Is social media driving teen mental health issues? | The Vergecast
What this video is
⚡ a 45-minute video, readable in 60 secondsThis is a conversation between an unnamed host and guest Peter Gray, a Boston College psychology research professor and author of the new book Restoring Childhood, about what drove the rise in US teen anxiety, depression, and suicide that began around 2010. The center of gravity is Gray's disagreement with Jonathan Haidt's 2024 bestseller The Anxious Generation, which blames smartphones and social media; Gray instead argues the primary driver was the spread of Common Core education standards and the testing-and-accountability pressure they placed on schools, teachers, and students. The host raises the question of whether the crisis can be pinned on any single cause, and Gray also draws parallels to past moral panics over video games, comic books, and unsupervised outdoor play. The discussion extends into policy implications, including school phone bans, social media age limits, and a 2026 Meta settlement over kids' online safety.
The host and guest Peter Gray, a Boston College psychology research professor and author of the new book Restoring Childhood, discuss competing explanations for the rise in US teen anxiety, depression, and suicide that began around 2010, centered on Gray's disagreement with Jonathan Haidt's 2024 bestseller The Anxious Generation.
Key takeaways
- [03:17] Gray states that US teen suicide rates for ages 15 to 19 increased roughly four-fold between 1950 and 1990.
- Gray says that by some estimates, rates of what would today be called major depressive disorder or clinically significant anxiety disorder increased five to ten-fold among teenagers between 1950 and 1990.
- Gray attributes that 1950-1990 rise to 11 or 12 societal changes that restricted children's freedom to play and explore independently of adults, which he argues is critical for developing an internal locus of control.
- Gray says that between 1990 and about 2012, rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide among teenagers declined, with suicide rates falling back about 40 percent of the way toward 1950s levels.
+ 56 more takeaways
- Gray attributes that 1990-2012 improvement to the home computer revolution, noting most US families with a teenager had a home computer by the early 1990s and most also had internet access by the mid-to-late 1990s.
- Gray says teenagers who became household computer gurus gained new status and a way to socialize and play online away from parental oversight.
- Gray cites 1990s studies reportedly showing that teenagers with home computer access did better psychologically than those without, controlling for socioeconomic class.
- Gray ruled out SSRIs like Prozac as an explanation for the 1990s improvement, citing insufficient prescription rates, weak effectiveness evidence, and noting SSRIs' immediate effect can slightly increase suicide risk.
- Gray explains that the federal No Child Left Behind law aimed to make schools more accountable but did not have real teeth until about 2010, prompting states to develop the Common Core system between roughly 2000 and 2010.
- Gray says the most significant part of Common Core, in his opinion, was that teachers, principals, and whole schools began being evaluated based on student test scores, which shifted teaching toward teaching to the test and increased teacher anxiety.
- Gray rejects Haidt's theory that social media and smartphones caused the post-2010 rise in teen suicide rates, pointing instead to Common Core and a stricter school mentality.
- Gray says he may have previously called Haidt's book "unethical" but now prefers to call it "at minimum a huge mistake," adding that most researchers who have studied social media and youth anxiety have largely rejected the book's theory.
- Gray argues Haidt's book sold well partly because its smartphone and social media theory confirmed a prejudice that was already prevalent before the book was published.
- Gray says the book cites hundreds of studies but very few are serious tests of the hypothesis, and it ignores dozens of meta-analyses and review articles.
- Gray states that well-done larger studies and meta-analyses show no meaningful correlation, let alone a cause-effect relationship, between time on social media or smartphones and youth mental health.
- [19:01] Gray says he examined the European Union as a whole and found teen suicide rates there were going down slightly during the same period, starting in 2010, that US rates spiked, despite EU kids being on the same platforms.
- An on-screen table, sourced to Gray, shows US suicide deaths per 100,000 for ages 15-19 rising from 11.7 males and 3.1 females in 2010 to 16.1 males and 5.3 females in 2021.
- Gray cites researchers who looked worldwide across nations and found no relationship between smartphone or social media rollout and mental health indices.
- Gray argues that where a small correlation exists, longitudinal data suggests causation runs the opposite direction: anxious or depressed kids are more likely to turn to social media, sometimes to find support.
- The host says she wondered, after reading both The Anxious Generation and Gray's Restoring Childhood, whether it is possible to pin the youth mental health crisis on one single cause like social media or Common Core.
- [21:59] Gray responds that it would be a mistake to pin all anxiety, depression, and suicide on one cause, calling that idea "crazy."
- [22:13] Gray argues the sudden increase in these rates could still be traced to one specific change, even if not every individual case was caused by it.
- [22:37] Gray states he has not found any other factor that changed at that time which could account for a significant portion of the increase.
- [23:09] Gray claims school has always been the primary source of anxiety and depression among school-age kids across the population, based on every study he found asking kids to name their top stressor.
- [24:11] Citing Kim et al. 2003, Gray notes that even before Common Core, rates of anxiety, depression, mental health admissions, and suicides among school-age kids dropped every summer and rose again when school opened.
- [24:34] The APA's Stress in America survey included teens ages 13 to 17 in both 2009 and 2013.
- [24:34] In 2013, teens ranked as the most stressed-out group in America according to that survey.
- [24:34] The survey found 83 percent of teens cited school as a significant stress source in 2013, versus 43 percent in 2009.
- [24:34] Gray says because 2009 predated Common Core adoption while 2013 followed most states adopting it, this suggests Common Core roughly doubled that percentage.
- [25:13] Gray says anxiety, depression, and suicide rates peaked in 2018 and have declined somewhat since.
- [25:13] Gray attributes that decline primarily to Common Core "having burned itself out."
- The discussion notes that Haidt's own book cites a large academic record finding minimal or mixed effects of social media on teen mental health, yet the belief that it causes harm persists.
- Gray says individual case reports can be used to prove any theory, but statistical data across millions of kids shows effects wash out, with some kids doing better and some worse.
- Gray describes a moral panic in the early 1980s about kids going outdoors without parental accompaniment, triggered by a couple of cases of children being abducted and murdered.
- [30:33] Gray says that 1980s panic still affects people today, preventing children from playing outdoors without adult accompaniment even though such abductions are extremely rare.
- Gray argues that when parents hear from Haidt and their neighbors that social media is bad, they look for every possible reason it might be harming their child, sometimes perceiving harm that may not be real.
- [32:05] Gray says adults are largely in the dark about what kids are actually doing on their smartphones, so they imagine the worst, and a book like Haidt's reinforces that fear.
- [32:25] Gray says it would be great to have a system preventing young kids from accessing pornography.
- [32:25] Gray notes that algorithms lead kids to scroll and waste more time than they want.
- [33:16] Gray says Haidt praises kids going outdoors and opposes their being online, but argues Haidt misses that there is increasingly no separation between going outdoors and being online.
- [34:50] The video notes that the recording took place on the day Meta settled a major lawsuit with state attorneys general over kids' online safety, per a Verge article by Lauren Feiner dated August 26, 2026, shown on screen.
- [34:50] The settlement included a $17.1 billion payout.
- [34:50] The settlement included two-hour usage limits.
- [34:50] The settlement included limits on push notifications during school and nighttime hours.
- [34:50] The settlement included age verification requirements.
- [35:33] Gray cites evidence that in Australia, which has banned social media for kids, kids are on social media just as much as before the ban.
- [35:44] Gray compares this to alcohol laws, noting kids are not allowed to drink before a certain age yet there is a lot of underage drinking anyway.
- [36:47] Gray calls banning phones at school "odd," arguing it is the most powerful educational tool available.
- [37:29] Gray says some nations have workable age verification systems for pornography and thinks an effective one for pornography could be a good thing.
- [37:53] Gray reportedly told The Atlantic that age minimums for social media access would be "a violation of human rights."
- Gray argues we need to trust kids more and stop treating them as incapable, drawing on his prior book Free to Learn.
- Gray advocates empowering children by giving them knowledge to be safe, whether exploring offline or online.
- Gray describes growing up in the 1950s when 5-year-olds walked to school alone and ran errands, but were always given safety instructions first, like how to cross the street or not get in a stranger's car.
- Gray cites studies showing kids are often more sophisticated about online dangers than their parents or other adults realize, though not all kids, especially young ones.
- Gray argues adults should understand the actual dangers and teach kids how to handle them, since banning access just means kids never learn to use it safely and eventually will anyway.
- Gray contrasts his book's reception with Haidt's The Anxious Generation, noting Haidt's name comes up unprompted among people in power discussing social media regulation.
- Gray cites the 1990s-2000s video game moral panic as a precedent, noting a study found school shooters were actually less likely than their peers to play violent video games.
- [43:43] Gray cites the post-World War II horror comic book moral panic, in which comics were blamed for nightmares, anxiety, and crime, and politicians pushed to ban them despite no good scientific evidence for the harm claims.
- [44:07] Gray says the comics moral panic eventually passed and science won out in that debate.
- [44:16] Gray states it is the science, not himself personally, that will ultimately win the current debate, and says he is trying to represent that science in his book.
How this brief was shaped: Discourse (interview / podcast / video essay) · confidence High
This is a two-voice podcast interview, Verge host questioning Peter Gray about his competing theory to Jonathan Haidt's, with explicit references to the debate between prominent psychologists and quotable claims about Common Core and internet-era suicide rates. OCR shows a data table sourced to Gray supporting his argument, reinforcing an interview built around contested claims rather than a procedure or product.
The lens sets this brief's structure, never its facts — every claim is held to the same citation and fact-check standard.
Jump to a moment
0:00Intro1:0490 Seconds on The Verge2:31The Theory of Restoring Childhood5:10Societal Changes That Affect Children’s Freedom10:56Common Core’s Impact14:09Debunking The Anxious Generation21:31School Stress27:42Parents’ Lived Experience34:21Guardrails And Age Checks40:59Will Gray’s Theory Break Through?44:25Wrap Up
Their links, sorted & clickable
🔗 Other links8
Subscribe to The VergeWatch The Vergecast on YouTubeDecoder with Nilay PatelRead MoreCommunity guidelinesWallpapers from The VergeShop our Verge merch store hereIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may receive a commission without exerting any influence on editorial content. For more information about our ethics policy, visitWas this brief useful?