Facebook drops to 4th among teens

Depending on gender and race, teens prefer YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat. They are largely neutral about their constant use of social media, according to a new Pew Research Center report.

Facebook has given way to YouTube among teens using social media…and they all do, according to a new Pew Research Center report, and constantly.

While still half of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, 85% use YouTube, 72% use Instagram, and 69% use Snapchat, with the latter being their most favorite.

In addition, just shy of half of all teens – 45% – now report they are online on a near-constant basis. Some teens say the effect of their use of social media is mostly positive (31%) or mostly negative (24%), but the largest share (45%) says the effect is neither positive nor negative. (Read the full report for greater detail and representative comments.)

Notably, Pew claims, “lower-income teens are more likely to gravitate toward Facebook than those from higher-income households – a trend consistent with previous Center surveys,” nearly twice those of wealthier families.

Gender is also an issue. Girls are more likely than boys to say Snapchat is the site they use most often (42% vs. 29%), while boys are more inclined than girls to identify YouTube as their go-to platform (39% vs. 25%).

Additionally, white teens (41%) are more likely than Hispanic (29%) or black (23%) teens to say Snapchat is the online platform they use most often, while black teens are more likely than whites to identify Facebook as their most used site (26% vs. 7%).

Photo for the Pew Research Center by Drew Angerer, Getty Images News

Pediatricians call for annual depression screening for all teens

Half of America’s depressed teens are reaching adulthood without being diagnosed. The American Association of Pediatrics has released new guidelines urging annual depression evaluations for ALL teens.

Only half of depressed youth are diagnosed before they reach adulthood, making the problem and treatment that much harder. In response, in February, the American Academy of Pediatrics call for annual, universal depression screening for all youth over the ages of 12, NPR (National Public Radio) reported.

The screening, Dr. Rachel Zuckerbrot told NPR, could be done during a well-patient visit, a sports’ physical or during another office visit. It could also be a questionnaire.

“Teenagers are often more honest when they’re not looking somebody in the face who’s asking questions,” she said. Zuckerbrot helped write the new guidelines.

The suggested questionnaires contain a range of questions. For instance, ‘Over the past two weeks, how often have you been bothered by any of the following problems: feeling down, depressed or hopeless? Or, little interest or pleasure in doing things?’

The new recommendations also call for families with a depressed teen to restrict the young person’s access to lethal means of harm.

5-year study of half-million teens links cell phone use with depression

Overuse of cellphones may lead to loneliness and thoughts of suicide among teens

Caseloads at 93 university counseling centers jumped a remarkable 30% between 2009-2010 from the previous five years, with high schools reporting major increases as well. Two studies of more than a half million adolescents ages 12-18 find a major increase in depression and thoughts of suicide.

The change happens to match the rapid availability and use of cell phones and other screen time, notes a recent research paper published in Clinical Psychological Science.

The study points a finger at the growing popularity of social media.

NPR (National Public Radio) interviewed Jean Twenge, one of the adolescent study’s authors. Her research, NPR reported, “found that teens who spend five or more hours per day on their devices are 71 percent more likely to have one risk factor for suicide. And that’s regardless of the content consumed. Whether teens are watching cat videos or looking at something more serious, the amount of screen time — not the specific content — goes hand in hand with the higher instances of depression.”

“At two hours a day there was only a slightly elevated risk,” Twenge said in a second NPR story. “And then three hours a day and beyond is where you saw the more pronounced increase in those who had at least one suicide risk factor.”

Adolescents in the 2010s spent more time on electronic communication and less time on in-person interaction than any previous generation. The paper notes that humans, as a species, traditionally required close, mostly continuous face-to-face contact with others. Lack of such could lead to both loneliness and thoughts of suicide.

Reduced screen time is a key focus of HBHM’s 5-2-1-0 initiative.

5 tips for talking with your teen about mental health

One of five teens experiences a mental health or substance use challenge EVERY YEAR. You need to keep the lines of communication open if you’re going to be able to help.

Talking to your teen about his or her mental health or substance abuse may be even harder than opening a conversation about sex. But it’s essential you have such conversations, and on a regular basis, states Mental Health First Aid USA.

“The reality is that more than 22 percent of people between the ages of 13-18 will experience a mental health or substance use challenge every year,” writes Danielle Poole.

Poole’s five tips are straightforward, if not challenging:

  1. Be genuine. Teens can see right through an adult who is “faking it.”
  2. Be careful about using slang. Stick with language you’re comfortable using.
  3. Allow for silence.
  4. Switch up the setting. Where you have a conversation about mental health or substance use could make you or the teen you’re talking to more comfortable.
  5. Don’t trivialize their feelings.