The Kids Might Not Be Okay, but It’s Not Just Social Media to Blame

More than 200 school districts are among the plaintiffs suing social media companies for supposedly causing a youth mental health crisis. The irony is hard to miss: schools may be among the biggest contributors to that very crisis.

There’s a general sense that something is wrong with the mental health of kids and teens. Many parents, policymakers, and pundits are quick to point the finger at social media and smartphones. But blaming technology may be more of an excuse to avoid looking at the bigger and deeper causes in society about why the kids are not okay.

What’s among those bigger and deeper causes? One neglected cause is the intense pressure that many young people feel in various aspects of their life offline. These stressors seem to be more closely correlated with rising depression and suicide concerns than social media use. Reports of major depression and suicidality for teens jumped 12–18 percent when compared to when school is not in session, including summer or remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many young people are harmed from their in-person school experience for reasons not tied to their technology or social media use.

What’s among those bigger and deeper causes? One neglected cause is the intense pressure that many young people feel in various aspects of their life offline. These stressors seem to be more closely correlated with rising depression and suicide concerns than social media use. Reports of major depression and suicidality for teens jumped 12–18 percent when compared to when school is not in session, including summer or remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many young people are harmed from their in-person school experience for reasons not tied to their technology or social media use.

The intense offline pressures many young people face are often underappreciated. Since the 2000s, teens have faced increasing and often high-stakes testing, the introduction of more academically demanding standards such as Common Core, and many find their out-of-school time more scheduled with a variety of activities, each with its own expectations. Nearly 90 percent of young people reported academic pressure as a source of their distress in a 2018 Pew Research survey. Beyond the classroom stress, students at schools may face bullying and other social dynamics that negatively impact their mental health.

It would not be the first time schools sought to blame their students’ problems on technology. In the 1980s, schools sought to ban beepers, claiming that they were tied to drug deals and classroom disruptions. In the 1990s and 2000s, parents and policymakers bemoaned the influence of violent video games on the rise of teenage aggression. Despite repeated claims and concerns, evidence of the link never materialized. Indeed, a range of research found that despite the popularity of such games, no link could be established between video game violence and teen aggression.

Rather than blaming technology for what’s wrong with their students, schools could help young people learn to put it to better use. By encouraging digital and media literacy, schools could use technology to provide students with the tools they need to have a positive online experience. Social media can be a valuable lifeline to some of the most vulnerable young people, like those in abusive situations or those who often feel isolated offline, such as LGBTQ+ teens. Taking away technology would not solve the problems schools face with students’ mental health. It could make such situations worse.

No one suggests banning schools due to their impact on kids’ mental health. That’s because we understand that the issues affecting teenagers are far more complicated. A similar approach should be taken to technology — and schools could play a meaningful role in that.

The idea that social media is the problem has become so widely accepted that many are probably unaware of the research on the impact of schools and academic pressure on kids’ and teens’ mental health. We don’t engage with that data in the same way as headlines about smartphones, social media, or AI.

Blaming technology may be politically convenient. But if we really care about teens’ mental health, we need to direct that same energy toward the deeper societal pressures kids face every single day.