Social media’s effects on the teen brain

In recent years, news story after story has painted social media as a villain that raises the risk for depression, body image issues and disordered eating in teenagers.

If you’re a parent, the media coverage can seem alarming and confusing. Should you severely limit your teen from using TikTok, Instagram and other social media apps?

The answer is complicated and depends on many factors: your teen’s personality and temperament, how and why they use social media, the amount of time they spend on it, and how much it displaces healthy-brain activities like sleep, physical activity and face-to-face communication, says Nusheen Ameenuddin, M.D., M.P.H., a Mayo Clinic pediatrician

“What we’ve learned in the past 10 to 15 years is that some kids are going to be more susceptible to depression and other mental health problems than others,” says Dr. Ameenuddin. “But it’s not true of every kid.”

On top of that, social media comes with an upside, allowing many teens to find support and expand their understanding of the people and world around them, she says.

To figure out whether your teen benefits from social media — or is harmed by it — it helps to understand the inner workings of the teenage brain

Teen Brain Development

In adults, the brain is equipped with a strong braking system (called executive functioning), which helps us to stop ourselves from acting irrationally when we’re angry, among other impulsive (but not helpful) behaviors.

In teens, however, the prefrontal cortex (where executive functioning takes place) isn’t fully developed. So, it’s harder for teens to stop themselves from getting into trouble.

(Perhaps you’ve noticed.)

Teens also crave approval, especially from their peers.

“So much of what happens during preadolescence and adolescence is related to identity formation,” says Dr. Ameenuddin. “There’s a strong desire to fit in — and to avoid sticking out. Not every teen is like that, of course, but it’s a dominant theme.”

Think back to your own teenage years. Did you ever take part in behavior that your adult self now considers exceptionally risky or unethical, perhaps because other kids dared you to do it? That’s the teen brain in action. A peer pressures a teen to do something. The teen wants to fit in, and their brain fails to slam on the brakes. Social media challenges (such as the Tide Pod Challenge) work in the same way, luring kids to film themselves performing dangerous stunts in anticipation of a social reward

How Does Social Media Affect Teenagers?

Several studies have uncovered connections between social media and mental health problems in teens. For example, a 2018 study of 10,904 14-year-olds found an increased risk of mental health issues in teens who used social media more than three hours a day.

Yet it’s important to point out: Not all teens are affected negatively. In the study, the teens most prone to mental health problems were being harassed online, replacing sleep time with social media time, or had poor body image or self-esteem.

Read more: The pros and cons of social media on mental health

Social Media and Teen Body Image

In 2021, Frances Haugen, a former data scientist for Facebook, leaked thousands of confidential internal documents to the press. Among them was Facebook-funded research that found:

• 17% of teen girls said that eating disorders worsened after using Instagram.
• 32% of teen girls said that they felt bad about their bodies after using Instagram.

As teens scroll, they tend to encounter pictures of fashionable celebrities, influencers and friends — often photographed in perfect lighting and presented through flattering filters. This leads some teens to wonder: What can I do to look like that?

Algorithms used by social media companies are not well understood. As teens click on advertisements for “fat-burning” supplements and ultra-low-calorie diets, their feeds can become dominated by this content. Because these topics have been popular among other users, they also can pop up in the feeds of teens who are not actively seeking out this information.

“The algorithms aren’t designed with kids’ brains or development in mind,” says Dr. Ameenuddin. “They’re designed to keep kids scrolling and clicking for ongoing engagement, regardless of quality, accuracy or safety of the content itself.”

Read more: Why does social media make me feel so bad about my body?

The Upside of Social Media

After reading about the potential connections between social media and teen mental health, you might feel tempted to take your teen’s phone and hide it from them until they turn 21.

But social media also offers some benefits, serving as a tool that allows teens to:

• Find support. Considera teen who feels isolated or ostracized by their peers due to a medical condition, geographic region or identity. An online community may serve as one of the few places where they feel a sense of belonging.
• Learn. Social media can help teens access educational content on a wide range of topics.
• Break down barriers. Social media allows teens to learn more about the experiences of people who aren’t like them and who they would otherwise never have the opportunity to meet.
• Become change-makers. Consider how Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg used social media to bring attention to climate change.

“Research shows that kids who use social media in these more positive ways can do quite well,” says Dr. Ameenuddin. “On the other hand, for teens who already feel self-conscious about their bodies or life, social media can be more detrimental, especially if they fall into the trap of comparisons.”

Personality and temperament also can play into how teens respond to social media, as can their purpose for using it.

Relevant reading

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