Social Media is Bad News for Teenagers, But Not All of Them

A new study of teenagers shows that heavy social media use may contribute to negative outcomes, but only for girls and only among the heaviest users.

We have a new survey out today, “A Digital Divide in American Adolescence: Gender, Class, and the New Teenage Experience.” The report explores how American teenagers (age 13 to 17), spend their time, delves into their social media use, and their personal outlook for the future. There’s lots that is new here, but I want to dedicate this newsletter to discussing one of the more concerning trends revealed in these findings. It’s one that has also been largely ignored.

Consistent with a lot of recent work on the subject, we found that social media use is associated with certain negative outcomes. I should note that at least in this study, only heavy social media use—spending at least four hours a day on these platforms—appeared to matter. There were few differences between moderate and light users. And it was only among girls that social media seemed to be a problem. As I write in the report:

“Heavy social media users report much lower personal satisfaction than those who spend less time o…