Social Media Creates the Wild West for Kids' Thinking
- Jun 1
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 8
I forget the offense, but my daughter had to face a reprimand. Being too old for time-out, I took away her phone for a day. You would have thought I took away her oxygen. It was then that the full power of social media was thrown into the light of day, and I knew I had better get to know this new power that had its hold over my daughter.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
What I found was an almost anything goes environment of YouTube videos, TikTok reels, Instagram sharing, and more. Some good, some not-so-good. It seems to be the Wild West revisited in that there is minimal regulation and an anything goes mindset in what comes next. And just like the new frontier, there are dangers lurking amid the promise of treasure.
I did find the treasure my daughter found. Through various apps, young people use their social media to stay up-to-date with what is going on in the lives of their family and friends. There is a plethora of videos that assist kids in learning the new concepts they are introduced to in school or that align with their interests. They can then find others that share that interest and build a relationship through this shared pursuit. There are also means to find stress reducers through those cute little reels that make them laugh. Finally, there are avenues they can use to stay aware of news and raise awareness of various issues that affect society.
But I was unprepared for what I learned next A longitudinal study of US adolescents from the ages of 12-15 found that those who spent more than 3 hours a day on social media made themselves vulnerable to a more than double risk of developing poor mental health symptoms that included depression and anxiety, some caused through cyberbullying. Another study from 2021 found that kids now average about 3.5 hours a day on social media. That sounded alarm bells.
What’s more, I learned that the positive ability to stay updated on news and social issues had been turned into a negative through the subtle use of algorithms that tailor content to the students’ beliefs and preferences. Without even knowing it, consumers of information are fed only the facts that support what they already think to be true, creating an “echo chamber.” These algorithms go beyond influencing what we understand, but help mold our skills to make decisions and judgments. Social media affects our ability to think in other ways, including eroding our abilities to think deeply by creating a reliance on instant gratification and the inability to be bored, and creating cognitive overload through “doom scrolling.”
So it seems one of the biggest dangers of social media is its ability to negatively affect people’s critical thinking skills. Let’s take a closer look at how that is accomplished.
Have you ever wondered how those coupons you get at the checkout somehow magically reflect the products you like, even if you didn’t purchase them on that shopping trip? Or how you tend to see ads in your games that interest you, and articles when you scroll that totally agree with your thoughts? Social media platforms succeed through engagement, and so algorithms are specifically designed to feed you with what you have previously engaged. When reading news items, opposing viewpoints may be automatically eliminated. The selective and biased viewing creates an “echo chamber.” This causes our curiosity and analytical skills to diminish as complex topics are presented in simplistic ways without opposing thought. Since what we see always matches what we think, we tend to think we must always be right. This makes it harder to remain open-minded and curious.
Social media is designed to create instant gratification which creates a cycle of desire and reward. This in turn gives the brain’s center for reward a wake-up call and is what makes it harder for us to keep off the social media feed. Brain pathways can be modified through the reward of likes and comments, and this can lead to addictive behavior. Beyond that, our brain is being trained to think in short snippets of information to gain rewards. This creates an environment that is untenable for sustained thinking, something required for deep analytical thought.
The instant gratification mindset created with social media also develops an inability to accept boredom. Boredom, while usually thought of as a negative state of mind, creates a space for creativity and reflective thinking to occur. Without this “downtime,” the ability to come up with unique ideas and integrate new thoughts is greatly suppressed.
We see that social media, by design, keeps us coming back for more. Much of what we view can be considered low-quality content, and often highlights more negative or distressing news. (After all, when was the last time the evening news lead off with a feel-good story?) Viewers are enticed to keep checking in to see what else has developed, and this has been referred to as “doom scrolling.” The heightened level of alertness creates stimulation to the brain that hinders its ability to process information effectively. In addition, “doom scrolling” results in shorter attention spans and emotional exhaustion.
Related to “doom scrolling,” is the idea of “scroll culture.” Social media has been designed to be addictive, and this creates an environment where the intake of content is fast, fragmented, and fashioned by the algorithms that seek engagement over factual accuracy. This breeds thinking processes that are encouraged to be reflective in a superficial and quick manner.
There's a New Sheriff in Town
So, I found a major danger of social media is its tendency to create an atmosphere that is dumbing down the ability to think critically for its users. The subtle use of algorithms running in the background, and the way content is created to be addictive for our young makes it a hard thing to tame. Fortunately, there is a new sheriff in town, and he is fighting this onslaught on the thinking abilities of our young through media literacy. In the next blog, I will discuss its use and promise.
Image created by Julie Seymour using AI Image Creator on Wix 06/01/2026
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