How to Be a Better Human
How to Be a Better Human

What the data shows about youth mental health (w/ Candice Odgers)

July 20, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

“Scary stories sell,” Candice Odgers says. “And the more often you hear something, the more likely you are to believe that it’s true.” As a developmental psychologist who has studied adolescent mental health for 25 years, Odgers has watched a massive gap open between what the data actually show about teenagers and social media, and the terrifying narrative that dominates headlines, best-selling books, and parenting conversations. The dominant story is that smartphones and social media have destroyed a generation. The data, she argues, tells a far more complicated—and far less frightening—story.

The mismatch between narrative and evidence

The central claim Odgers challenges is that social media use is a primary driver of the youth mental health crisis. She does not deny that adolescent mental health problems have increased, particularly anxiety. But she points out that for the 25 years she has been in the field, roughly one in five young people have struggled with serious mental health issues—the problems have simply changed form, from conduct problems and substance use to anxiety. The real crisis, she says, is among adults. Adult suicide rates in the United States began climbing in 1999 and did not slow until the pandemic. Between 2011 and 2021, overdose and firearm deaths doubled among parents of children in the U.S. “The fact that we’re not having that conversation about

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

What you'll learn

  • 1 (01:08) **Host Intro: The Social Media Panic** - Chris Duffy frames the episode around the widespread parental fear that social media is causing a youth mental health crisis, setting up the guest as a counterpoint.
  • 2 (02:29) **TED Talk Clip: The Scary-Story Gap** - A clip from Odgers' TED Talk lays out the core argument: the dominant narrative about teens being "destroyed" by smartphones does not match the data.
  • 3 (07:22) **The Wrong Question: Phones vs. Young People** - Odgers explains that focusing on "what phones do to kids" is the least interesting and least useful question to ask.
  • 4 (08:37) **The Data vs. The Narrative** - Odgers details the persistent gap between what research actually shows and the scary stories told about social media's impact on teen mental health.
  • 5 (09:55) **The Overlooked Factor: Adult Mental Health** - A key finding from Odgers' research is that the mental health of the adults around teens is a far more powerful predictor of teen well-being than social media use.
  • 6 (12:24) **Why Adults Misunderstand Teen Tech Use** - Odgers explains that adults project their own negative experiences with social media (e.g., doomscrolling) onto teens, who use the technology in fundamentally different ways.
  • 7 (14:22) **How the Research Actually Works** - Odgers describes her innovative methodology, which uses real-time data from teens' own devices to move beyond simple correlations.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Candice Odgers

Show Notes

“Social media and screen time aren’t the most important factor in teen mental health,” says development psychologist Candice Odgers. While this claim sounds counterintuitive, Candice shares why it’s so pervasive—scary stories sell. They always have. In this episode, Candice joins Chris to discuss social inequity and the five areas that would be more effective in helping improve teens mental health than banning social media.


Featured guest


Connect with the team

For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts


Fill out our survey at bit.ly/BHSurvey6

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to Be a Better Human

More from this podcast

How to Be a Better Human →