DAVISON (DTV) – (6/12/2025) – Social media is harming teens. At least according to an American Psychological Association study.

Amy Hyrman says, “Social media, you know, reaches hundreds or thousands of people instantly if they’re looking at it. Again, whether that’s positive or negative in that instance, it can be hugely impactful.”

Another study from Yale Medicine says that teens who use social media over three hours each day face twice the risk of having negative mental health disorders. But to Olivia Wilson, a freshman at DHS, one hour on social media goes by what feels like a minute.

“I’d say like 6 to 8 hours. It’s mostly for entertainment. I just do it because I can’t find anything else to do.” says Olivia.

Even Olivia can feel the effects of social media on her health.

“Sometimes I think I’m on it all the time when I have my phone and it just, like, makes my energy go down because I just sit there and I watch things, and I don’t get up and be active.” said Olivia.

Another problem with social media is that it causes kids to spend less time talking to other people in person. The Royal Society for Public Health saw that people ages 14-24 said that time on social media led to feelings of loneliness.

Olivia said, “I don’t get out that much to talk with my friends because I’m on social media.”

Kids often find that making friends online can be easier than making friends in real life.

“You can’t see, like, who the person is behind the screen. You can only have pictures of them. And then you can text them instead of being face to face.” Olivia said.

Although making friends online may seem easier, it can limit teenagers’ ability to pick up social cues and cut off time teens spend together in real life. Ms. Hyrman, a counselor at DHS thinks we should limit the time we spend on our devices

“I think our phone time should probably be no more than, like, an hour. Hour and a half a day.” said Ms. Hyrman

Exposure to social media can trigger pathways in your brain, similar to an addiction.

Ms. Hyrman says, “We all like instant gratification. We don’t like to be bored as humans. And that as soon as we start to feel bored, I feel like we just look at our screen, whether we are a ten year old or a 20 year old or a 50 year old.”

Even with warnings kids like Olivia are still stuck scrolling through social media.

While it may seem hard to break away from a phone screen, there are many ways to distract yourself from scrolling for long periods of time.

Olivia said, “I could like, put my phone down for a bit, like, set a screen time on it so that it goes off at a certain time.”

“Do something else. Find some of those things that we enjoy, like play with your dog, pet your cat, go out with friends.” Ms. Hyrman said.