Can Limits on Social Media Use Really Help Kids’ Mental Health?

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[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Wednesday, October 16th. I'm Zoe Thomas for The Wall Street Journal.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_02]: The best health tracker is one you don't take off. We'll tell you about the high-tech jewelry celebrities, tech leaders, and our personal tech columnist turned to to track sleep and fitness.

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_02]: And then, American kids and teens love social media, but parents and lawmakers are concerned that it could be harmful to young people's mental health. Some are calling for limits.

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Scientists, though, say it's hard to tell whether these proposed restrictions can really help youth mental health. We'll tell you about the research.

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_02]: But first, the Oura Ring, like other smart rings, is full of sensors that can measure your skin temperature, heart rate, and sleep.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_02]: They can be found on the hands of soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and actor Tom Holland, to name a few.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Our personal tech columnist, Nicole Nguyen, has been sporting an Oura Ring for the past two years and has been trying out new smart ring models.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_02]: She's here to tell us about them.

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Nicole, these smart rings cost $300 to $400 roughly. That's about as much as a smart watch.

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Why are people paying that much for a ring that doesn't have as many features or a screen?

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_03]: It definitely sounds counterintuitive. This thing is just as expensive as a smart watch and in many ways can do less.

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_03]: It can't record a GPS workout, for example.

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_03]: But a lot of people prefer smart rings because they're less obtrusive, which means they're less likely to take them off.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_03]: And if they're less likely to take them off, that means that sensor can actually capture a lot more data.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_03]: And you can look at long-term trends, which is how you should be looking at a lot of this health data anyway.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Most of these smart rings have apps to present the data they collect.

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_02]: How does Oura's data presentation compare to other smart rings?

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_03]: So some of the other competitors in the space includes Samsung's new Galaxy Ring.

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_03]: A company called UltraHuman has a ring called Ring Air, which is also popular.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_03]: There's also a female-focused ring called Eevee.

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_03]: And Oura definitely has the best app of all of these options, and that's probably because they got a head start.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_03]: They were one of the first smart ring brands, and they're definitely the most popular and recognizable brands.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Their app is really nice because they give you lots of data, lots of numbers to look at, but they also tell you how to interpret them and also what to do about them.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_03]: So, for example, after one particularly sleepless night, I got a little notification that said, looks like something bothered your sleep last night.

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_03]: If you're feeling tired, then take a walk before you start your day.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_03]: But it's not just those little nudges.

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_03]: There's also a feature called symptom radar that can look at your vitals and tell you if those vitals indicate that you could be getting sick.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_03]: And actually, the last time I got the flu, it told me a couple days before I started feeling symptoms.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_02]: What benefits do these smart rings have specifically for women?

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Aura has a skin temperature tracker on it, and there is a specific window of time for people who menstruate where you are more fertile.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_03]: And that is indicated by a slight raise in body temperature.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_03]: And so a lot of women were attracted to this hardware because it was so easy to track their cycles this way,

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_03]: to identify their fertile window and also help predict when their period is going to be.

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Nicole, what's the battery life like on these?

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_03]: The battery life is probably the main reason why people get smart rings.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_03]: It's multi-day.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_03]: So this new Aura Ring 4 that just came out can last up to eight days.

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_03]: The Galaxy Ring can last up to seven days.

[00:04:09] [SPEAKER_03]: Meanwhile, most smart watches need to be charged daily unless you have a Garmin.

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_03]: That can last several days.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_03]: But even that, you need to charge every three or four days.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_02]: You mentioned there are several kinds of smart rings out, but that you're a fan of the Aura.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_02]: What is it about this ring that makes you a fan over all the other options?

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_03]: Because Aura is the incumbent, they've just had a lot more time to polish their app, to add more features.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_03]: But the downside is that it has a $6 monthly membership.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_03]: There are other rings that are available.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, Ultra Human, the Galaxy Ring, Eevee don't require a subscription.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_03]: These rings are HSA, Health Savings Account, and Flexible Savings Account eligible for reimbursement, as well as Aura's monthly membership.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_03]: In my opinion, if you are paying a subscription, you are more likely to open the app and actually do something about your data.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_02]: All right, that was our personal tech columnist, Nicole Nguyen.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Coming up, more American children report being depressed and anxious.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Can reducing social media use really make a difference?

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_02]: More on that after the break.

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[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_02]: There is a growing concern that social media is harmful to kids' mental health.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Almost all indicators of poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors got worse from 2013 to 2023,

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_02]: according to a Center for Disease Control and Prevention survey of more than 20,000 high school students.

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_02]: More than half of teenage girls reported feeling sad or hopeless in 2023,

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_02]: and nearly a third reported seriously considering suicide.

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Lawmakers and parents are calling for limits on social media to help combat this.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_02]: The problem is, no one really knows how significant of a role social media plays in youth's emotional state,

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_02]: which makes it hard to tell if limiting exposure to these platforms will make things better.

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Our reporter Nidhi Subaraman joins us now to talk about this.

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_02]: So what evidence is out there to support the link between the rise in reports of poor mental health and social media?

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_04]: This is a great question and one that lots of scientists who are very smart have been trying to tackle.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_04]: It's a complicated one to answer because social media encompasses many things.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_04]: It could be like a DM that you send to a friend,

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_04]: or it might be watching multiple reels on Instagram for a long period of time.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_04]: So a couple of groups, because parents and lawmakers, etc.,

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_04]: are concerned about what social media is doing to kids have looked at the abundance of studies

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_04]: that have tried to examine this question and have found, much to their frustration,

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_04]: that the evidence is pointing a little bit in different ways and is a little bit weak.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_04]: Some studies find a weak link between depression and the use of social media.

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_04]: So one of them was a CDC analysis of the survey that they did with high school kids

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_04]: and found that high school kids who frequently use social media

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_04]: were more likely to report feeling persistently sad or hopeless last year.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_04]: But that's just what they call an association,

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_04]: which means that they don't know whether it was the social media use that was to blame

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_04]: for the feeling that the high school kids reported in the survey.

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_04]: So teasing apart all of the factors has been a challenge,

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_04]: and the evidence is mixed, is what major reports have said.

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Nidhi, one element I find really fascinating about this

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_02]: is the idea of the relationship between mental health and tech

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_02]: being kind of this two-way street.

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Can you tell us a little bit more about how that works

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_02]: and how it impacts research into the effects of social media?

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_04]: Yes.

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_04]: One of the things that makes unpacking this question tricky

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_04]: is that mental health is kind of a complicated thing to treat.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_04]: Each person experiences a different way,

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_04]: and the thing that sparks symptoms might be different for different people.

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_04]: And some studies, when you bring in the use of social media,

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_04]: have suggested that perhaps people who are more prone to certain behaviors

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_04]: or certain conditions like depression might be using the app more,

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_04]: which in turn would influence what effect they got from it.

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_02]: How have the approaches to sharing data from social media companies

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_02]: affected researchers' ability to look into this kind of thing?

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_04]: The way that scientists would ideally approach

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_04]: looking at the effect of one thing over another is to observe it.

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_04]: They like observational studies over surveys,

[00:09:26] [SPEAKER_04]: but there's no great way to really observe this

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_04]: when individual people are looking at individualized feeds

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_04]: and one person's use may be different from another person's use.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_04]: And the access they have to the data that the companies have

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_04]: has been a point of frustration.

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_04]: Companies have been encouraged to share more

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_04]: or give researchers more access to data

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_04]: about the way people are using their platforms

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_04]: so that academics can independently assess

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_04]: to the extent they can from the outside

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_04]: some of the effects that these are having.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_04]: We know, as our colleagues have reported,

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_04]: that some companies, Meta in particular,

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_04]: does research internally, which it hadn't shared

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_04]: that was examining some of these questions.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_04]: And the push has been for outside researchers

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_04]: who have the independence to talk about the results

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_04]: to be able to get some level of access to data as well.

[00:10:24] [SPEAKER_02]: I'll just note that a spokeswoman for Meta

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_02]: said the company has new data tools

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_02]: and a pilot program started this year

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_02]: with the Center for Open Science,

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_02]: a research nonprofit,

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_02]: will share Instagram data with academic researchers.

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Representatives for YouTube, TikTok, Snap, and X

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_02]: also said they had tools or programs for researchers.

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_02]: So Nidhi, according to scientists you spoke to then,

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_02]: does the research that's out there now

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_02]: support putting restrictions on social media

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_02]: to improve mental health?

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_04]: Researchers and health officials

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_04]: don't mean for you to look away from the issue.

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_04]: Just because this is a hard question to answer

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_04]: and in some ways an impossible one

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_04]: to prove harm and cause across a huge population

[00:11:07] [SPEAKER_04]: doesn't mean there aren't things to do today.

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_04]: That doesn't mean that you can't tackle

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_04]: some questions at home and perhaps fund

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_04]: and do more research that gets at this

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_04]: with some clarity.

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_04]: One of the pediatricians I spoke with

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER_04]: is part of the American Academy of Pediatrics,

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_04]: which has a whole checklist of things

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_04]: that parents can do to decrease the risk

[00:11:27] [SPEAKER_04]: that their kids find on the platforms,

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_04]: including talking about the kinds of content

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_04]: that they're sharing

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_04]: or having times during the day

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_04]: when you don't have phones or screens

[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_04]: or apps available

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_04]: or setting habits,

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_04]: being an example to your kids.

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_02]: That was our reporter Nidhi Suburaman.

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_02]: And that's it for Tech News Briefing.

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Today's show was produced by Julie Chang

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_02]: with supervising producer Catherine Millsop.

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Zoe Thomas for The Wall Street Journal.

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_02]: We'll be back this afternoon with TNB Tech Minute.

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for listening.