A greater focus on the effects of social media on users has made people question its psychological and social impacts, particularly on teenagers.
While companies like Facebook push the narrative that its platform is intended to bring people together, many consumers fear that teenagers – who spend more time on social media as a whole and tend to be more impressionable – are absorbing the negative effects instead. It turns out a number of American teenagers agree.
About a third of them, ages 13 to 17, feel social media has a mostly positive effect on people, but about a quarter say the effect is mostly negative, according to a new study from Pew Research. The reasons vary, but as this chart from Statista shows, almost half of those who believe the effect is mostly negative say it’s because they think social media causes bullying or harmed relationships; unfortunately, the other reasons aren’t any more comforting.