What Changes During Adolescence?

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Strong evidence to support that social media bans improve teen mental health is lacking.

Placing blame on social media for teen mental health may overlook other contributing factors.

Parents can help teens use social media responsibly by listening and setting reasonable limits.

Much has been written about the link between teen mental health challenges and screen time. Social media has been pointed to as a direct cause of distress among teens. For many teenagers, social media is so far integrated into their lives that they couldn’t possibly imagine going without it. Adolescents use social media for everything from increasing their social connections to reducing loneliness and finding safe spaces during difficult times in their lives. Even with these seemingly positive applications for social media, the social discourse remains unwavering in its stance that reliance on social media among young people is wreaking havoc on their mental stability.

However, as popular movies like “Toy Story 5” perpetuate this fear, casting dire warnings about the dangers of cyberbullying and social media addiction among adolescents and teens, some psychologists are taking another look at the connection between social media and teen mental health and arriving at some surprising conclusions: We may be barking up the wrong tree.

The “Sellability” of Scary Stories

Just like the urban myths that spread like wildfire in the 1980s about everything from razor blades in Halloween candy to Satanic messages in rock music,........

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