US News - Frequent Social Media Use Associated With Higher Risks for Teens
A new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sounding an alarm on the impact social media is having on the mental health of young people, with the results of a new analysis finding that the frequent use of such platforms is associated with a higher prevalence of students reporting being bullied, feeling sad and depressed, and having thoughts of suicide.
Approximately 3 in 4 U.S. high school students reported frequently using social media, with more than 40% saying they use it “at least several times a day,” and nearly 30% saying they use social media “more than once an hour,” according to an analysis published this week in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Teen girls were more likely to report being frequent users of social media at nearly 82% compared to 73% of teen boys.
The report’s findings are based on results from the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which provides an annual measure of behaviors that could negatively impact the health of youth. The latest report was based on responses from more than 20,000 high school students.
Among those students who said they frequently use social media, the report found approximately 20% said they were bullied at school over the past 12 months, a slightly higher percentage than those who did not report being a frequent social media user. Nearly 43% of high school students who frequently use social media reported having persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness over the past year compared to 32% of students who did not use social media a lot, while more than 20% of frequent social media users also said they had seriously considered attempting suicide over the same period compared with nearly 19% of non-frequent users of social media.
Among frequent social media users, the survey found teen girls were more likely to report being bullied both at school and electronically versus teen boys, and were nearly twice as likely to have persistent feelings of sadness and serious thoughts of suicide compared to teen boys.
“Although additional research is needed to understand precisely how social media use differentially affects adolescent risk for bullying victimization, poor mental health, and suicide, existing evidence-based prevention strategies can be used by families, schools, and communities to promote adolescent mental health and prevent injury and violence,” report authors noted.
The report’s findings come at a time when social media is coming under increased scrutiny over its potentially negative impact on the mental health of young people. In an op-ed published in June, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called for social media platforms to include warning labels – similar to those on tobacco and alcohol products – citing their link to mental health issues facing young people.
“It is time 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,” Murthy wrote in The New York Times. “A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved (to be) safe.”
Overall, the latest CDC data provide troubling signs for the current state of youth mental health. A separate MMWR analysis published this week that was also based on Youth Survey data found nearly one in three students said they had experienced poor mental health most of the time or always during the 30 days before the survey, with more than one-third reporting to feel persistent sadness or hopelessness for 2 weeks or more during the previous 12 months.
