Sharing – Social media isn’t the only cause of mental health woes among Texas youth
This is one of the more significant problems with focusing on social media. I recently wrote about the connection social media allows that can also be healthy for teens, but even if you don’t believe that banning social media isn’t going to fix these issues:
Social media’s danger on youth mental health has captured the attention of Texas lawmakers, at times, eclipsing focus on bigger threats — provider shortages and funding cuts to programs.
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/27/texas-youth-mental-health-needs-social-media/
Government officials in Texas have been shouting about social media and filling bills to deal with the potential risk by suggesting everything from blocks to age verification and everything else under their power.
They have not made much of an attempt to replace COVID emergency funds that are being used for school mental health providers and will dry up, nor have they made much of an effort to hire new mental health professionals for school districts. I know Texas isn’t the only US state doing this, and I’m guessing we aren’t the only country doing this. Social media is easy to target, but it’s not likely the most effective change to make for the benefit of youth mental health. The others take more work and get fewer headlines, so here we are.
