Just ahead of Mental Health Awareness Month in May, Pew Research Center published its new report, Teens, Social Media and Mental Health, which found that an increasing number of teens find social media harmful.
In its most recent survey of individuals aged 13-17, conducted between September and October 2024, almost half (48 percent) of the 1,391 participants said they feel that social media has a mostly negative impact on their peers — up 16 percentage points from 32 percent in 2022.
However, just 14 percent said it has a mostly negative effect on themselves, with the majority (58 percent) indicating it has neither a positive nor negative impact.
Social media can also be a tool to support social-emotional well-being as 34 percent of teens use it at least sometimes to find information about mental health and “63 percent say it’s an important way they get information about mental health,” according to the report.
Additionally, “teens are more likely to say social media sites hurt than help their sleep, productivity and mental health, but see a more positive impact on their friendships,” Pew Research Center found.
Though fewer teens are finding social media to be a supportive environment (52 percent in 2024 compared to 67 percent in 2022), Black teens were more apt to feel support and acceptance from social media compared to their white and Hispanic peers.
A growing number of teens are limiting their time spent on smartphones and social media.
Other findings
Overall, 35 percent of teens are extremely/very concerned about the mental health of people their age. Parents were also surveyed and of the 1,391 participants, 55 percent indicated that they were extremely/very concerned about teens’ mental health.
“Teens’ concerns about mental health differ by gender. Girls more often than boys say that they are highly concerned about teen mental health (42 percent vs. 28 percent),” according to the report. “Additionally, parents of a teen girl are more likely than those with a teen boy to express high levels of concern (61 percent vs. 49 percent).”
Social media was the top factor teens said most negatively impacts mental health followed closely by bullying and pressure and expectations. Technology (in general) and school rounded out their top five.
“The overuse of social media in our society seems to be the main cause of depression among those in my age group,” one teen is quoted as saying in the report. “People seem to let themselves be affected by the opinions of people they don’t know, and it wreaks havoc upon people’s states of mind.”
On the weight of pressures and expectations, another teen said: “Everyone expects teens to have it all figured out by the time we get out of high school. Sometimes we don’t know what we want to do. We are figuring life out too.”
Eighty percent of parents surveyed would be extremely/very comfortable talking to their teens about mental health while 52 percent of teens had the same comfort level regarding talking to their parents. Still, they are most comfortable talking to a parent about mental health, followed by a friend and then a mental health therapist. “Relatively few teens (12 percent) say they would be extremely or very comfortable discussing their mental health with a teacher,” the report states. “In fact, 54 percent say they would not be comfortable with this.”
See more survey results here.
