A multistate lawsuit against Meta is putting a growing question in the spotlight: How does social media affect young people, and can its use become addictive?
The addictive quality of social media is at the center of the case against Meta playing out in federal court. Many people spend hours each day on Meta's Facebook and Instagram. NPR's Rhitu Chatterjee reports on what healthcare providers and researchers are learning about young people and social media addiction.
RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE: If you ask psychiatrists whether social media addiction is real, they will likely say what Dr. Petros Levounis told me.
PETROS LEVOUNIS: We don't have social media as a designated addiction.
CHATTERJEE: By that, he means social media addiction isn't listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which psychiatrists use. But Levounis, who heads the department of psychiatry at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, also says that…
LEVOUNIS: There is a group of people, a small group of people, who already exhibit symptoms of addiction – constantly thinking about social media, spending a tremendous amount of time engaging with social media.
LEVOUNIS: If you cross the line to the point where you know it's bad for you, but you cannot help it, then that's a significant sign of addiction.
CHATTERJEE: Doctors and mental health care providers are already seeing these symptoms in young people, says Dr. Jason Nagata, a pediatrician.
JASON NAGATA: It is relatively common, I would say, for us to have patients who are experiencing some of these symptoms of addiction.
CHATTERJEE: Nagata is at the University of California, San Francisco, and researches kids' online behaviors. He's been analyzing data from the largest study of adolescent development, where researchers have followed thousands of kids as they grow up. The findings are troubling, says Nagata.
NAGATA: Among even 11- to 12-year-olds – so these are pre-teenagers – a quarter say that they spend a lot of time thinking about their social media apps or planning use of social media apps. One in 5 say that they're using social media apps to forget about their problems. And 1 in 6 say that they try to use social media apps less, but they're not able to.
CHATTERJEE: And it's affecting other aspects of their lives.
NAGATA: This is when it starts to interfere with daily life, relationships and overall well-being. And it's also crowding out other important activities like sleep or schoolwork.
CHATTERJEE: Nagata and other researchers have also seen links with worsening mental health.
NAGATA: Young people with addictive social media use had greater depressive and attention problems, suicide behaviors, sleep disturbance and substance initiation one year later.