What Kids Say about Social Media Time

Late last year, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of almost fourteen hundred teens, ages thirteen to seventeen, to come to an understanding of our teenagers’ experiences and attitudes around social media and their mental health. One of the most interesting findings points to the fact that our kids themselves are starting to see the downside of all this time spent on social media. Back in twenty twenty two, thirty six percent of kids said they spend too much time on social media. A year later, that number had dropped to twenty-seven percent. But in twenty-twenty-four, just one year later, the number jumped up to forty-five percent. We are hearing about more and more kids who are initiating steps on their own, by taking social media fasts, getting rid of their smartphones in favor of dumbphones, and getting off social media altogether. Parents, too much time spent on social media means too little time on other more important things, like the cultivating of a rich devotional life.