Technology bans cannot and will not fix adolescent mental health

You probably don’t care about the role Strava is playing in the teen mental health crisis. But you should be.

Strava seems remarkably good — especially compared to apps like Instagram or TikTok. It simply “allows you to track your runs and rides with GPS, join challenges, share photos of your activities, and follow your friends,” according to the company. However, we recently heard a high school coach point to Strava as an example of how technology can contribute to the pressures teenagers face. Even in the offseason, teenagers see how their runs compare to those of their peers across three cities or across three states. Competition is not limited to competitions; it is available and quantifiable throughout the year.

Here’s why it’s important: Our new data found it more than 1 in 4 teenagers struggle with exhaustion. Burnout is usually associated with adults in high-pressure workplacesbut it also torments our youth. One 10^thousand grader recalled his older brother’s description of exhaustion: “I feel like a train that has burned every ounce of fuel it has left and still hasn’t reached the station.” Concerned adults should ask themselves, “Why are our teenagers running out of gas? And what is this ‘station’ to which they exhaust themselves?”

One thing is clear: we can’t put all the blame for teenage mental health on social media, and school phone bans aren’t going to fix it.

In our nationally representative survey of more than 1,500 teens, more than half of American teens reported negative pressure to have a clear game plan or future path for their lives. This experience went hand-in-hand with the pressure to achieve—to excel in current pursuits or to be the most impressive. Grand culture has also manifested itself in the negative pressure that teenagers feel related to their appearance, activities, even their social life and friendships.

The answer isn’t to just rip teenagers off Strava. If we are not content to play an endless game of whack-a-mole with new technologies, we need to look deeper. This pressure comes from several sources. For example, teens were most likely to say that pressure on their game plan came from teachers, counselors, coaches and other adults at school (47%), themselves (44%), and their parents and family members (39%). These were the top three sources also reported by those feeling pressure to achieve (38%, 48% and 34% respectively).

Social media was fourth on the list of sources of both game plan and achievement pressure. This clearly increases the pressure in a real way for a significant proportion of teenagers. Like one 10^thousand A girl in the class said, “Social media—based on my feed—I see all these really successful people… like people my age and all their accomplishments. Then I just feel like I end up comparing myself even more and with personal friends or classmates.”

But when it comes to the impact of technology, it is no simple title. The hard reality is this: some teens said social media only made things worse, some said it only helped, some said they did both, and still others said neither. They were more likely to point out that social media is making it worse, not helping. Social games were different, acting as a kind of pressure relief valve or at least a temporary distraction. The negative impact of social media was most pronounced for the appearance, which is not surprising, since many programs put visual content and ready-made filters at the fore. There are also other problems related to misinformation on the Internet. We are at an all-time low when it comes to people faith in US institutions. It is worth noting that cynicism is a characteristic sign of burnout.

When not crowded out, healthy habits seem to offer a protective buffer to rely on. We also asked about self-care practices, such as how often in the past week they slept at least seven hours, got an hour of exercise, spent time outside, had meaningful conversations with friends, participated in creative activities, helped others, or did something “just for fun” or recreation. Most teens did each of these things at some point during the previous week, but they weren’t what they did “most days.” Every seventh person did not practice any practice self-care on most days. Teens with low levels of self-care were 5.6 times more likely to say they felt burned out (34%), compared to teens with high levels of self-care (6%).

In focus groups, teenagers described barriers to self-care, including putting away technology, and—especially—time constraints and the belief that self-care is not “productive.” One teenager mentioned feeling guilty when she reads a book for pleasure; another explained that spending time in nature “has no visible result.” Freeing teens from their devices won’t be a panacea for all teens, who told us bluntly, “If you’re not consistently working at great speed, you’re not doing enough. You are not enough.”

Social media can be like gasoline on a fire that burns some teenagers. Big tech may deserve the attention it’s getting, especially as some companies resist changes that would benefit teen well-being at the expense of “time spent” on apps.

But to fix mental health trends, we also need to broaden our lens beyond Instagram and TikTok: to other technologies, and even to the Strava-ification of schools in the form of educational technology platforms that constantly pressurize students and parents with endless performance updates. We also need to deal with pressures outside of social media. LGBTQ+ teens struggle with more negative pressure in all the areas we studied, as well as more burnout.

We also need to deepen our focus: to get to the root of the various concerns and problems of young people. The game plan and pressure to achieve may be partly driven by families’ concerns about their children having a stable, secure economic life, especially in light of the dramatic increasing the cost of housing and education across generations. Some teenagers exceed the schedule; some combine high school with a schedule filled not with activities but with long hours of work and intense adult responsibilities.

The best way to overcome the current crisis is to make sure the debate about the impact of social media on mental health do not distract us from clear thinking and correct problem solving. Teenagers have knowledge that can light the way forward, but only if we are willing to listen.

Emily Weinstein is a sociologist and researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she co-founded the Center for Digital Prosperity. Together with Kerry James, she wrote the book “Behind Their Screens: What Teenagers Face (and Adults Miss)”. Sarah Konrath is a social psychologist at Indiana University’s Lilly School of Family Philanthropy, where she directs the Interdisciplinary Empathy and Altruism Research Program.