Youngsters’ social media habit has developmental impact, researcher says

Marketplace Tech

American Public Media

Technology, News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Social media takes up a huge chunk of kids’ lives. A 2024 study from Pew found that about half of U.S. teenagers are online “almost constantly.” It’s a big source of stress for parents too, and policing their kids’ actions on these platforms can take up a lot of time and energy. Also, there’s AI, and it’s showing up on social media as bots that are always available to talk. We’re going to get to all of that this week in our new series about what it’s like to be a kid on social media and the risks and rules that come with it. We call it “The Infinite Scroll.” We’re kicking things off with Eva Telzer, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Telzer told Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes about the intensity of youngsters’ connection to their phones and its effects on how the kids are wired, which may last into adulthood.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The kids are online, but are they all right?
0:04.7	From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.
0:07.6	I'm Stephanie Hughes.
0:17.9	A few months ago, I was talking with a bunch of high schoolers in Oklahoma City.
0:21.9	I asked them how often they were on social media.
0:24.4	The answer is varied, from two hours a day to nine hours to 15.
0:29.5	One teenager, Ariana Gutierrez, told me, once you're on, it's hard to get off.
0:34.6	A lot of people make fun of them, they're like, oh, bro, just log off.
0:38.1	It's not that easy. Especially if lot of people make fun of them. They're like, oh, bro, just log off. Like, log off.
0:38.9	It's not that easy.
0:43.5	Especially if you're a person that really takes into consideration of what other people are saying.
0:47.0	Social media takes up a huge chunk of kids' lives.
0:53.3	A 2024 study from Pew found about half of teenagers in the U.S. are online almost constantly.
0:56.1	It's a big source of stress for parents, too.
1:00.2	And policing their kids' actions on these platforms can take up a lot of time and energy.
1:06.6	Also, there's AI, and it's showing up on social media as bots, who are always available to talk.
1:14.7	We're going to get to all of that this week in our new series about what it's like to be a kid on social media and the risks and rules that come with it.
1:17.1	We're calling it the Infinite Scroll.
1:23.3	We're kicking things off with Eva Tells her, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at UNC Chapel Hill.
1:26.7	I asked her what it's like to be chronically online.
1:32.4	Adolescents are really glued to their phones around the clock.
1:35.4	When they're in their bedrooms at night, they're on their phone.
	...

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