Youth, Public Health & Social Media Exploitation

By Joanna Lau - Dec 20, 2023

Most social media companies purposefully exploit the vulnerabilities in young minds, leveraging their strong desire for social connection and dopamine rushes to boost ad revenue on their platforms. According to Stanford’s Dr. Anna Lembke, the need to fit in and the desire to gain social status means that youth are especially vulnerable to falling for the “social media contagion effect”. 

During adolescent development, brain regions associated with the desire for social connectivity become more sensitive, while the brain regions involved in self-control have not fully matured (Weir). Desiring to fit in and stay in the loop, 90%  of teens use social media, with at least 51% visiting social media sites at least daily. In addition to widespread social media use, there is significant evidence that platforms are becoming highly addictive to youth. An October 2023 survey found that U.S. teens average 4.8 hours daily on social media across seven platforms. Some 66% of teenagers feel anxious when they do not have their smartphones, 34% of teenagers say they "excessively" use their smartphones, while 47% of teens say they are "constantly" checking their phones. 

Manipulating dopamine hits for revenue gain

A core component of this deliberate design is the use of notifications to capitalize on adolescents' need for social connectivity and fear of missing out, which keeps teenagers attached to platforms while generating revenue for companies. Platforms use a neurological feature in human brains known as reward prediction error (RPE) encoding to create addictive user behavior through unpredictable rewards. This feature is also taken advantage of by casinos to encourage gambling addiction. Habits form when users experience consistent rewards of dopamine hits during a specific behavior. Platforms exploit this neural circuitry by implementing a randomized reward pattern to preclude users' ability to predict when they will receive rewards in order to keep them engaged. For example, users receive likes and replies after posting stories or sending messages on social media, which rewards them with dopamine hits. This reward reinforces the habit of checking and scrolling, creating a habit loop that strengthens itself with each interval. When the brain becomes accustomed to receiving a reward after these actions, anticipating the reward also generates dopamine. The excitement of anticipation prompts users to remain on the platform for extended periods waiting for responses, wasting valuable time that could have been spent on real-life interactions instead. Therefore, social media systems purposefully manipulate user behavior to increase platform engagement. 

The damage to attention span and implications for the workforce

Ten years ago, a topic would remain on the top fifty most-discussed subjects on Twitter for 17.5 hours. By 2016, this number had dropped to 11.9 hours (Hari 90). A key factor in this change is a significant deterioration in the attention span of the general population in recent years. With the flood of information pumped into individuals’ brains through social media, “users” have less and less time to think about any individual piece of information. Additionally, social media algorithms make use of highly stimulating information to keep users on platforms longer, which diverts focus and diminishes their ability to concentrate on work that is truly important to them. 

Damaged attention spans due to social media overuse also have significant implications for the productivity of the future workforce because when individuals switch tasks due to broken focus, brains must adjust to new information and goals associated with each task. This process takes time and effort and contributes to mental fatigue, decreasing overall productivity. Studies show that context switching can reduce productivity by as 40% much as (“Context switching is killing your productivity”). Teenagers generally have weaker self-control than adults because their brains have not fully developed. Their neurobiological weaknesses cause them to experience even more difficulty moderating their use of social media when faced with stimulating content. Due to the habit formation of social media use in teenage years, it would also become difficult to reduce social media use even in adulthood. 

Government regulation is needed due to health impacts

The largest social media companies’ use of advertising has resulted in enormous wealth off the time users spend on platforms, creating incentives for companies to prioritize maximizing daily usage of their platforms over public good including user experience. They prioritize “algorithms [that] are neither neutral nor benign but rather amplify the most polarizing, titillating, controversial, emotionally charged, and otherwise salacious material created by third parties and by [social media companies] themselves” (Rudman and Llp), in order to produce the largest dopamine hits. By making users, particularly youth, habitually seek these dopamine hits, companies exploit the same neural circuitry as gambling and recreational drugs to maximize the engagement of youth on platforms at the expense of their brain development and mental health (St. George). Social media overreliance is similar to substance abuse in the way that users experience withdrawal symptoms after reducing social media use, and tend to increase platform use amidst efforts to control usage. The inability of users to cut back on use even when they understand the negative impacts on well-being is parallel to well-known addictions such as gambling and drug abuse. However, while there is education and legislation to protect children from gambling and drug addiction, there are few if any systems in place to reduce social media addiction among teens. 

At its core, big tech measures success in terms of engagement - the longer users stay on the app, the more advertising they consume, and the more revenue they make. Platforms also create other incentives to keep users checking apps, immorally manipulating their neurological functions through attention-sucking interruptions (vibrations, notifications, infinite scroll). So what can governments do? 

In recent years, a range of options has surfaced to “curb” addictive platforms and reduce distraction. Some schools have banned phones from classrooms. Parents can set screen time limits or limits for certain apps, though such features do nothing to address the underlying factors that lead to addiction. 

Other jurisdictions are exploring platform requirements. For example, should youth-facing advertising be banned? Should companies be banned from employing techniques that reliably contribute to addiction? Can more prosocial designs be mandated that reduce addition? For example, instead of getting notifications for every message, which is habit forming, platforms could require platforms to create content “digests” allowing users to consume all messages at once at a time of their choosing (Hari 165). What incentives can be established that could require companies to prioritize brain and youth well-being? Moreover, what role might governments that provide mental and addiction services play in supporting and preventing technology addiction? 

As AI becomes pervasive in our daily lives, governments must wrestle with what role regulations can play in ensuring prosocial and public interest outcomes including in the design of consumer products. Social media is just one example where weak regulation contributes to negative health impacts. Finding ways to reign in Big Tech for such abusive practices and take back our time is both a moral and societal imperative. 

Joanna Lau is a Vancouver-based high school student and GoodBot volunteer who is concerned with how social media is impacting students today and what the implications will be going forward.

Works Cited

Ali, Marium. “How many years does a typical user spend on social media?” Al Jazeera, 30 June 2023. Accessed 3 December 2023.

“Context switching is killing your productivity” Software.com, 5 December 2022, Accessed 3 December 2023.

Hari, Johann. Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention. Crown, 2022.

Haynes, Trevor. “Dopamine, Smartphones & You: A battle for your time.” Science in the News, 1 May 2018, . Accessed 14 December 2023.

Rudman, Robbins Geller, and Dowd Llp. : SOCIAL MEDIA ADOLESCENT ADDITION/PERSONAL INJURY PRODUCTS LIABILITY LITIGATION. 2023,

Rupp, Erin. “The Infinite Scroll: Why It's So Addictive and How to Break Free.” Freedom, 28 February 2022, /. Accessed 2 December 2023.

“Social Media and Teens.” AACAP, Accessed 1 December 2023.

“Social Media and Youth Mental Health: The US Surgeon General's Advisory.” HHS.gov. Accessed 3 December 2023.

St. George, Donna. “Schools sue social media companies over youth mental health crisis.” The Washington Post, 19 March 2023. Accessed 3 December 2023.

Weir, Kirsten. “Social media brings benefits and risks to teens. Here's how psychology can help identify a path forward.” American Psychological Association, 1 September 2023. Accessed 1 December 2023.