The Psychological Impacts of Algorithmic and AI-Driven Social Media on Teenagers: A Call to Action
Sunil Arora, Sahil Arora, John D. Hastings
TL;DR
The paper investigates the psychological impacts of algorithmic and AI-driven social media on teenagers, highlighting doom scrolling, curated online personas, and constant notifications as core risk factors. It adopts a multi-stakeholder approach, reviewing regulatory proposals, industry moderation practices, and educational interventions, and it discusses Mastodon as a decentralized alternative with potential safety benefits and challenges. The key contributions are a structured call to action across policy, industry, and education, and an exploration of decentralized models as a path to safer digital spaces. The work underscores the practical significance of safeguarding adolescent mental health in the digital era and outlines concrete steps for implementation and ongoing evaluation.
Abstract
This study investigates the meta-issues surrounding social media, which, while theoretically designed to enhance social interactions and improve our social lives by facilitating the sharing of personal experiences and life events, often results in adverse psychological impacts. Our investigation reveals a paradoxical outcome: rather than fostering closer relationships and improving social lives, the algorithms and structures that underlie social media platforms inadvertently contribute to a profound psychological impact on individuals, influencing them in unforeseen ways. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced among teenagers, who are disproportionately affected by curated online personas, peer pressure to present a perfect digital image, and the constant bombardment of notifications and updates that characterize their social media experience. As such, we issue a call to action for policymakers, platform developers, and educators to prioritize the well-being of teenagers in the digital age and work towards creating secure and safe social media platforms that protect the young from harm, online harassment, and exploitation.