Growing Incidence of Teen Depression Coinciding With Increased Social Media Use

"There has been ongoing debate about whether social media contributes to depression or simply reflects underlying depressive symptoms."

"These findings provide evidence that social media may be contributing to the development of depressive symptoms."

"As a father of two young kids, I know that simply telling children to 'get off your phone' doesn't really work."

"Parents can lead by example with open, non-judgmental questions about screen use. Setting screen-free times for the whole family, such as during meals or before bed, can help build healthier habits for everyone, including adults."

Dr. Jason Nagata, associate professor, University of California, San Francisco

 

"Obviously time is one thing but content is another. Texting or DMing [direct messaging] with friends or sharing memes -- some of that might actually be very pro-social and very positive and very connecting."

"Whereas doomscrolling and getting lost in social media rabbit holes might be more isolating and lead to more comparisons, which could lead to more depression."

Kyle Ganson, assistant professor, University of Toronto

Children on their phones. "Parents can lead by example," notes the lead author of a new study. Photo by stock photo /getty images

 

A recently published study that appeared in JAMA Network Open appears as a response to a bedevilling question among sociologists; whether more time spent on Tik-Tok, Snapchat or Instagram is responsible for depressing youth -- or is it likelier that children in distress tend to gravitate toward more time on social media. The study concludes in favour of kids' mental health deteriorating as a result of inordinate time spent on social media platforms. 

 

Researchers for this project made use of data on the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, a large longitudinal study spanning 21 sites, following young people over the span of multiple points of time -- focusing on adolescent health, brain and cognitive development in the United States. Children aged nine to ten were recruited from the period of October 2016 to October 2018 and continued to be followed through 2022, at 12 and 13 years of age. 

 

Parents were asked to complete a widely utilized questionnaire whose purpose was to detect behavioural and emotional problems in children and teens. Leading the research team to find that with an increase in time spent on social media, from year one to year two, and year two to year three, depression scores rose in tandem. "A rise in depressive symptoms didn't predict a later increase in social media use", the researchers concluded.  

 

The surgeon general's warning about social media comes as the rates of teenage depression, sadness and hopelessness have skyrocketed over the past decade.  Carol Yepes / Getty Images

 

 Following close to 12,000 children, researchers concluded that the greater amount of time children dedicated to social media at nine and ten years of age, the greater the depressive symptoms they expressed a year or two on. It was found during the research that use of social media rose on average from seven to 73 minutes daily over the three years that comprised the study period. Depressive symptoms rose by 35 percent according to the study, the first to track changes over time in each child individually.

 

While this is not the first study to conclude that lengthier periods of time spent on social media had its association with higher depression scores, the researchers did not explore what the kids were exploring online. And while the researchers found social media to be contributing to depressive symptom development, it was not clear to them why this should be so.

 

However, they wrote, adolescence can make for a "critical period of vulnerability during which social media exposure may have lasting implications for mental health", they wrote. A years' earlier report in the United States by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy gave public warning that social media use among teens was contributing to adverse mental health effects. 

"[Youth mental health is] The defining public health issue of our time."

 "At this point, we do not have enough evidence to say with confidence that social media is sufficiently safe for our kids. We have to now take action to make sure that we are protecting our kids."

"Policymakers need to step up and help ensure that we have strong safety standards, to help protect our kids from exposure to harmful content, and to also protect them from excessive use."

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy

 

"Teen depression started to rise around 2012, a time that coincides with the popularity of smartphones."

"[It was also a time that] 'likes' on posts became common, and the algorithms started to become more sophisticated to keep people on social media for longer. That's clearly not a coincidence." 

"Let's get some regulations in place now to help kids who are not yet on social media. Maybe we can save the next generation." 

Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University  

University of California San Francisco

"Young People who are depressed might be more likely to spend more time on their phones or social media as a way to cope, or as a way to escape, because they're looking for feedback loops that reaffirm negative thoughts." 

"[For youth], We can’t think of social media as benign. We’re not going to take it away — it’s impossible to take this away from young people. It’s less about taking it away and more about moderating it, making sure you’re finding ways to socialize with peers in person, through extra-curriculars, through sports, through groups, through art, through theatre, music — whatever it might be."

"Finding those activities that take you off of the screen, that make you feel good about yourself." 

Kyle Ganson