Mental health
fromPsychology Today
18 hours agoTeen Romance and Breakups in the Digital Age
Teenage romantic breakups are significantly impacted by social media, texting, and AI, leading to new challenges and consequences.
Finder Guy is an adorably chunky, dual-toned blue creature with a rounded head and a perpetual smile. Apple is being fairly tight-lipped about him; he hasn't been officially announced or acknowledged by the company.
Anna Holmes defines 'hype aversion' as a reflex against being told what to like, suggesting that popularity can create pressure rather than signal quality. This feeling can lead to a deliberate choice to resist mainstream culture.
Leonid Radvinsky's death leaves a void in the leadership of OnlyFans, a platform that has transformed the adult content landscape. His secretive management style and the controversies surrounding the site have raised questions about its future direction and stability.
Heavy social media use partly explains a worrying decline in the wellbeing of young people in the West, the latest edition of the annual World Happiness Report said on Wednesday. In total, 15 Western countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, saw significant declines in youth wellbeing over the past two decades, according to the report.
The instinct to pour scorn on attention seekers may be masking a deeper public-health problem: chronic concealment. For much of my career as an academic I made a living scolding people about privacy. I lectured on digital hygiene, warned audiences about the ways social media amplifies folly, and played the role of the wary scientist: don't put your passwords in a document, don't take quizzes that leak your intimate preferences, don't broadcast things you can't take back.
For today's young people, online content isn't a backdrop to daily life-it is daily life. Streaming platforms, short-form video, and social media don't just entertain; they influence how young people see themselves, their health, and what behaviors are seen as normal or aspirational. Movies, television, and streaming content still have influence, but as the digital ecosystem expands, so does its power to shape choices-for better and for worse.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die: Gore Verbinski's mad, mad, mad epic is angry, angry, angry. And with good reason. The apocalyptic dramedy shoots its poison-tipped arrows at two of the most deserving targets in America right now: our addiction to social media and our willingness to let AI assume command of our lives. Both trends get eviscerated, trashed and stomped on (this is by no means a subtle film) in cathartic ways.
This grief feels similar to what they would experience if their family member died, but in some cases, it feels even worse. Family estrangement has reached epidemic proportions. A 2022 survey found 29 percent of Americans are currently cut off from a parent, child, sibling, or grandparent, and a 2025 survey found 38 percent have experienced estrangement from a close family member at some point. These aren't just statistics. They're the tragic consequences of families ripped apart.
Screen time spent gaming or on social media does not cause mental health problems in teenagers, according to a large-scale study. With ministers in the UK considering whether to follow Australia's example by banning social media use for under-16s, the findings challenge concerns that long periods spent gaming or scrolling TikTok or Instagram s driving an increase in teenagers' depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.