The U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, announced on Monday that he would push for a warning label on social media sites that says the platforms can harm the mental health of young people.
When she heard the news, Jean Twenge, a research psychologist who has spent years warning about the risks of social media, had one thought: “Finally.”
Public health experts, educators and policymakers across the country have become increasingly concerned about the potential effects of social media on the mental health of teenagers, who spend an average of 4.8 hours a day on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
The end of the school year can leave teens with extra free time to spend mindlessly scrolling on their phones. But the summer can also serve as a useful opportunity to reset family social media rules and take advantage of in-person hangouts and hands-on activities, said Dr. Marc Potenza, a professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.
Here’s how to do a social media reset with tweens and teens this summer.
Get phones out of the bedroom.
This is Dr. Twenge’s top piece of advice to parents, she said. Have adolescents put devices elsewhere overnight, such as a communal charging station. Studies have found that screens can significantly disrupt sleep, and teens and tweens need eight to 10 hours every night.
“Parents are allowed a little bit of what I like to call ‘digital hypocrisy,’” Dr. Twenge said. “But this is one everyone should follow.”
Focus on in-person activities.
You can help your children scale back on social media any time of year, but summer provides unique opportunities for unsupervised, in-person play, said Lenore Skenazy, the president of Let Grow, a nonprofit that promotes childhood independence and resilience.
“We all remember our summers at the beach or going to the pool or the sprinklers,” she said. These experiences “aren’t just precious memories,” she said, “they’re developmentally rich.”
Making time for unstructured play allows children to solve problems, resolve boredom on their own, make friends and figure out what interests them most, according to Ms. Skenazy.
This might mean sending your children to summer programs during the week that offer plenty of phone-free time. On weekends, you could build in time for your kids to get together with friends while leaving devices at home.
You may also want to set a specific time of day that is always “outdoor time,” Ms. Skenazy said. This can help avoid “begging and negotiating” to stay on devices longer.
Be upfront about your rules.
When it comes to limiting kids’ social media use, “be very overt” about your rules, said Dr. Robert E. Lovern, a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center who has helped teenagers and their families reduce screen time. Tell your children exactly how much screen time they have each day and put time limits on apps. Parents should try to follow these rules, too, he said.
Adhering to those limits can be tricky during the school year, when many children rely on school-issued laptops for homework. Dr. Twenge, who has three teenagers, said her daughters’ school laptops had YouTube available.
“It drives me bonkers,” she said. “And I cannot hover over them all the time. So that’s why I think the summer is such a great opportunity for a reset.”
There are not clear public health guidelines about how much social media time is too much, said Dr. Jessi Gold, a psychiatrist and chief wellness officer with the University of Tennessee system. It may help to look for signs of problematic use, such as children becoming extremely irritable when they stop using a device, or their social media use interfering with other activities.
Explore boredom.
Kids often turn to social media when they’re bored to get a “dopamine hit,” Dr. Lovern said. Eventually, that can lead to difficulty coping with boredom, which can make children easily frustrated.
Kids often say they feel bored when they are in fact lonely or want attention, so it can help to ask if they are looking for comfort or companionship, experts say. The organization Children and Screens advises parents to allow their child to come up with their own screen-free solutions to boredom.
Help teens tune into how social media makes them feel.
Dr. Gold said that there were many factors besides screen time driving the youth mental health crisis, and that she didn’t believe that restricting access to social media altogether was the answer.
She wants to see parents and caregivers help young people develop the skills they need to use social media mindfully and in moderation. For example, she suggested working with kids to identify how certain content is making them feel.
“You could say: ‘Hey, let’s do an experiment. For the next week, instead of just mindlessly scrolling TikTok, pay attention to how you feel,’” she said. Is your teen clenching her jaw or fist after scrolling, or feeling sad or uncomfortable?
Encourage your child to jot down those feelings in the moment, she said, and find time to talk about them later.
