protection from harmful recommendations.
Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence, APA, 2023. [PDF]
Mental health and suicide risk
In 2024 the CDC published its first national survey of teen social media use, based on the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Among its findings: teens who used social media frequently were significantly more likely to report being bullied, experiencing persistent sadness or hopelessness, and having seriously considered suicide.
A 2024 review in JAMA Network Open found consistent associations between social media use and suicide risk in youth across multiple study designs and populations. A large nationwide study published in Scientific Reports in 2023 found a dose-response relationship between time spent on social media and self-harm among adolescents, meaning more time correlated with greater risk.
A 2018 analysis in Clinical Psychological Science documented a sharp rise in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among U.S. adolescents beginning around 2012, the same period when smartphone ownership and social media use became widespread in that age group.
Share of high schoolers reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness
Source: CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), 2009–2023
Risks to brain development
Adolescence is a critical window for brain development, a period when the neural circuits governing emotion, identity, and social behavior are still being formed. Social media enters that window as a constant source of social feedback: likes, comments, shares, and the fear of missing out.
A three-year brain imaging study published in JAMA Pediatrics in 2023 found that adolescents who checked social media more than fifteen times a day showed measurable changes in brain structure over time, specifically increased neural sensitivity to social rewards and punishments. The brains of heavy users were becoming more reactive to the feedback loop, not less.
A 2022 study in Nature Communications identified specific developmental windows, particularly ages 10–12 and 14–15, when the impact of social media on mental health is most acute. These are ages when many children are just beginning to use these platforms.
A separate Nature Communications study from 2018 found that higher social media use in early adolescence predicted lower life satisfaction scores one year later, and that the reverse was not true. The platforms drive the outcome; the outcome does not drive the use.
What you can do
If you have children in your life, first of all: give yourself some grace. Parenting was hard enough before the internet, and this is an especially difficult subject for any parent/guardian to navigate precisely because it's so new. There is no silver bullet. Do what you can, how you can, when you can. The most direct thing you can do is reduce social media's role in your household, and model that behavior yourself. Research consistently shows that parental attitudes and habits around screens are among the strongest predictors of children's own habits.
If you don't have children, your choices still matter. A culture in which adults treat social media as normal and unavoidable makes it harder for young people to opt out. Every person who steps away changes that calculus a little.
Take the pledge: reduce your use, step away, or quit for good. And if you know a young person who is struggling with social media, share what you've learned here.
Sources
Full citations for every study referenced on this page are available on the Sources page.