{"id":161389,"date":"2026-08-21T13:12:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T20:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161389"},"modified":"2026-08-21T13:14:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T20:14:31","slug":"gee-top-authorities-just-cant-figure-out-why-american-teenagers-got-more-depressed-during-the-2010s-it-must-be-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161389","title":{"rendered":"Gee. Top authorities just can\u2019t figure out why American teenagers got more depressed during the 2010s. \u201cIt must be social media!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| August 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<h6><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-21-131054.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-161391 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-21-131054-300x147.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"147\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-21-131054-300x147.png 300w, https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-21-131054.png 596w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/h6>\n<p>Source: Centers for Disease Control, <a href=\"https:\/\/wonder.cdc.gov\/mcd.html\">Mortality data<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/wisqars.cdc.gov\/reports\/?o=NFI&amp;y1=2023&amp;y2=2023&amp;d=0&amp;i=0&amp;m=3000&amp;g=00&amp;me=&amp;s=0&amp;r=0&amp;ry=2&amp;e=0&amp;a=ALL&amp;g1=0&amp;g2=199&amp;a1=0&amp;a2=199&amp;r1=INTENT&amp;r2=NONE&amp;r3=NONE&amp;r4=NONE&amp;adv=true\">Fatal and Nonfatal injury reports<\/a> .<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amid skyrocketing deaths and hospitalizations for suicidal and drug abuse causes (which measure only a fraction of the adult addiction crisis) among grownups of age to be parents, parents\u2019 partners, relatives, teachers, coaches, etc., around teenagers, the Centers for Disease Control\u2019s latest biannual <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/yrbs\/results\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Youth Risk Behavior Survey<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> finds:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nearly one-third of teens ages 13-18 reported having lived with parents and household adults who abused drugs and\/or alcohol;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One-third had lived with parents\/adults with \u201csevere\u201d mental health problems;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over 60% had suffered grownups in their homes who were violent, psychologically abusive, and\/or had been jailed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CDC statisticians analyzed the data from its 20,000 teen respondents and \u2013 in an obscure <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/73\/su\/su7304a5.htm?s_cid=su7304a5_w\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 associated parental\/adults\u2019 abuses, violence, addiction, and mental problems at home with two-thirds of teenagers\u2019 poor mental health, five-sixth of teens\u2019 opiate abuse, and nearly 90% of teens\u2019 suicide attempts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Authorities couldn\u2019t care less.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the late 2010s, the CDC and authorities loudly proclaimed a \u201cteenage mental health crisis\u201d (as they do in practically every generation). The top-level stampede among political leaders, academics, and advocates, to fawning media coverage, blamed teenagers themselves using social media and smartphones for their increasing mental distress.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the CDC had analyzed that issue, too. Their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/73\/su\/su7304a3.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found that even treating social media as the only factor in young lives, \u201cfrequent social media use\u201d was associated with fewer than 10% of teens\u2019 mental health issues and none of teens\u2019 suicide attempts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Again, authorities couldn\u2019t care less what our own leading health agency found. They were so obsessed with blaming social media they simply dismissed widespread <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mikemales.substack.com\/p\/parents-abuses-and-adversities-loom\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">abuses and serious family adversities<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> victimizing children and teenagers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ban teenagers from social media! Take away their smartphones! That will fix the \u201cteenage mental health crisis,\u201d the major consensus declares.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The official obsession is getting worse.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further analysis of the CDC survey, like the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mikemales.substack.com\/p\/hundreds-of-splashy-studies-claiming\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">few studies to examine abuse issues<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, found that severely abused teenagers use social media an average of 2 hours a day more than non-abused teens. Why? As <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/internet\/2025\/12\/09\/teens-social-media-and-ai-chatbots-2025\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pew Research\u2019s 2022 and 2025 surveys<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found, large majorities of teens use social media to keep up with friends, express themselves, feel more accepted, and connect with \u201cpeople who can help them get through tough times.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since abused teens also report more vastly mental health issues and other risky behaviors \u2013 hardly surprising \u2013 false correlation has led superficial and ill-motivated authorities simply to blame their social media use.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lately, an even <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mikemales.substack.com\/p\/social-media-trials-are-the-flashing\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">darker turn has emerged<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. New Mexico Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez posted pictures of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">real children<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nmdoj.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2023-12-05-NM-v.-Meta-et-al.-COMPLAINT-REDACTED.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201csting\u201d operation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that drew \u201cinappropriate\u201d solicitations from \u201cnumerous\u201d pedophiles seeking 13-year-olds. So, did the state\u2019s chief law enforcement officer vigorously pursue identifying, referring, and prosecuting these \u201cnumerous\u201d real-life predators menacing children?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He did not. He destroyed evidence of real-life pedophiles endangering children.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead, Torrez filed a splashy, headline-grabbing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nmdoj.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2023-12-05-NM-v.-Meta-et-al.-COMPLAINT-REDACTED.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">civil suit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> against social-media giants Meta and Instagram alleging they \u201caddicted\u201d teens to online platforms where predators might lurk. State court jurors awarded his office $375 million. Political and interest groups led by ban-teens-from-social-media crusaders cheered lustily.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Los Angeles \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EHcheZ58uZY\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">social media addiction<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d civil lawsuit last year against Meta was even more appalling. A <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mikemales.substack.com\/p\/abusive-parents-who-damaged-their\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mother<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> whose years of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mikemales.substack.com\/p\/two-radically-different-first-hand\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">violent, psychological, body-shaming abuses<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and abandonments had destroyed her daughters (one attempted suicide, the other testified to years of trauma) miraculously resurfaced when the opportunity to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mikemales.substack.com\/p\/meta-social-media-trial-awards-severely\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sue social media<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> arose. The court, confined only to apportioning blame to the named plaintiffs, awarded her and one surviving daughter $6 million as if she were a \u201cvictim.\u201d She also won accolades from politicians and interests, led by ban-teens-from-social-media crusaders.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That Big Tech deserves monetary punishments, along with legislation to break up their monopolies, censorious tactics, and commercial profiteering. Instead, lawmakers, in the name of \u201cprotecting children!\u201d, are handing eager <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mikemales.substack.com\/p\/an-ugly-gang-of-big-tech-ban-teens\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Big Tech giants<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Meta, X, Anthropic, Google, etc., vastly more biometric, credit card, identification, and related intimate personal data on users (child, teen, and adult alike) in phony \u201cage verification\u201d schemes. Research from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/393\/bmj-2026-363695?utm_source=etoc&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=tbmj&amp;utm_content=weekly&amp;utm_term=20260710&amp;nbd_source=adestra&amp;nbd=795635dfab570bcd528bb8dd72b5d8bac5904b08695db6afae7b44c708e0e63b&amp;uaa_id=795635dfab570bcd528bb8dd72b5d8bac5904b08695db6afae7b44c708e0e63b&amp;utm_campaign=This%20week%20in%20The%20BMJ&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=adestra\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Australia<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gse.harvard.edu\/ideas\/edcast\/25\/09\/banning-cellphones-quick-fix-or-false-hope\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">smartphone bans<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is already proving such schemes unworkable, but no matter \u2013 authorities keep pushing them across the globe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These ominous trends expose a cabal of established interests who no longer care about widespread <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mikemales.substack.com\/p\/our-top-health-agencys-surveys-found\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">abuses and adversities<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> victimizing children and teenagers. Instead, banning teens from social media under the phony war cry of \u201cprotecting children!\u201d is really aimed at suppressing young people\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mikemales.substack.com\/p\/authorities-are-recasting-young-peoples\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">inconvenient political opinions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on climate change, Israel, democracy, and economic justice, the overriding goal of increasingly authoritarian governments allied with Big Tech oligarchs.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mike Males, Principal Investigator, YouthFacts.org| August 2026 Source: Centers for Disease Control, Mortality data; Fatal and Nonfatal injury reports . Amid skyrocketing deaths and hospitalizations for suicidal and drug abuse causes (which measure only a fraction of the adult addiction crisis) among grownups of age to be parents, parents\u2019 partners, relatives, teachers, coaches, etc., around<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161389\" class=\"themebutton2\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161389"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161393,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161389\/revisions\/161393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}