Imagine that a company began mass-producing a new toy. This was not a toy for little kids; instead, it appealed most to adolescents. The toy became wildly popular, first with teens and eventually with younger children as well. The toy was so engaging that some teens stayed up until 2 a.m. just to play with it. Before long, teens spent so much time using the toy that they cut back on socializing in person.
This is not a fictional story. The toy is the smartphone, and this is the story of teens’ lives beginning around 2012.
Smartphones offer many things, but among the most attractive to teens are social-media apps such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube. By 2023, U.S. teens were spending an average of nearly five hours a day using social media, according to Gallup.
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