Many teenagers often find themselves addictively scrolling, clicking and viewing social media on their phone. Sometimes that content can be false, and clicking the share button can be harmful. 

The National Library of Medicine described social media addiction as a form of behavioral addiction that is characterized by compulsive engagement in social media platforms. This can negatively disturb a user’s ability to function in parts of their life, such as neglecting sleep. However, it can be even worse for teenagers. According to Jefferson Health, since adolescence is the second largest amount of time the brain develops and grows, teenagers and young children are more likely to become addicted through rewiring their brain to constantly pursue social media. This is because social media provides dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved with the brain’s reward center, to the brain, which is similar to other addictions such as gambling. The dopamine is caused by shares, likes and comments on platforms.

The Public Interest Research Group stated an MIT study discovered that on social media, fake news can spread up to ten times quicker than actual reporting. Meanwhile, corrections for fake news are not as popular. The content viewed on social media is chosen by an algorithm that curates it. Its goal is to have a user remain on the platform as long as possible, allowing it to give more advertisements, which are specifically planned in order to sell products the user is more likely to buy. 

“I don’t consider myself addicted, but I know that [social media is] really bad for you,” freshman Theo Lundgren said. “[This is] because you can spend most of your time doom scrolling and not actually doing your homework or anything else relevant.” 

The Public Interest Research Group said that spending a lot of time on social media rather than doing other activities is what the algorithm aims for. The algorithm uses data about the user to determine what content to show next so the user is more likely to engage in it. Those that share more content are rewarded by algorithms showcasing their posts to more social feeds. The algorithm supports content with information more likely to incite more reaction, encouraging users to share possibly misleading content and spread misinformation. Sophomore Kyle Estrada has noticed this, and considers himself to be currently addicted to Instagram reels.

“[Aspects of social media like] the ones that get your brain going like on TikTok and Instagram reels where you just keep scrolling and there’s a new video [intrigue teenagers],” Estrada said. “Your attention span gets worse, it’s like dopamine hits.”

Although Instagram is commonly used by teenagers, the Pew Research Center took a survey on 13 to 17 year old American teenagers in 2022, which found that YouTube was the most used platform by American teens. Meanwhile, a Common Sense survey in partnership with SurveyMonkey taken in 2019 on 1,005 American teenagers from ages 13-17, discovered teenagers receive their news more often from social media rather than directly from news organizations. Sixty percent of those who get news from YouTube say it is more probable that they get their news from celebrities, influencers and personalities rather than than from news organizations. Despite this, the study found the majority of teens think celebrities, influencers and personalities are unreliable news sources on all social media, which is still thought today.

“I think people should get their news from actual newspapers rather than people from social media,” freshman Fyodor Panchenko said. 

Official newspapers are much more likely to not contain misinformation, in contrast to social media platforms such as TikTok. According to the Public Interest Research Group there was a study done by University of Arizona that found in 2023, 40% of medical information on TikTok contained misinformation. PIRG also said another study in 2022 indicates 20% of videos when searching for top news stories contained misinformation as well. According to the Common Sense survey, 23% of teenagers combat this by getting news from sources with different amounts of views several times a week, such as political news.  

“Something I’ve noticed is that Democrats are worse at using social media, and the Republicans are really good at it,” Estrada said. “I think it really shows that social media is a powerful tool.”  

According to Newsweek, Republican house candidates are better at using social media than Democrats. This was demonstrated through a study showing that republicans receive up to seven times more shares per post on Facebook and four times more likes. On Instagram, Republican candidates had five times more likes per post compared to Democrats. The study had been conducted in October 2024 where it analyzed 15,756 social media posts on 1,313 Facebook and Instagram profiles belonging to U.S House candidates. The Brookings Institution said that polling data implies that false claims impacted how citizens saw the presidential candidates in the 2024 U.S. election, pressing issues and the campaigns. 

“I’ve seen a few advertisements in which both parties attack each other on not really true statements,” Lundgren said. “I think that if people saw that, it could definitely spread misinformation about the election. 

According to the Brookings Institution, there have been examples of misinformation spread on social media, such as an Artificial Intelligence-generated image of Kamala Harris hugging Jeffrey Epstein or Haitian immigrants falsely accused of eating cats and dogs. In order to avoid false news like this, teenagers take varying approaches. 

“I make sure my feed doesn’t have that many opinions [to avoid misinformation],” Estrada said. “I feel like it’s mostly food, to be honest.”

This way of limiting misinformation encountered on social media does not require people to restrict the amount of time they spend on social media, but some people prefer to.

“I usually only use my phone during lunch or if I have free time,” Lundgren said. “Other than that, I generally like doing work instead. I think that phones can be great, it can be great talking to friends and playing games that you like on your phone. But, if you don’t get any work done and you’re just wasting the last five hours doing nothing on your phone, then it’s not great.” 

Meanwhile, others choose the solution to social media addiction by restricting it overall.

“It is better not to use social media because you don’t waste your time, and you have time to do stuff that is actually good for you, like sports and homework,” Panchenko said. 

Overall, social media can become easily addictive to teenagers and affect their beliefs through the content they see and receive news from. It is oftentimes not reliable, as seen through the 2024 presidential election. Government teacher Matthew Austin thinks social media can be a platform for misinformation for all ages.  

“People of all ages spread misinformation, sometimes knowingly, and sometimes without knowing,” Austin said. “All I can say is that social media is not good for the individual as it bombards users with false realities and a huge amount of misinformation. Social media is not good for society as it gives platforms to people who aim to use said platforms for nefarious purposes. Basically, a democracy is only as strong as the education of its citizens, and social media is a great way to keep people ignorant.”