Teens and Social Media - The Good and The Bad

Social media is a hot topic with parenting. This can be a battle in many households and a concern for many parents. My hope is to shed some light on what social media means to youth today by breaking down the good parts and the bad parts.  

As an adult, social media often plays the role of staying connected to friends and family. It’s nice to see the family portrait of your faraway relatives or see life updates from your college friend group. While this can overlap with adolescents, we also see it can be used for different purposes. 

Sometimes this is good and sometimes this is bad. When translating this to parenting, it’s not about falling into one side or the other, but rather staying informed so we can prepare our teens to use it safely. This is a vast topic, so remember this is just the tip of the iceberg.  

The Good:

Teens use social media to communicate. This sounds obvious, but a difference from parents is that teens will use social media to make plans. The group chat moved from text or email chain is a social media platform for teens. Sometimes a kid’s access to social media can have direct consequences on whether or not they are getting invited to the movie night. 

Teens today seek emotional support about their negative experiences, cope or distract from their distress, and seek out information and education via social media (Alluhidan, et al., 2024). 

My guess is most of us have used social media as a helpful distraction when we’re upset. It can help teens get their mind off a stressful day at school or take a quick break from studying. A cute puppy video can cut through any sour mood! 

It also serves as a simple way to stay connected with friends. Snapchat is a great, quick way to send daily updates with your people. If your teen is on snapchat, you’ve probably heard them boast about their “streak” with a friend. This is a daily count of how many consecutive days they’ve been in touch with their friends. 

Furthermore, social media can serve as a great source of inspiration. How many of us have tried a new recipe, morning routine, or time management tool we found online? Adolescents do the same.  

Finally, I find the stark contrast with adults being the role of seeking emotional support via social media. Teens will post about their moods in the hopes of receiving emotional support. Friends can flood their inbox with loving messages and help feel connected, even when apart.

The Bad:

There is good reason to be concerned about adolescent social media use. In 2024, Dr. Vivek Murthy, physician and former US Surgeon General, published an article in the New York Times expressing concern for social media use among youth. Dr Murthy (2024) wrote, “it is time to to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.” 

Different social media platforms have different affects. Teens cited concerns with instagram regarding body image and self esteem issues. Teens on YouTube affiliated it with more self promotion and negatively impacting time management. TikTok appeared to arouse the most anger (Alluhidan, et al., 2024). 

This research team found that social media is associated with “social drama.” Remember above when I mentioned teens will use social media for emotional support? Well this can also be hurtful. I’ve seen teens post negative remarks about friends or family members after a conflict, in the hopes of deriving social support - but can be hurtful and, if left unchecked, hitting the border of cyberbullying.  

In smaller examples, your teen might feel hurt when they see a friend online after they said they were going to sleep. Your teen might feel betrayed when they see a picture of their friend group hanging out without you. Their mind starts running when they see their boyfriend “liked” another girls’ picture. 

Social media fans of the flames of social comparison. Now teenagers are not just comparing their looks, body, status, accomplishments, to their peers, but also this manufactured reality filled with influencers. These aspects (and more) can perpetuate a need for validation, feelings of inadequacy, and sense of isolation. 

Now, let’s briefly look at the content being consumed. Alluhidan and team (2024) found that 4% of posts depicted cyberbullying, 4% of posts consisted of body shaming, 2% of posts found inappropriate content, and 1% of posts observed self-harming behaviors. Teens rated self harm content being the most distressing of those mentioned. 

As adults, it’s important to prepare our teens for these types of images. Having proactive conversations about what they might come across, how to handle it, and opening the door for them to come to you about it.  

Lastly, research shows social media has the capability of changing our brain. Preliminary research indicates middle schoolers who habitually check social media showed brian changes - in the amygdala, posterior insula, anterior insula, ventral striatum, and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - impacting brain sensitivities to social rewards and punishment (Maza, et al., 2023). These apps are designed to keep us checking, using, and staying online. Left unmonitored, adolescents are particularly susceptible to this.

As I stated above, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Each of these points could have its own chapter. Stay tuned as I continue to dive deeper into these topics and help you be more informed! 

If you are looking to stay up to date with insights into teen mental health, follow me on instagram.    

Yours In Service, 

Christina King, LMFT 145704

Citations:  

Alluhidan, A., Akter, M., Alsoubai, A., Park, J. K., & Wisniewski, P. (2024). Teen talk: The good, the bad, and the neutral of adolescent social media use. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 8(CSCW2), 1-35.

Maza, M. T., Fox, K. A., Kwon, S. J., Flannery, J. E., Lindquist, K. A., Prinstein, M. J., & Telzer, E. H. (2023). Association of Habitual Checking Behaviors on Social Media With Longitudinal Functional Brain Development. JAMA pediatrics, 177(2), 160–167. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.4924  

Murthy, V. H. (2024). Surgeon general: Why I’m calling for a warning label on social media platforms. New York Times, 17.