[westcort]

The Surgeon General's report on social media and youth mental health [0] cited 3 studies showing 1) that limiting social media to 30 minutes per day among college students for 3 weeks significantly reduced loneliness and depression [1], 2) deactivating Facebook before the 2018 midterm elections increased subjective wellbeing and reduced political polarization,[2] and 3) that 10,904 14-year-olds in the UK Millennium Cohort Study experienced an increase in depressive symptoms in association with greater daily social media use, with a stronger association for girls than boys (depressive symptoms in adolescents using social media for 3 to <5 h versus 1-3 hours daily were elevated 21% in boys and 26% in girls; with 5 or more hours of use versus 1-3 hours of use daily, depressive symptom scores were elevated 35% in boys and 50% in girls) [3].

Fully 57% of high school aged girls--(more than half!)--experienced feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2021, up from 36% in 2011 [4]. Over the same timeframe, average time spent using social media each day among teens doubled from about 1.5 hours to more than 3 hours [5]. Admittedly, this is not a straightforward association as mental health screening practices changed in the United States during this period.

The actions of some with a vested financial interest in continued growth of social media have purposely chosen not to protect youth mental health. According to CBS, Mark Zuckerberg, "personally and repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram...[overruling] Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri and President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, who had asked Zuckerberg to do more to protect the more than 30 million teens who use Instagram in the United States" [6]. And now developed countries with robust regulation systems are starting to do something. If all of this is happening and there is "not enough evidence" all one has to do is look back at similar statements by the tobacco and asbestos industries to muddle, obfuscate, and confuse to continue extraction of profits as long as possible. If you are working for social media companies in these efforts, at least try a new tactic to continue extraction of wealth at the expense of public health! It has become too obvious at this point.

0. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-youth-mental-heal...

1. https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751

2. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20190658

3. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5...

4. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/YRBS_Data-Sum...

5. https://images.nature.com/lw1200/magazine-assets/d41586-023-...

6. https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/zuckerberg-rejected-...