A majority of teens in the United States say Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat are not harming their mental health, although a slightly higher proportion say it has a negative impact on their sleep and productivity, according to a new report from Pew Research. The report provides the latest insight into how teens perceive the effects of social media, at a time when calls are growing to ban young teens from social platforms altogether.
The report is based on a survey of 1,458 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17. Teens were asked about their use of Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok and how these apps affect them. Pew also asked parents of teens to consider.
Relatively few teens reported negative mental health effects, with 9 percent of Snapchat and TikTok users and 11 percent of Instagram users saying they felt the services harmed their mental health. However, more teens have reported negative effects on sleep and productivity, especially when it comes to TikTok use. Thirty-seven percent of teens said that using the app affected their sleep and 29 percent said that it affected their productivity. Still, most teens responded that the apps “neither helped nor hurt” their mental health, sleep, or productivity.
A large number of teens said social media apps have helped their friendships, especially Snapchat. Additionally, the app had “somewhat higher rates” of bullying and harassment compared to other services.
Although self-reported data is hardly a definitive answer to whether social media is harming teens, the numbers present a somewhat different story than the one that lawmakers, regulators and other critics have used to push social media bans and civil litigation against major companies. Meta, Snap and TikTok are all facing lawsuits that claim the platforms knowingly created addictive features and enabled teen users to suffer other harms,
Perhaps not surprisingly, when researchers surveyed parents of those same teens, their attitudes about the impact of apps on their children were more negative. Nearly four in ten parents said social media harms their children’s sleep and productivity and nearly one-quarter thought it harms their mental health. 44 percent of parents whose teens use TikTok said they feel their child is spending “too much” time on the app.
“The share of parents saying this about Snapchat and Instagram is low,” the researchers note. “But the same pattern continues for both, with parents being more likely than teens to describe excessive use of these sites by their teens.”
This report is not the first time Pew has surveyed teens on their relationship with social media. Last year, a separate report found that teens were becoming more concerned about social media, although they were less likely to say it had a negative impact on them on a personal level.
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