We are not clinicians. This article reports on survey data about teen attitudes toward social media; it is not medical or psychological advice. If you have concerns about a teenager’s mental health, please speak with a qualified professional.

Two numbers  sit oddly next to each other. Pew Research Center found that 40% of US teens say they are online almost constantly and that 48% of teens say social media has a mostly negative effect on people their age.

Reading the second number as a sign teens are about to log off is tempting, and reading the first as proof they never will is just as easy. Neither holds up, and the gap between them is where the more interesting question sits.

What the data shows

Start with the time online. The share of teens who say they are online almost constantly has almost doubled since 2014-15, from 24% to 40%. Daily use is close to universal: 97% of teens say they go online every day. Whatever teens think of social media, almost none of them are off it.

Then the verdict. The 48% who call social media mostly negative for their peers is up sharply from 32% in 2022, a 16-point jump in two years. Over the same stretch, the share calling its effect on peers mostly positive fell to 11%, down from 24%.

Why teens might be the sharpest critics of their own feeds

The data complicates the easy narrative. While 48% see social media as mostly negative for teens in general, only 14% say it negatively affects them personally. A clear majority, 58%, say the effect on themselves is neither positive nor negative. Teens, it seems, are far readier to diagnose harm in their peers than in their own scrolling.

That gap between “it’s bad for them” and “it’s fine for me” has two plausible readings. It may reflect a genuine difference, or it may be the same self-serving bias adults show when rating other people’s screen habits as worse than their own. 

The perceptions are still vivid. One teen girl told Pew that on social media, “the people they see on social media, it makes them think they have to look and be like them or they won’t be liked.” Another said “everyone expects teens to have it all figured out by the time we get out of high school.” Keep in mind that these are individual voices, not population findings.

Among teens who were at least somewhat concerned about teen mental health, only 22% named social media as the main negative factor, against 44% of parents.

The same teens also report real benefits: 74% say what they see on social media makes them feel more connected to their friends’ lives.

What the shift since 2022 signals

The clearest movement in the data is not about behaviour but about attitude. “Still, teens are growing more wary of social media for their peers,” the report’s authors write, tying that wariness to the rise from 32% to 48%. The scepticism is spreading even as the screens stay on.

There are early hints it may be edging into action. The share of teens who say they spend too much time on social media climbed to 45%, up from 36% in 2022. And 44% say they have cut back on social media use, with an identical share saying the same about their smartphones.

What the survey cannot tell us is whether any of this lasts. Saying you have cut back and actually cutting back are different things, and self-reported restraint has a way of softening once a phone is back in hand.

Teens are using social media more than any cohort before them and judging it more harshly than they did two years ago. Whether that growing wariness reshapes how they spend their hours, or simply becomes a thing they believe while scrolling anyway, is what the next round of fieldwork will have to settle.

If you or a teenager you know is struggling, support is available. In the US, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by call or text at 988, or via chat at 988lifeline.org. A paediatrician, school counsellor, or licensed therapist is a good first point of contact for concerns about a young person’s mental health.