Social media platforms are part of what the U.S. Surgeon General is calling a youth mental health crisis.
doble-d/Getty hide caption Social media platforms are part of what the U.S. Surgeon General is calling a youth mental health crisis.
Emma Lembke was only 12 years old when many of her friends started using phones and social media. "Each one of them, as a result, was getting pulled away from kind of conversation with me, from hanging out with me, from even, like, playing on the playground, hanging out outside at school. It felt as though my interactions were dwindling," Lembke told NPR.
It wasn't just her experience. On average, teens in the U.S.
are spending nearly 5 hours on social media every single day . You're reading the Consider This newsletter, which unpacks one major news story each day. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to more from the Consider This podcast .
And the children and adolescents who are spending these hours on social media seem to be paying the price. Those who spend more than 3 hours a day on social media have double the risk of mental health problems like depression and anxiety . Clinical psychologist Lisa Damour, who specializes in adolescent anxiety says the more time a teen spends on their phone, the less likely they are to be focusing on other aspects of their life.
"Too much time on social media gets in the way of things that we know are good for kids, like getting a lot of sleep, spending time with people and inter.
