Is Screen Time Hurting Teens? Here's What the Data Show

This is exactly what our research set out to explore.

Instead of examining the associations between screen time and outcomes, we divided students into groups based on their technology profiles.

There are five distinct types:

1. Low tech: a group that doesn’t report using much technology.
2. The average: a group that does a little bit of everything, like school-related activities, social media, tech-building, and gaming.
3. High social media: a group that spends a lot of time-consuming online content and communicating with others through social media.
4. Tech builders: a group that codes or creates content rather than socializing online.
5. High-tech: a group that is immersed in all types of technology daily.

Each of these groups reports meaningfully different emotional experiences, which tells us that how kids use technology is a much more important question than simply how much.

Not necessarily, and this is where the data gets nuanced.

The high-tech users showed large associations with almost every positive emotion. However, I want to be careful about how we read that. That doesn't mean everyone should be a high-tech user. What it likely means is that for those kids, heavy technology use is like a dopamine hit. It feels good in the moment. The real question is: what were they not doing? Because our low-technology users were also reporting feeling connected, motivated, supported, and inspired — just through other means. It's not about chasing the most pleasant emotions. It's about understanding what works for you and what doesn't.

It's a mixed picture, and that's important to sit with.

The high social media communication group — students using platforms to talk to friends and family — reported feeling happier, connected, and supported. That's what you'd hope they'd get out of it. But they also reported feeling more frustrated and more bored. So even when the goal is connection, it may not always be achieved. What we also found is that creating social media content and browsing social media were the two activities most associated with negative emotions overall.

These findings align with earlier work from one of the study’s authors, indicating that creating social media content and browsing social media are associated with greater connection and happiness, but also greater negative emotions (e.g., anxiety). Social media may help facilitate social connection at some times, but increase stress and anxiety at others (e.g., when youth compare themselves to others).

School-related tech use was associated with more negative emotions, and there are reasons for that. The simpler answer is that doing homework is stressful, and it’s being done online. But I also think there's something happening with how schools ask students to use technology. Too often, the assignment becomes "make a PowerPoint" rather than "show me you've mastered this concept." When technology is the task instead of a tool to support learning, it creates more stress than intended. The same conversation is happening with AI right now. The question shouldn't be how do we use AI in the same way we've always assigned work. It should be: What does mastery look like, and can technology support it?

Yes, I believe that teaching emotional intelligence skills is critical. The skills we teach — self-awareness, social awareness, understanding the impact of your choices — those things matter when a young person is deciding whether to go online, why they're going online, when they log off, and how they feel when they do. Research shows that when schools prepare students to interact with technology, there are lower associations between technology and negative emotions. Technology isn’t going anywhere, but we can help students to get the most benefit out of it, while avoiding the pitfalls, by making responsible decisions about how and when they engage online. This applies to adults, too.

Helping students make informed decisions about when and why they access digital content is a good start. We're not telling a kid who loves building and coding that they have to stop. And we're not telling a kid who uses social media to stay connected that it's bad for them. Each of the five groups experiences helpful and unhelpful emotions. Teachers can help students connect their preferences to a strategy and reflect on whether that strategy is working for them. Are you going online because you're lonely and looking for connection? Are you bored and want to be entertained? And when you log off — was that goal achieved, or do you feel better, or maybe even worse?

I think the most honest answer is: Is this working for me?

We talk a lot about emotion regulation—the goals you have, who you are as a person, and the strategies you use to achieve your goals and be your best self. Going online is a strategy. It's part of a much bigger equation. For many people, it becomes their go-to strategy even when it isn't working. I'll be honest — I sometimes end up scrolling on social media longer than I meant to before bed. It’s the only time that I have just for me. But then I stay up too late, and it leads to stress the next day and the urge to escape back online. That cycle is real for adults and for kids. The skill we're always trying to build is the ability to pause and ask: am I using this in a helpful way, or is it causing me more trouble?