What we're getting wrong about teens and tech | Candice Odgers | Your Body on Tech

**Manoush Zomorodi** (0:03)
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day.
Hello, I am Manoush Zomorodi.
I'm a journalist, an author, a two-time TED speaker. I also host NPR's TED Radio Hour podcast. This week, I'm taking over for Elise Hu with a special series of episodes all about how you can live a healthier life in our high-tech era. So this past April, I curated a session at TED 2026, full of speakers whose work will make you think differently about your body, your technology, and what is keeping us human in this digital age. Every day this week, you're going to hear one of these talks and then a deeper conversation that I had with these incredible speakers. Really, they are incredible. Today, we're talking about the relationship between kids, screens, and social media. It's a fraught topic. Most of us have heard how harmful tech can be for kids and their mental health. But child psychologist Candice Odgers says that much of what we've been told is not based on solid science.

**Candice Odgers** (1:12)
In our longitudinal studies, social media does not emerge as a major predictor of teen mental health. Many others find the same, concluding, and I'm going to quote, that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting teen mental health.

**Manoush Zomorodi** (1:29)
Candice researches teens and screens at UC Irvine. She has spent years interviewing them and tracking them, with their permission, of course, seeing what they do on their phones and in their daily lives. And I came across her work when I was trying to learn more about how we could be most effective in coaching kids to use their devices responsibly and spend less time on them. But the more I dug into Candice's work, the more I started to wonder if we should be looking less at the tech and more at everything else the kids are dealing with. It's a difficult idea to wrap your head around. Maybe parts of social media are awful, and it is harmful for certain teens, but on the whole, maybe social media isn't damaging a generation.
And why do we even think that?

**Candice Odgers** (2:22)
Scary stories sell. They always have. And scary stories are really easy to sell to parents. We are an anxious lot.
And the more often you hear something, the more likely you are to believe that it's true.

**Manoush Zomorodi** (2:35)
Candice Odgers' talk and our fascinating conversation is coming up right after a short break. And now, our TED Talk and conversation of the day.

**Candice Odgers** (2:51)
Teenagers today are amazing. You didn't think I was going to use that word because as we age, our adult brains have a harder time making this teenager equals amazing connection.
I'm always worried that I'd reach the age where I'd look back and immediately judge the youth of today for what they wear, right? How they spend their time, lament the loss of my free-range childhood, and wish that they would spend more of their time doing things that we did, like crash our cars and excessively drink, right?
True story.
But I'm beginning to think that I'm immune from judging teenagers in this way, and I think it's because I now know too much about them. So let me explain. I'm a developmental psychologist, and for the past 25 years, that's a long time, I've been analyzing trends in teen mental health. Since 2008, we've been working with thousands of 10 to 14-year-olds, getting information every day from their phones on how they're feeling, how they spend their time, who they're with. With their consent, we look at their school records, we track their sleep data, we look at their step count, and we see what they're doing online. Importantly, we listen to them about what upsets them and what they need to be well. It has been a really incredible and at times wild ride. It's also been an illuminating one, because one of the most consistent things we have found is that the stories that you and I are told repeatedly every day about teenagers today, that they are lost, that they are worse off than ever, that somehow smartphones and social media have destroyed them and their brains, it doesn't match the data. And it doesn't match what they tell us. There is a massive gap. And as I've tried to make sense of this gap, I keep coming back to a simple truth that we all know. Scary stories sell. They always have. And the more often you hear something, the more likely you are to believe that it's true. I'm going to say it again. The more often you hear something, the more likely you are to believe that it's true.