Social Media Expert Hears ‘wake-up call’ on Youth Screen Addiction

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April 7, 2024 – “I started as a voice in the wilderness about eight, nine years ago, saying that digital media can be addicting. But that was just the price of admission. Digital media we know now, by design, has been habit-forming and addicting!”

He added, “But part two of that equation is, what’s the cost of that addiction? What are the mental health byproducts? What’s the depression effect? The suicide effect, the anxiety? What is that addiction leading to? And so now we’re seeing that now we have about ten years’ worth of data. And we’re seeing the landscape is so much more. Every psychiatric metric for young people is at an all-time high; anxiety rates, depression rates, overdose rates, ADHD rates.”

His experience treating patients with social media addiction found that younger people were “more emotionally reactive, much more volatile, much more histrionic.” He cited social media as a factor since it “lives on the emotional reactivity.”

“It’s black and white. It’s very reactive. There’s no nuanced or critical thinking in social media because that doesn’t get any views. It doesn’t get any engagement,” he remarked.