Teen Talk: The Good, the Bad, and the Neutral of Adolescent Social Media Use

TL;DR

This paper tackles the contested question of whether social media is overall beneficial or detrimental to adolescents. It uses a mixed-methods approach—qualitative thematic analysis of 2,061 support-seeking posts from 1,038 teens (ages 15–17) and quantitative $\chi^2$ tests—to uncover four core themes and cross-platform differences, all examined through an affordances lens. The findings show that negative experiences are prominent but coexist with connection, positive coping, and information-seeking benefits, with distinct platform-specific patterns (e.g., Instagram linked to body-shaming, YouTube to time management, Facebook to privacy concerns). The authors translate these insights into design and policy implications, advocating safety-by-design and teens-led, platform-aware data collection to mitigate risks while preserving youth benefits in digital engagement.

Abstract

The debate on whether social media has a net positive or negative effect on youth is ongoing. Therefore, we conducted a thematic analysis on 2,061 posts made by 1,038 adolescents aged 15-17 on an online peer-support platform to investigate the ways in which these teens discussed popular social media platforms in their posts and to identify differences in their experiences across platforms. Our findings revealed four main emergent themes for the ways in which social media was discussed: 1) Sharing negative experiences or outcomes of social media use (58%, n = 1,095), 2) Attempts to connect with others (45%, n = 922), 3) Highlighting the positive side of social media use (20%, n = 409), and 4) Seeking information (20%, n = 491). Overall, while sharing about negative experiences was more prominent, teens also discussed balanced perspectives of connection-seeking, positive experiences, and information support on social media that should not be discounted. Moreover, we found statistical significance for how these experiences differed across social media platforms. For instance, teens were most likely to seek romantic relationships on Snapchat and self-promote on YouTube. Meanwhile, Instagram was mentioned most frequently for body shaming, and Facebook was the most commonly discussed platform for privacy violations (mostly from parents). The key takeaway from our study is that the benefits and drawbacks of teens' social media usage can co-exist and net effects (positive or negative) can vary across different teens across various contexts. As such, we advocate for mitigating the negative experiences and outcomes of social media use as voiced by teens, to improve, rather than limit or restrict, their overall social media experience. We do this by taking an affordance perspective that aims to promote the digital well-being and online safety of youth "by design."

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: Results (standardized residuals) of the between-group analysis of social media platforms based on the teens' discussions about negative experiences when using social media ($N=891$). (*) indicates significant association. Note that green denotes a positive association, while red denotes a negative one.
• Figure 2: Results (standardized residuals) of the between-group analysis of social media platforms based on the teens' discussions about negative effects when using social media ($N=311$). (*) indicates significant association. Note that green denotes a positive association, while red denotes a negative one.
• Figure 3: Results (standardized residuals) of the between-group analysis of social media platforms based on the teens' connecting on social media ($N=922$). (*) indicates significant association. Note that green denotes a positive association, while red denotes a negative one.
• Figure 4: Results (standardized residuals) of the between-group analysis of social media platforms based on the teens' discussions about the positive sides of social media ($N=409$). (*) indicates significant association. Note that green denotes a positive association, while red denotes a negative one.
• Figure 5: Results (standardized residuals) of the between-group analysis of social media platforms based on the teens' discussions about seeking information regarding social media ($N=421$). (*) indicates significant association. Note that green denotes a positive association, while red denotes a negative one.