“A Profound Risk of Harm”: delving into the Surgeon-General's report on social media and teens (Pt. 1)
Given the fairly dramatic development of the Surgeon-General’s advisory on social media, I wanted to go through and break it down and spotlight important paragraphs, as I often do with important articles. For those who are interested, you can read the whole thing here. You can read the summary here.
Because the advisory is so important, I want to spend some time on it. However, because it is long (25 pages including the end notes), I will do this in a few smaller installments. Today, I will cover some of the risks. I will cover some of the potential benefits in a subsequent post.
The scope of social media use
To begin, the report states the scope of social media use, with an important note about the real ages of users.
Social media use by youth is nearly universal. Up to 95% of youth ages 13–17 report using a social media platform, with more than a third saying they use social media “almost constantly.” Although age 13 is commonly the required minimum age used by social media platforms in the U.S., nearly 40% of children ages 8–12 use social media. Despite this widespread use among children and adolescents, robust independent safety analyses on the impact of social media on youth have not yet been conducted. There are increasing concerns among researchers, parents and caregivers, young people, healthcare experts, and others about the impact of social media on youth mental health. (Emphasis mine)
“A Profound Risk of Harm” to mental health and well-beiing
The next paragraph really sums up the essence of the larger point and the problem.
More research is needed to fully understand the impact of social media; however, the current body of evidence indicates that while social media may have benefits for some children and adolescents, there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. At this time, we do not yet have enough evidence to determine if social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents. We must acknowledge the growing body of research about potential harms, increase our collective understanding of the risks associated with social media use, and urgently take action to create safe and healthy digital environments that minimize harm and safeguard children’s and adolescents’ mental health and well-being during critical stages of development.
In my own words, I would sum this up by saying we have been too casual with the potential for harm and too easily lulled into thinking that any effects were either benign or neutral.
Of course, there are very few things that are either 100% healthy and good and 100% unhealthy and bad. Often it is the dose that makes the difference between between medicine and poison. So it is with social media. According to the report “the influence of social media on youth mental health is shaped by many complex factors, including, but not limited to”