As a child, I heard about the negativity of social media and how it could be harmful to youth my age. And, like most children when they hear warnings from adults, I didn’t listen.
I remember the exact moment when I realized for myself that social media could have adverse consequences. I was in sixth grade, and Instagram had just released new features to post on the “story” function of the app. I posted a picture of myself and asked my peers to rate how much they liked me. It seemed harmless to me at the time.
To my surprise, some of the answers weren’t great, and I got my first dose of how social media could make me feel bad about myself. My family also saw this and was worried that something negative was going on in my life. It was an adverse learning experience that could have been avoided had I been more prepared to interact safely on social media platforms.
This isn’t the worst experience I’ve had on social media, and it’s certainly not as bad as some of my peers have had it. But it’s an important anecdote about how teens like me are experiencing social media. I’ve grown up with it. It’s something that’s been a part of my entire life. Yet, our society doesn’t teach kids how to interact with these apps and how to identify when social media isn’t healthy for us.
That is why I’m grateful that House Bill 1136 is moving its way through the Colorado legislature. This bipartisan bill would give teens and parents the information and support we need to make informed decisions for ourselves — educated decisions to help us form healthier relationships and habits with social media.
First, not all social media is bad. I’ve personally benefited from interactions I’ve had with friends, used Instagram reels to decompress after a long day at school, and, in some instances, I have watched it bring my peers out of isolation through their online communities. It’s also a great way to learn about different issues in the world and understand different points of view. Most importantly, when a fellow student at my school died by gun violence last year, social media was necessary to spread the information to my peers. I don’t think social media is going anywhere, so it’s time that we give everyone the tools and resources to use it safely.
Teens are spending an alarming amount of time on social media platforms. According to the 2022 Kids Count Survey, the average 10th grader spends more than 3.5 hours per day on social media, while a quarter of all teens report spending more than 4.5 hours per day on social media. The same research shows that spending more than 3 hours on social media platforms is linked to an increased risk of depression, anxiety and emotional distress. That is why House Bill 1136 would be an effective tool to help rewrite these trends.
First, this bill would create an educational resource bank that would be available to the public. A lot of information exists about the risks and harms of social media, but it is often hard to access or hidden in scholarly journals. This resource bank would serve as a one-stop shop for teens, parents, educators and anyone to get the information they need to mitigate the negative mental health and addictive features of social media.
Second, the bill would ensure teens receive pop-up notifications in real-time when our social media use becomes problematic. Solutions like screen time can be easily ignored and turned off. The pop-up notifications required by this bill, however, would be helpful in providing a physical and mental disruption in the moment to what can be mindless scrolling. Even better, the notifications would include data and link to resources. It’s a research-backed intervention that would lead to better choices. It’s like nutritional labels on food. It provides information at the moment it’s needed to make healthier choices.
My peers often use social media to numb their mental health issues, which ultimately perpetuates the cycle of depression, anxiety or any other mental health issue that severely affects people my age. That’s why we need to intervene and stop the cycle. The personalized and evidence-based approach this bill takes is tailored to youth and would be a game-changer. Now that the bill has been passed by the House, I hope it continues to receive bipartisan support as it makes its way through the Senate and onto the governor’s desk.
Melina Collier lives in Denver and is a senior at East High School and a member of the Colorado Youth Congress.
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