Kayla
Hi, my name is Kayla.
Isabella
I'm Isabella.
Mohammad
And I'm Mohammad.
Kayla
We'll be your host for today's podcast and this week's podcast we'll be diving into a big concern happening right now in all of our lives�is social media destroying our mental health? We'll explore how social media impacts mental health, the addictive design behind these platforms, and key points from The Social Dilemma.
Isabella
This topic is huge and one that affects almost everyone in our world. Anyone who engages with technology�social media, emails, texts�this involves you.
Mohammad
These technology platforms have changed the way we all think and live, sometimes for the better, but more times for the worse. Today we will be talking about it all.
In this week's podcast, we will be breaking it all down�what effects social media has on mental health, how social media platforms are designed to make us addicted, The Social Dilemma documentary, and what we can do about it.
Kayla
Segment one, the addictive design of social media platforms. Did you know that nearly all teens�96% of them�report using the internet daily? Wow, that's crazy.
Mohammad
Tell me what a typical day may look like for someone who is addicted to their phones.
Isabella
A typical day for anyone addicted to their phones could look something like where they wake up and the first thing they grab is their phone. They check through all their notifications that they received while they were asleep, and finally get up to use the bathroom and brush their teeth while still on their phone.
They make their breakfast, but continue to scroll on TikTok while eating. Finally, they're out the door and on the way to school, their job, or class, and once they're out of the car�immediately back on their phones.
Mohammad
Social media platforms use infinite scrolling, personalized algorithms, and AI-driven recommendations to maximize user engagement. This is what makes it so extremely addicting. The second that you hear that buzz, or the ring, or the alert, you are immediately wondering: What is it? Who texted me? Did someone like my pictures? Does someone need my attention? Once that notification hits, people's minds are completely distracted.
Isabella
In the world we live in, phones are basically connected to their owners all day.
The World Health Organization reported that problematic social media use among children increased from 7% in 2018 to 11% in 2022. This allows growth hacking to exploit human psychology and foster addictive behaviors in users. The ongoing legal discussions focus on the ethics of these design strategies and whether they should be regulated.
Kayla
Some even refer to this as the slot machine effect. The slot machine effect refers to the unpredictable rewards�such as likes, comments, and notifications�that can encourage compulsive checking. This can lead to increased anxiety and psychological distress, as your mind is wrapped around the idea that you'll receive a notification or an alert.
Mohammad
That constant cycle of checking, scrolling, and anticipating notifications doesn't just happen by accident. It's designed to keep us hooked.
Isabella
But what does all this mean for our mental health? How is this shaping the way young people grow up in a world where social media is always within reach?
Kayla
Funny you ask.
That is exactly what journalist Taylor Lorenz talks about in her podcast. She asked the important question: Is social media destroying kids' mental health? And more importantly, what can we do about it?
Mohammad
So let's dive into her podcast and see how social media addiction is impacting not just kids, but all of us.
Kayla
Segment two, Taylor Lorenz�s podcast: The big elephant in the room.
Mohammad
One question that everyone is wondering,
Kayla
is
Isabella
social
Kayla
media
Isabella
destroying kids' mental health? In Taylor Lorenz�s podcast on mental health, she raises the concern that social media is becoming more of an addiction for children all the way to adulthood.
The pandemic in 2020 also increased some of these concerns, as parents struggled to navigate the world of social media due to children, teens, and adults staying inside more. The need for instant gratification developed into an addiction.
Kayla
My days during the pandemic consisted of hours on end of watching TV, talking to my friends, and most importantly, scrolling on TikTok.
I was having so much fun�I didn't have to go to school, and I could sit in my house all day and just be on my phone. At the time, only being 16 years old, I thought that this was the best life. But once COVID ended, I felt isolated and depressed. I didn't know how to make this transition back to life as normal, to go back out into the world and navigate society when my mind was stuck on just being on my phone.
Mohammad
A new platform that developed out of the pandemic and shifted social media today was TikTok. TikTok shows not just dance trends, but cooking videos, day-in-the-life, celebrity gossip, edited filters, and politics. The For You page doesn�t cater to what you like, but what it thinks you will like.
Isabella
Now, this is where there can be a debate in regards to social media having its pros and cons. Social media has helped many in terms of their businesses and careers. However, at what cost? Do we need to take a look at our own usage of social media and create some boundaries?
The majority of us in our twenties got to experience a play-based childhood, as Sael states, whereas the upcoming generation has the phone-based childhood.
Kayla
I almost feel grateful that I was able to have a childhood where the games we played were creative, fun, and outside. This was before AI replaced children's imaginations.
Mohammad
It leads us to ask ourselves�what type of future do we want to bring our kids into? How should we be raising the children of today's generation?
Isabella
Something I kept taking away from Taylor's video was how adults, teens, and children can incorporate a healthy balance of social media into our lifestyle. Due to the constant changes and updates, trends daily, it becomes an easy, quick fix of dopamine. There is no rule book on social media due to its everyday involvement, but if we try to incorporate these boundaries into our everyday, we can slowly start to build that healthy relationship.
Kayla
That brings us to a bigger question. If we know social media is shaping the way we think, act, and even feel�who�s really in control?
Mohammad
That's exactly what The Social Dilemma talks about. This eye-opening Netflix documentary explains how social media companies design their platforms to keep us engaged�sometimes at the cost of our mental health.
Isabella
It's not just about individual choices. It's about the way these technological platforms are designed to capture and hold our attention. So let's take a closer look at The Social Dilemma and what it reveals about the business of social media addiction.
Kayla
Segment three, The Social Dilemma. Have you ever felt like social media knows you a little too well? Like it's almost reading your mind? Well, that's not a coincidence�it's by design. The Social Dilemma, a Netflix documentary, shows us how and why we are glued to our screens, and oftentimes without us even realizing it.
Mohammad
This documentary exposes the hidden dangers behind our favorite apps: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X.
We all know that social media is a huge part of our lives, but what most people don't realize is that everything we do is being tracked. Each scroll, click, and video that we watch are all being compiled into information that data companies collect to keep us engaged.
Isabella
Are you saying that us being engaged and addicted to our phones isn't an accident?
Mohammad
What I'm saying�the documentary compares social media to magic. Arthur C. Clarke states: "Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Kayla
Which makes complete sense. Social media uses persuasive technology to keep us hooked and engaged without us even realizing it. Back to the slot machine effect�every time you refresh your feed or check your notifications, you don't know what you're going to get. Will it be a text? A snap? An email?
The randomness of it all makes it so addictive.
Isabella
The documentary mentioned something shocking. There are only two industries that call their customers "users"�illegal drugs and software. Social media is just like drugs. It is something that people struggle to control. You are constantly refreshing, checking, and scrolling�even if you don't want to.
Mohammad
The impact that social media has on mental health is devastating. The documentary shares some horrible statistics. The number of teenage girls admitted to hospitals for self-harm was stable for years. But after 2010, around the rise of social media, those numbers skyrocketed. For older teen girls, hospital admissions went up to 62%.
But for preteen girls�189%, nearly triple.
Kayla
And not even for just self-harm. Suicide rates have gone up too. For older teen girls, it has increased 70%, and for preteen girls, 151%.
There's a clear pattern here that social media is fueling anxiety, depression, and even suicide.
Mohammad
With numbers like these, it's easy to feel like social media is completely out of our control. But is that really the case?
Isabella
Some argue that while social media is designed to be addictive, we can take back control. Nir Eyal, a behavioral design expert, believes that instead of blaming technology, we need to take responsibility for how we use it.
Kayla
So is social media something we're powerless against, or can we learn to manage it? Let's take a look at Nir Eyal's perspective on digital self-control.
Segment four, Nir Eyal�s podcast. With the rise of social media, people are finding it harder than ever to deal with distractions. It's easy to blame technology for our struggles with focus. But what if the real problem isn't our phones or social media?
Isabella
Nir Eyal and Shane Parrish are here to tell us that it's not just social media and technology to blame. It's what's happening inside of us.
Mohammad
We usually try to blame everything in our lives on social media and the outside world.
The phone rang, so I forgot to do the dishes. I got a text, so I forgot to let my dog out. The episode was so engaging that I couldn't go to sleep on time.
Nir Eyal actually argues that distractions start from within. He says that boredom, anxiety, uncertainty, and even fatigue are all feelings that trigger what we want to escape. For most of us, that escape is technology�whether it's Netflix, Snapchat, or just scrolling endlessly. That is our distraction.
Kayla
Let's think about it. When was the last time you sat in silence without reaching for your phone?
It's become second nature to fill every empty moment with our phone. We have trained ourselves to turn to technology as a way to avoid discomfort.
Isabella
You're right. Eyal explains that if we don't recognize the real reasons we're getting distracted, we'll always find something new to take our attention away.
Mohammad
So instead of blaming social media entirely, maybe we should be asking ourselves�what am I trying to escape from?
Kayla
Segment five. Our own thoughts. Now for our thoughts on the topic.
Social media has two faces. On one hand, it connects people, provides entertainment, and can be a source of learning and inspiration.
On the other hand, its design is intentionally addictive. The excessive use has been linked to increased anxiety, depression, poor sleep, and even self-esteem issues, especially among young individuals.
Isabella
Something that really grabbed my attention from the Taylor Lorenz podcast was play-based childhood versus phone-based childhood. I see it with many of my students and the new generation�how they're growing up in this day and age with technology. They all have this information at the tip of their fingers, and it's interesting to see the dynamic of how when we were kids, we didn't have to rely on technology.
If anything, there was just a limited amount of television. It makes me wonder�if there are no boundaries, where this can lead social media to in terms of developmental skills of these children?
Kayla
In my student teaching experience, I actually got to see this happen in real time with my students. I noticed that when my students get bored or frustrated, they often reach for a distraction.
These students did have easy access to a computer, as they used their Chromebooks. Every day I would walk around the room and find myself catching students for being on platforms that they weren't supposed to be on�for example, playing matching games or even watching YouTube videos.
They are so used to grabbing a technological device that it almost feels unnatural sitting without one.
As an adult, we do the same thing. I think about how many times I've picked up my phone and used that as my distraction to avoid doing something. This really made me think about what Nir Eyal said�distraction isn't just about technology, it's about what's happening inside of us.
My students weren't just looking for entertainment. They were avoiding frustration, boredom, or even just the effort of focusing. And if we as adults do the same thing, how can we expect our kids to do better?
Mohammad
At the end of the day, social media is a tool, and like any other tool, it depends on how it is used. It can connect us or isolate us. It can lift us up or bring us down. But the choice to find balance between all of this, to protect our mental health, and to take back control�that choice starts with us.
Kayla
Thank you for joining us.
All
Bye! Bye! Thank you.