Is social media really bad for teens mental health?
A systematic review of 23 trials found that abstaining from social media improved measures of depression. It’s also unclear in some studies if social media causes depression, for instance, or whether young people who are depressed are more likely to spend time on social media. Jonathan Haidt thinks that the Anxious generation is a group of children and adolescents who are anxious because of the way they spend time on phones.
Is social media to blame for the epidemic of teenage mental illness?
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s book ‘The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness’ claims social media and smartphones are the key driver of the decline in youth mental health seen in many countries since early 2010s. Haidt argues that digital technologies are disrupting children’s brain development and causing an epidemic of mental illness.