For U.S. teens who use TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, one of the apps stands out as more of a distraction than the others, according to a new survey from Pew Research Center.
More than a quarter of teens shared that they spend too much time on TikTok, while more than a third said the app negatively affects their sleep. Twenty-nine percent of respondents said TikTok hurts their productivity. Smaller shares of teens reported similar feelings about Instagram and Snapchat.
Still, eight in 10 teens said they turned to TikTok specifically for entertainment. While respondents also considered Instagram and Snapchat reliably entertaining, teens were more likely to use those apps to keep up with friends and family, compared to TikTok.
Despite acknowledging TikTok’s negative impact on their sleep and productivity, 71 percent of teens said the app neither hurt or helped their mental health. Three-quarters of teens said the same of Instagram and Snapchat. Nineteen percent of respondents shared that TikTok actually improved their mental health.
In general, about seven in 10 teens said their experiences on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat are mostly positive. Only three percent reported largely negative experiences. The remaining teens characterize their engagement on the platforms as a mix of both good and bad.
The findings are based on Pew Research Center’s survey of 1,458 U.S. teens and their parents last fall.
Critics have argued that social media companies are facing a “Big Tobacco moment” following a landmark court case against Meta and YouTube, which alleged that both platforms were negligently designed in ways that harmed a young user’s mental health. TikTok and Snapchat settled with the plaintiff prior to the jury trial. A separate trial against Meta found the company liable for misleading consumers about child safety.
The Pew Research Center survey, which was conducted well before the trials ended, suggests that teens may feel less negative about TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat than expected.
Regardless, a quarter of parents surveyed by Pew Research Center said that social media hurt their teen’s mental health while only eight percent of the teens said the same. Parents were also more likely to say their teen spent too much time on social media.
When it came to TikTok, only 28 percent of teens characterized their use in this way, but that figure increased to 44 percent when parents answered the same question.
