Mental health care is already difficult to access from remote locations, and generations of colonization and social stigma create more barriers, particularly when the care isn’t culturally appropriate, advocates say.
About 87% of people who identify as Native American don’t live on an Indian reservation, according to the 2020 U.S. Census, and social media can help them connect with tradition, culture and other tribal communities.
But “they also might experience discrimination online. And social media companies don’t always have great, helpful policies for managing that,” said Andrea Wiglesworth, an enrolled member of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation and Shawnee Tribe who researches stress in Native populations at the University of Minnesota.
Native American identity is a complex mix of political and cultural experiences that varies from tribe to tribe and within Indigenous communities, adding a unique layer of stress onto other social pressures, Wiglesworth said.
“I won’t speak for all Native people, but from my lived experience there is this sense of shared responsibility for the well-being of our community and community members,” she added. She said Indigenous people need to think about how they carry that commitment into the digital world.
The teenage brain is wired for compulsive responses
The science is still emerging about how social media affects teenagers’ mental health. Psychologists and neuroscientists note the potential for both positive and negative side effects, and researchers have yet to draw a direct link between screen time alone and poor mental health outcomes, according to Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association.
What researchers do know is that as an adolescent’s brain develops, it builds and strengthens the connections that guide responses for a variety of human interactions while it creates more receptors for oxytocin and dopamine. This is the brain’s reward system, Prinstein said, and it manifests in adolescents a need for both positive feedback and concern about social punishments.
“In the 1980s that meant that we were suddenly talking about who’s in which clique and who sits at which lunch table and are you wearing the right clothes to get positive feedback when you go to school. In 2024, we’re now making it possible to kind of feed that with 24/7, 365 button-pressing for feedback and input from peers,” he said.
Prinstein called for new legislation in Senate testimony last year, saying federal regulators should have more power to prohibit exploitative business practices and require social media companies to protect the well-being of children on their platforms.
Regulatory efforts focus on TikTok
A nationwide investigation by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general is focusing on whether TikTok is harming the mental health of children and young adults by promoting content and boosting engagement. Meanwhile, some Republican-led states have pursued their own lawsuits.
Utah accused TikTok in October of baiting children into excessive social media use. Indiana’s lawsuit accusing TikTok of deceiving users about inappropriate content and insecure personal information was dismissed in November. Arkansas has two lawsuits pending, against TikTok and ByteDance.
And in Congress, a bipartisan group of senators is supporting the Kids Online Safety Act, which in part would require platform design changes to prevent harm. Tech industry groups have opposed the bill, and the American Civil Liberties Union has raised censorship concerns.
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