What experts want you to know about social media and mental health

Get in losers, we're going to an academic conference

Welcome to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a psychologist and professor at Brown University, co-founder of Tech Without Stress, and mom of two young kids. If you like Techno Sapiens, please consider sharing it with a friend today. Thanks for your support!

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5 min read

I’m sitting in a dim, windowless conference room, wearing a blazer and dress pants, surrounded by fellow psychologists in similar attire. I have an iced coffee in hand (my second of the day), and a conference badge around my neck. The speaker is discussing research on social media and mental health, and how this research gets communicated to the public.¹

I’m taking furious notes. I’m nodding enthusiastically along (as psychologists tend to do). But mostly, I’m thinking I cannot wait to share this with Techno Sapiens.

Screens, social media, and mental health: What are researchers saying?  

This past week, I attended two excellent conferences: a convening on Social Media and Children’s Mental Health organized by the Hassenfeld Institute at Brown,² and the annual convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. I got to watch presentations detailing statistical models, share my own research, and participate in lengthly discussions using words like “mechanisms” and “ideographic approaches.”³⁴

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Why do academics get to have all the fun?!

Well, not to worry! I’ve rounded up some key insights from my time in the strange, fluorescent lit, over-caffeinated world of academic conferences, and I’m excited to share my top five takeaways⁵ from the conversation on social media, screens, and mental health.

Takeaway #1: Parents need support, not fear or guilt

No surprise to any of you: social media and youth mental health are major topics of public conversation right now. This is great! We need to be talking about these things, and it’s important for us all to be discussing the best ways to help kids use tech effectively. 

What’s not great is the fear, guilt, and shame many parents are feeling about this. These emotions are not helping anyone, parents or kids alike. What parents do need is support, including accurate information on the risks and benefits of technology, and realistic guidance on what to do about it. 

Takeaway #2: Let’s look outside of screens

A useful term that I’ll be adding to my vocabulary: “third places.” For kids, this is anywhere that is not home or school (for adults, it’s anywhere that’s not home or work). In short: kids need non-digital third places. They need community centers, parks, public libraries, malls, coffee shops, bowling alleys, gyms—anywhere they can gather safely and without too much adult intervention.

We often lament kids’ filling their free time with screens, but here’s the thing: we need to be providing them with alternatives. Many third places have been closing or banning teens in recent years. So, for all our focus on cutting down screen time, let’s also think about what kids can do instead.

Takeaway #3: Let’s teach kids to use tech better

A number of research reports and health advisories have come out in recent years related to issues of tech and mental health (see below). One thing nearly all of them have in common? Recommending “media literacy” training for kids (i.e., teaching kids to use tech in healthier, safer ways).

This can take many forms, but generally involves teaching kids things like how to build healthy online relationships, establish good tech habits, and spot misinformation. Many schools are already implementing this type of training, but there’s still a lot of work to be done (and adults need help, too!).

Takeaway #4: The legislative landscape is quickly evolving

When it comes to kids and social media, the past year has seen major legislative movement in the U.S. at both the state and federal level. There is academic debate about how closely these proposals follow the research, and, more generally, how research can and cannot guide policy. 

Most notable at the federal level: the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and Children's Online Privacy Protection Action (COPPA 2.0) passed 91-3 in the Senate earlier this year, but have yet to go up for a vote in the House. 

At the state level, the National Conference of State Legislatures says at least 30 states have pending legislation this year. Bills focus on at least four areas:

• Establishing age-appropriate design codes and new privacy rules for minors 

• Requiring age verification or parental consent to open social media accounts

• Creating new protections for minors who are content creators

• Limiting social media or phones in schools and/or adding media literacy courses 

Takeaway #5: Communicating science to the public is hard

There is a lot of discussion happening across academic fields right now about how best to communicate scientific findings. This is certainly true when it comes to social media and mental health. 

As techno sapiens are highly aware, the research on this issue is complicated. Lots of mixed findings, non-findings, and findings with small effects. Lots of studies concluding with “it depends,” as in “the effects of social media depend on who is using it, when they’re using it, and what they’re doing on there.” And yet, there are many things we know about the risks of social media, and what parents can do to help. 

So what’s a good scientist to do? Gloss over the many complexities to offer a clear, but dumbed-down, message? Or forge deep into the weeds, communicating a tangled web of conflicting findings, and hope people can detangle it themselves? The answer is likely somewhere in the middle, but finding that middle ground is tricky. 

Not to mention, there are questions of how to best communicate the information. Through traditional media outlets? Academic papers? Social media itself? Substack newsletters?

I’ll let you guess which of those is my favorite.

Further reading and resources

• Techno Sapiens Ultimate Guide to teens, phones, and mental health (2024)

• Social Media and Adolescent Health (2024). Report from the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine.

• Online Health and Safety for Children and Youth: Best Practices for Families and Guidance for Industry (2024). Report from the SAMHSA Kids Online Safety Task Force.

• Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence (2023). American Psychological Association.

• Tech/Life Balance: Helping Families Thrive in a Digital World (2024). Guides from the California Partners Project.

• Media literacy and digital citizenship resources from Harvard’s Center for Digital Thriving and Common Sense Media

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1. At the risk of killing any semblance of humor in the subtitle of this post [“Get in losers, we're going to an academic conference”], let me just clarify that this is a Mean Girls reference. I’m not calling you all losers. I’m merely showing off my pop culture knowledge by quoting a 20-year-old movie. Please forgive me.

2. A fun component of the Hassenfeld Institute convening was the presence of a “youth panel”—a (very impressive) group of high school students from Providence who shared their experiences. I learned a ton from this group, including their perspectives on “third places” and beliefs about social media. Less critically, I also learned that the correct phrasing when describing searching on social media is “search up" (not “search for,” as I and my fellow Old People often say).

3. To be fair, I also spent a lot of time at these conferences chatting and reconnecting with friends and colleagues, which involved good food, good coffee (see: over-caffeinated), and very fun, normal conversation with only occasional mention of “mechanisms” and “ideographic approaches.”

4. I also got to meet some techno sapiens in the wild (so cool!)

5. Since I’m fresh off these conferences and having trouble shaking the ~*academic vibes*~, let me jump in with a brief disclaimer: what I’m sharing here is merely a small selection of the many issues researchers are discussing, and (as is likely obviously) it strongly reflects my own opinions and interests.