More Teens Ditching Social Media?

When was the last time you checked your phone? Which apps do you look at first? If you’re like most teen smartphone users, you’re probably gravitating to YouTube, SnapChat, or TikTok. But if you have mixed feelings about these apps and social media in general, you’re not alone.

Social media, online platforms, and websites that allow users to create and share content have changed the way people communicate. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat enable us to connect with more people than ever before, instantaneously. For many teens, these apps offer a sense of community. This was especially true during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people around the world stayed home and practiced social distancing. But many teens have expressed discontentment with social media, and some are deleting their apps altogether.

Mixed feelings about social media

According to a 2023 Gallup survey, teens spend an average of 4.8 hours per day using social media. The highest reported use was among 17-year-olds. They spent an average of 5.8 hours per day on social media. The top three apps were YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Even more startling, according to a 2022 Pew survey, nearly one in five teens used YouTube “almost constantly.”

How do teens feel about all the time they spend on social media? It’s complicated. Overall, teens told the Pew survey that social media was a net positive experience. For example, 80% of teens said social media made them feel more connected to what was going on in their friends’ lives, and 71% felt like social media offered an outlet to show their creative side.

However, teens also reported negative side effects of social media use. The Pew survey found that 36% of teens felt they spend too much time on social media, but 54% said it would be hard to give it up. Researchers also noted that, “38% of teens say that what they see on social media makes them feel overwhelmed because of all the drama,” and 31% said, “it makes them feel like their friends are leaving them out of things.” And more social media use seems to be associated with worse mental health. According to Gallup, 23% of teens with the lowest social media use reported poor or very poor mental health, compared with 41% of those who used social media the most.

Why more teens are calling it quits

Logan Lane, a student at Oberlin College, found herself overwhelmed by social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. She told the NYCity NewsService in 2022, “I was fed up with the over-saturation of my life and the social aspects of it being connected to my online presence.” After deleting her accounts and getting rid of her smartphone, Lane started a club with her high school classmates. They called themselves the Luddite Club.

Luddites were a group of early 19th century English workers who protested against new machines that they saw as threats to their livelihoods. Today, a Luddite is defined more broadly as someone who opposes technological change. “The best part about being a Luddite is my self-awareness. I have time to reflect about my day and my life,” said Biruk Watling, another Luddite Club member.

Alexa Mendes is another teen who was unhappy with her social media use. She told ABC 10 News of San Diego that she began using social media in fifth grade and felt “super addicted.” As Mendes put it, “You’re always on it. You’re always thinking about it.” Like the Luddites, Mendes decided to step away from technology. She turned lessons from her experience into a book called #Unsubscribed: How I am thriving in high school without social media (and you can, too).

For Stanford University student Sophie Shev, changing her relationship with social media was a matter of life or death. As she told the Today Show, after receiving her first smartphone at age 10, Shev joined Instagram as a way to make friends. Soon she began encountering posts promoting weight loss. According to Shev, the algorithm eventually steered her toward unhealthy recommendations: “It went from swap out a candy bar for a carrot to this is how to hide your food, how to avoid eating completely.” Shev was hospitalized 13 times for disordered eating. When she was 15, her doctor warned that she could die within weeks due to heart, liver, and kidney failure.

After this experience, Shev took a two-year break from social media. Along with therapy, this break enabled Shev to build a healthier relationship with her body and social media. In April 2023, Shev testified to a California Senate committee in favor of a bill to limit kids’ social media usage.

In his research on young people and social media, Greg Hoplamazian, the Academic Director of the Emerging Media Program at Loyola University Maryland, has come across similar stories. Not only is social media linked with negative effects on mental and physical health, according to Hoplamazian, some young people connect social media to feeling “disenfranchised with the world in general.” These teens see social media companies as exploitative and dishonest. Paraphrasing what he has heard, Hoplamazian says some teens feel like in the eyes of social media companies, “I'm a commodity and they're using my data for free and I just don’t want to participate in that.” He credits young people as “more knowledgeable and aware of being manipulated and used as data through social media.”

Still, Hoplamazian argues that although teens are indeed ditching some platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, “they may be heavier users on a fewer number of platforms” like Instagram and TikTok. Hoplamazian hasn’t seen data yet to suggest a large-scale exodus from social media. “It's more that instead of this unabashed trend upward, [social media use has] flattened for teens or [is] going down slightly.” Data from Pew supports this, showing that Facebook use by teens ages 13-17 dropped from 71% in 2014-2015 to just 31% in 2022. Meanwhile, 67% of teens in 2022 used TikTok, and about 60% used Instagram or Snapchat.

Tips for cutting back 

Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again, suggests a few strategies to reduce time spent on technology and social media. One tool he recommends is called a kSafe, which is a large plastic safe that can store a smartphone. Hari sets a timer for a specified period, from minutes to weeks, before locking his phone away. He also suggests taking regular breaks from social media. This includes staying off one’s phone for an hour or two before bedtime and even taking a month long break from all social media twice a year. In addition, Hari advocates for a larger movement, similar to environmental activism, to fight for stronger regulation of social media. 

Hoplamazian believes that teens need positive role models when it comes to social media and smartphones. “If there's adults that are worried about their teens’, not just social media use, [but also] cell phone use, we also have to model the behavior for them,” Hoplamazian said. That means putting phones away during family time like dinner or other gatherings.

Whether you want to cut back on social media or ditch it altogether, it can be challenging to change our behavior. But you don’t have to do it alone. Talk to friends and family about the relationship you want to have with social media, and make a plan that will help you get there.