We Need To Talk About Teens, Social Media And Mental Health

Short Wave

NPR

Science, Life Sciences, News, Nature, Daily News, Astronomy

4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

This week, the American Psychological Association issued its first-of-kind guidelines for parents to increase protection for children online. It comes at a time of rising rates of depression and anxiety among teens.

This episode, NPR science correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff looks into the data on how that seismic change has shifted the mental health of teenagers. In her reporting, she found that the seismic shift of smartphones and social media has re-defined how teens socialize, communicate and even sleep.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:06.4	Hey, Sharwhavers, Regina Barber here with NPR Science Correspondent,
0:09.8	Mikeline Dukelev. Hey, hi Regina.
0:12.2	So, Mikeline, we brought you on to talk about something that's been on my mind
0:16.2	these days, especially having a daughter about to start high school.
0:19.5	It's social media and mental health. Oh gosh, me too, Regina.
0:24.2	I have a daughter. She's a little bit younger, but I still worry about it
0:28.2	because for me personally, social media has not been very healthy.
0:32.2	You know, it makes me feel bad.
0:34.8	So I pretty much got off of it a while ago and I have to say, I feel better.
0:39.7	Right. Of course, but sometimes it feels like social media runs our lives.
0:43.8	It's such a powerful force.
0:45.9	Yes, but I think the question is, especially for teens and kids,
0:50.6	is it a negative force?
0:52.7	And you know the American Psychological Association weighed in on this for the
0:56.4	first time ever.
0:57.7	They issue guidance for teens and social media.
1:00.7	But the alarm bells aren't new, right?
1:03.7	Back in 2017, a psychologist at San Diego State University, her name is Jean Twangie,
1:09.4	set off this firestorm in psychology.
1:12.3	She studies trends across generations and she looks at data going all the way back to the 1930s.
1:18.0	And when she looked at mental health data for teens, starting around 2011 or so,
	...

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