Teens, social media, and mental health.

Here, we will go over the statistics from the Pew Research Center on social media and youth mental health.

• Roughly 48% say that the social media sites have a negative impact on mental health, but 14% think that the negativity affects them personally (Faverio, 2025).

• 74% of teens say these platforms make them feel more connected to their friends (Faverio, 2025).

• 80% of parents say that they feel extremely or very comfortable talking about their teen’s mental health with them, while only 52% of teens feel the same (Faverio, 2025).

By looking at these statistics, we see that the idea of mental health isn’t a “mysterious” thing. It’s something that both adults and youth know and can talk about. It’s getting teenagers to feel more comfortable talking to their parents about mental health. A little over half of the pool Pew Research Center surveyed is comfortable.

A lot of teens say that social media is negative, but I feel that could also be for adults. People usually say what they won’t or are too afraid to say in real life. This might be less of a youth and mental health problem and more of a people-being-kinder-to-everyone-they-see problem.

References:

Faverio, M., Anderson, M., & Park, E. (2025, April 22). Teens, social media and mental health. Pew Research Center. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/04/22/teens-social-media-and-mental-health/