Generation Anxiety: Is Social Media Making Young People Mentally Ill?

Has social media led to a massive increase in mental illness among children and young people? US psychologist Jonathan Haidt puts forward this theory in his book "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness".

A team from the Chair of Communication Psychology and New Media at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) considers Haidt's account to be too one-sided and simplistic. The researchers are taking a stand right now because Haidt's book will also be published in Germany in mid-June 2024 in a German translation ("Generation Angst: Wie wir unsere Kinder an die virtuelle Welt verlieren und ihre psychische Gesundheit aufspiel setzen").

"We welcome public debates about the effects of social media, but Haidt's one-sided viewpoint seems to us to contribute to an obfuscation of the situation," write Professor Markus Appel, Dr Silvana Weber and Dr Fabian Hutmacher. For this reason, the three researchers have written a thesis paper that aims to initiate an objective and scientifically sound discussion of the topic:

Five Points for Categorising the Non-fiction Book "Generation Anxiety" by Jonathan Haidt

The publication "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness" (soon to be available in German under the title "Generation Angst") by Jonathan Haidt has reignited a debate on the risks of digital media in the USA. This is a good thing - because both the use of digital media and the mental health of children and young people are socially relevant issues. Haidt develops a dystopian narrative and addresses a concerned public. However, he ignores important facts. The following five points seem particularly central:

1. the initial situation is specific to the USA. The drastic deterioration in the mental health of children and young people noted by Haidt is the subject of controversial scientific debate. Social media and the like are used intensively around the world, but the trends with regard to mental health vary greatly worldwide: the trends identified by Haidt in the USA cannot be easily transferred to other regions of the world. In Germany, too, the high level of mental illness poses a social challenge, especially after the coronavirus pandemic. For Germany, however, it should also be noted that suicides among children and adolescents have fortunately become much rarer since the 1980s, as data from the Federal Statistical Office shows.

2. digital media serve as a scapegoat. The mental health of children and adolescents depends on numerous factors and their complex interplay. To cite digital media as the main causal factor for the mental health problems of children and young people neglects the importance of other influencing factors - such as the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the overall economic situation, climate change or political polarisation. With regard to US society, on which Haidt focuses, it is also reasonable to assume that other factors play an important role in the observed deterioration in mental health among children and adolescents. These include an ineffective healthcare system and the opioid crisis, which also has a massive impact on the mental health of children and adolescents.

3 Haidt's scientific reasoning is flawed. In his book, the author selectively cherry-picks those empirical findings on the influence of digital media on the psyche of children and adolescents that support his thesis. He does not give a balanced account of the complete scientific state of affairs. Various quantitative summaries of the research situation show that The correlations between social media use and indicators of well-being are very small, both in studies with only one measurement point and in studies that collect data over longer periods of time. It can also be observed: The more elaborate and better the methodology of the respective scientific studies, the smaller the correlations turn out to be. There is no evidence in most studies to support the assumption that social media use is the cause of poorer mental health in a large proportion of children and young people.

4. many young people benefit from social media. Hundreds of studies show: Many children and young people benefit overall from social media, for example by deepening contacts with peers or family members or developing enjoyment in the creative use of media. For others, however, negative processes such as social comparisons take centre stage. Hate and hate speech online as well as cyberbullying/cyberbullying pose a threat to mental health. Both aspects - positive and negative - are equally well documented.

5 Fear is a bad counsellor. Haidt's "Generation Fear" is likely to trigger one thing in many parents and teachers: Fear. But fear is often a bad counsellor and often leads to extreme and ineffective reactions. In media education, these include radical bans on the one hand or avoiding the topic and doing nothing on the other. However, many studies show that it should be more about actively and competently guiding children and young people in their use of media. In addition, technology companies should be obliged to scrutinise content more carefully and label potentially harmful content with warnings. And not just in the EU or the United States, but worldwide. Technology companies have a global responsibility that they are currently failing to fulfil.

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The three researchers and other editors recently published the first German-language textbook on the psychology of online and mobile communication. In it, they attempt to present a differentiated viewpoint on the pressing media issues of our time.

"Digital ist besser?! Psychologie der Online- und Mobilkommunikation." Appel, M., Hutmacher, F., Mengelkamp, C., Stein, J.-P., & Weber, S. (Eds.). Springer 2023, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66608-1

Contact

Prof Dr Markus Appel, markus.appel@uni-wuerzburg.de

Dr Silvana Weber, silvana.weber@uni-wuerzburg.de

Dr Fabian Hutmacher, fabian.hutmacher@uni-wuerzburg.de