The new moral panic: Social media 

This year, my home state of Florida joined us. some other states Prohibit young people from accessing social media.

So far, these prohibitions have been stopped Although these cases are being heard in court on First Amendment grounds, I believe these cases will proceed to the higher courts. Don’ts (and multiple don’ts) lawsuit) is assumed. belief The problem of social media use harming the mental health of adolescents. However, the outcome of these lawsuits may depend on research evidence.

Many parents and policy makers consider the idea that social media use is harmful to adolescents to be common sense. But many people thought the same thing about action video games causing school shootings. please do not), or the rock music of the 1980s that gave rise to Satanism; suicide (No), or that 1950s comic books caused delinquency and homosexuality (they did not do it).

This is a phenomenon known as moral panic; new media and technology provoke extreme fear reactions in older generations, including policy makers; These past panics may seem patently foolish. But we haven’t learned enough from history. There is always some reason to think that new technology might be different.

But is it?

Many of the concerns about social media Increase in mental health problems in the US. Teenage girls are getting a lot of attention, primary consumer Social media and smartphones. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of girls who attempt or consider suicide woke up In recent years, it has contributed to the current situation. panic Regarding the use of social media.

But what is often lost in this discussion is that suicide rates among middle-aged adults, especially men, are much higher on both sides. About 3 to 5 times — and increased more sharply during the same period of time that it was noticed in teenage girls. By focusing on teenage girls and ignoring older adults, we have overlooked that this issue is multigenerational and not unique to teens, such as smartphone and social media use. .

moreover, research evidence found that multiyear patterns in teen social media use did not predict patterns in teen suicide. In addition to this, there are also suicides among teenagers (but not among the elderly). I refused in 2022and this suggests that we are on the wrong path.

If social media is causing an increase in teen suicide and other mental health problems, we would expect to see this pattern across high-tech countries. But that’s not the case. Across Europe Similar to Australia, New Zealand and Canada, there is no pattern showing that teen suicide increases in the social media era.

For example, the graph below shows youth suicide data across European countries. There is no pattern that indicates an increase in suicides in recent years.Across European countries, suicide among young people is actually decreasing slightly under Social media era.

This is also true in English-speaking countries, but there is little evidence of trends over the past 20 years.

moreover, research evidence found that cross-national changes in the use of the Internet, smartphones, and social media were not associated with changes in patterns of mental health among young people. So, there’s something going on with mental health in the United States, but it’s unique to the United States, and it’s not limited to teenagers (or primarily teenagers).

We need to refocus our attention.

Research on individuals also does not support the idea that social media causes mental health concerns. Recently published, meta-analysis Results of a randomized experiment examining whether reducing social media time improves mental health. it’s not. Simply put, it is impossible to claim causality that time spent on social media affects mental health.

Some may say, “Oh, correlation is not the same as causation!” But in practice, evidence of a correlation is also difficult to find.recently meta-analysis Correlative studies that looked at social media and smartphone screens found no correlation with mental health.

As often happens with moral panics, the public is presented with a case for impact that actually ignores considerable research evidence, requiring them to slow down and consider other possibilities.

Are there other possibilities to explain suicides among young people in the United States? Actually, there are quite a few. Even controlling for the ecological fallacy (the tendency for two things to be correlated by chance), variables ranging from fatherlessness rates to income inequality have a much stronger impact on teen suicide than smartphone use. is a predictive factor. Of course, these data are correlated and should be subjected to rigorous analysis. However, there are countless alternative hypotheses.

This, of course, is the main risk of moral panic. Our obsession with technology can lead us to overlook the real causes of poor outcomes. In the meantime, little progress will be made when it comes to mental health because society is focused on the wrong things.

Christopher Ferguson is a professor of psychology at Stetson University He is also the author ofCatastrophe!How psychology explains why good people make bad situations worse.”