Teen mental health is a growing concern, especially when social media is involved. You must have seen that the teenagers in your surroundings are most exposed to smartphones, scrolling through Instagram and other social media platforms, consuming content “WITHOUT A BLINK.” Haven’t you thought about this concern, how it will affect their mind? Well, the United States Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, has released an advisory named “Social Media and Youth Mental Health,” where he described the growing concerns of excessive use of social media among the youth, especially the teenagers who have just entered into the most volatile period of their lives. Linda Mayes, MD, chair of the Yale Child Study Center (YCSC), also contrasted the rising addiction to social media among teenagers’ minds by comparing it to the concern when television was popular. She said, “The issues we face now with social media are similar to those we faced when television came out,”

Key Drivers of Social Media Consumption by Teens.

It has been seen that teenagers are more open to making friends or having more exposure to the world. They have extreme emotions, thus lack emotional intelligence, and that’s why the content they consume on social media adversely affects their mental health, making teenagers addicted to it. There are plenty of key drivers that can be identified among teenagers behind their excessive social media consumption, eventually affecting their mental health, and the major ones include:

• Desire to con­nect with others


• Fear of miss­ing out or FOMO


• Social pres­sure and expectations.


• Hyper­con­nec­tiv­i­ty and hyper-interactivity with technology.


• Feelings of stress, anx­i­ety, depres­sion, and most commonly boredom.

Some Statistics about Social Media

There are many surveys and reports that say a lot about social media consumption by teens and its effects. Let’s find out some statistics which have been done by many top universities and organisations in the world.

• Over 95% of teens between the ages of 13 and 17 use social media.


• According to reports, with “almost con­stant­ly” use of social media, one out of every three teenagers is there.


• Most of the US-based social media platforms require that a user be 13 or older to make profiles, but some reports say there are over 30% kids younger than 13 years who consume social media.


• Some surveys are conducted that result in shocking outcomes, according to which Adolescents consuming social media over three hours a day encounter poor men­tal health risks twice.


• A recent sur­vey found that eighth — and 10th-grade stu­dents are active on social media with an aver­age of 3.5 hours/day.


• Near­ly 2 in 3 teenagers are ​“often” exposed to hate-based con­tent on social media.


• Stud­ies have found a link between bul­ly­ing on social media and depres­sion among teenagers.

Identifiers for the Negative Impact of Social Media on Teenagers

• Miss out on real-world friend­ships and social­iza­tion opportunities.


• Become high­ly self-crit­i­cal (often due to com­par­isons to false real­i­ties pre­sent­ed on social media).


• Expe­ri­ence cyberbullying.


• Feel increased lev­els of depres­sion, anx­i­ety, stress, or isolation.


• Strug­gle to con­cen­trate at school or at work.


• Fail to sleep sound­ly or get a good night’s rest.


• Stop prac­tic­ing pos­i­tive self-care and self-reflection.

Negative Consequences on Teenagers of Social Media

When you go to the internet and search for the positive aspects of using social media, then a bunch of articles can be found that prove why you really need to use it, but on a psychological basis, excessive use will have a negative impact. In the advisory, Dr. Murrthy stated that, “point to a higher relative concern of harm in adolescent girls and those already experiencing poor mental health, as well as for particular health outcomes, such as cyberbullying-related depression, body image and disordered eating behaviors, and poor sleep quality linked to social media use.” Dr. Mayes also shared regarding potential harms by pointing out that “If a teen searches for any kind of mental health condition, such as depression or suicide, it’s going to feed them information about those things, so soon they may begin to think that everyone around them is depressed or thinking about suicide, which is not necessarily good for mental health.” Numerous studies describe the adverse effects of high­er lev­els of social media consumption among chil­dren and ado­les­cents, and below are the most commonly found.

• Depres­sion and anxiety


• Low self-esteem


• Unconfident Body Structure


• Inad­e­quate sleep dis­rupting neu­ro­log­i­cal devel­op­ment and lead to depres­sion


• Bad Eat­ing Behav­iors


• Online harass­ment.

Solution for this growing concern

There is no doubt that social media possesses benefits, despite also presenting challenges for Teen Mental Health. Social media heavily influences the social and personal lives of teenagers. Based on incomplete and contradictory knowledge of these teenagers and digital technology, organizations guide parents, educators, and institutions about this rising issue and how to overcome. The preliminary data indicate that such mobile applications can be accepted if developed by keeping the teens’ mental health in focus. Still, additional research is required to evaluate their usefulness and effectiveness. Currently, the most effective solutions suggested by psychologists, other medical professionals & researchers to guardians or parents, policy makers, and technological companies are mentioned below.

For Teenagers:

• If any teenager finds someone being negatively affected by social media, they should reach out to a trusted adult for help.


• Teenagers must be conscious of what they are sharing on social media and also learn about the idea of protection and privacy. Here, they must develop learning about digital media literacy skills.


• Teenagers must build boundaries to help maintain balance between online and offline activities.

For Tech Companies:

• The impact of social media must be ade­quate­ly and inde­pen­dent­ly assess­ed.


• While designing and developing the social media application, prod­ucts, and services, prioritize users’ health and social safety concerns.


• Creating a strategy to investigate requests and complaints about teen users, their families, educators, and institutions.

For Parents or Guardians:

• As a parent, you are your child’s role model; thus, it is important to model responsible social media behavior so that your children will learn from you.


• You must encourage in-person interactions so that the consumption of smartphones can be reduced, especially at dining and bedtime. Make them understand pri­or­i­tiz­ing fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships.