Sarah Domoff, assistant professor of psychology at UAlbany’s College of Arts and Sciences, unpacks problematic social media use — what it looks like, how to recognize it before it spirals and what distinguishes healthy engagement from habits that can take over. Domoff also explains how society can chart a safer path forward in this first of two season-opening episodes exploring how technology can drive problematic behaviors in all of us — but in young people especially.
In our interview, Sarah spoke about the role that social media platforms can play in making their spaces safer for users. Some of these options can be controlled by changing app settings, but Sarah argues that safety should be the default.
SD: There are ways for users to change app settings that can make them safer to use. But platforms don't always make these choices easy to navigate — that's the first thing that needs to change. Plus, it can be unwieldy. In my work with children and teens, their parents share that there's so much information online about how to manage this, it can become overwhelming. And it's not just one platform; it's often multiple apps. Then the settings change, and you have to stay up to date with how to reset them. For parents, and adults too, it's a lot of work. So, how do we make it easier to automatically restrict content that may be inappropriate or harmful — for children and teens, and for some vulnerable adults too? If the automatic settings were more in line with what users want to see, that would be easier. Safety should come baked in; it shouldn't be something you have to go looking for and configure yourself.
Another thing platforms can do is focus more intentionally on user wellbeing. This is something that other researchers and I are working to understand. Instead of just reducing risk, can apps prioritize wellness? That's a real shift in design philosophy — building wellbeing into the platform itself, not just minimizing harm after the fact.
Centering kids is another important piece. It has historically been the case that children and teen users get considered after these apps are already developed, versus being centered from the start. Young users’ safety and experience with these apps should be part of the design phase, not an afterthought.
Considering the teen perspective — you work directly with young people, including discussions around their online preferences. What do teens want from social media platforms?
SD: First, teens want ways to connect with others and share content they enjoy. Secondly, they don't want to see content that isn't in line with who they are and their values. So again, I think a lot of it has to do with wanting content that matches their values and identity. They also want to connect with their peers — real people, people they know. They don't want AI-generated posts that aren't real. They want authenticity. I think that's a concern for many people, not just teens. So much online content is fake these days, plus we're often the “product,” paying for these apps by viewing ads. Teens, like many of us, want real content and real connections.
With collaborators, Sarah has created a toolkit to guide users on best practices and healthy social media use. Explore their "mini course" here, or on Instagram.
Short on time? Here’s a quick summary of some of Sarah’s top tips for building a healthier relationship with social media:
The American Academy of Pediatrics is actively developing resources for safe social media use among children and teens. See their latest recommendations in this guide.
Learn more about what centering young users' online experience could look like and what teens want from social media.
Check out this site for a closer look at why conversations around healthy social media use require a nuanced approach that considers benefits as well as risks.
Audio editing and production by Scott Freedman
Photo by Brian Busher
Interview by Erin Frick
Hosted and written by Erin Frick
Erin Frick (00:03):
Welcome back to season three of The Short Version, the UAlbany podcast that tackles big ideas, big questions, and big news in less time than it takes to cross the academic podium. I'm Erin Frick, in UAlbany's Office of Communications and Marketing.
We've spent the summer talking to some of the most interesting people on campus and can't wait to share those conversations with you every Wednesday until December. AI consciousness, the death penalty, the art of video game design, what healthy aging really means, the mysteries still hiding in the human body, and more. We've covered a lot. Today, we're talking about when social media use becomes a problem and how society can chart a safer path forward. This is the first of two episodes to open the season that examine the ways technology can act as an accelerant for problematic behaviors in all of us, but in young people especially.
Sarah Domoff (00:55):
When we use the term addiction, it can be very alarmist and you think it's all or nothing, whereas it really is a spectrum of behaviors that could be addressed. But then also, sometimes, when we hear people using the term, it can be shaming or stigmatizing versus what is it about this technology that makes it so hard for us to put it down? What are the features of these apps that really kind of pull us back into using them?
Erin Frick (01:19):
POV: Before TikTok and Instagram, there was MySpace, Friendster, Xanga. Names that might sound dusty now, but remind us of an earlier, arguably gentler, era of the internet. Back before platforms figured out how to grab our attention and not let go.
Increasingly sophisticated technologies are making social media harder than ever to put down. Notifications beckon to an endless stream of content tuned to our interest and emotions. The promise of validation or a surge of dopamine just to tap away. These features are a part of why social media has become a risk to mental health, especially for young people who face heightened susceptibility surrounding things like behavior, lifestyle, and body image. With numerous known dangers and platforms designed to be addictive, it's easy to vilify social media writ large. But University at Albany psychologist and researcher Sarah Domoff doesn't subscribe to the idea that all posting, liking and sharing is inherently harmful.
If someone is using social media to connect with friends, explore a new hobby, learn about the world or score laugh, that's kinda chic. The problem is when use tips into territory that disrupts other aspects of life. Earlier this year, a jury found Meta and YouTube liable for knowingly endangering young users, including contributing to serious mental health struggles akin to addiction. TikTok and Snap face a growing wave of similar suits. This month, a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay to help undo the harm with hundreds of millions earmarked for mental health treatment, screening and prevention services for young people. But as Sarah argues, it's not just up to the platforms to make their products safer, though that is a critical first step. And the onus shouldn't be on users to summon greater willpower either. Social determinants shaped by broader systemic issues play a major role.
Instability at home, isolation, and inaccessible mental healthcare can all leave a child more exposed to the harms that social media can amplify. Sarah is exploring all of these intersections, and with colleagues is also working on solutions, including a toolkit for building healthy social media habits and an AI chatbot that helps parents rehearse tough conversations about social media use with teens. In this week's episode, Sarah breaks down problematic social media use and what can be done to stop it. This one goes out to anyone who's ever opened Instagram for a quick scroll, then looked up an hour or two later. Here's our conversation.
Erin Frick (03:51):
Let's define what problematic social media use is and the difference between problematic social media use and social media addiction and why we think about that difference and why it's important.
Sarah Domoff (04:04):
We use the term problematic, whether it's social media or other types of digital media, to capture excessive use that also interferes with somebody's functioning. So it's not just using it a lot or enjoying using social media or gaming or other types of digital media. There are now impacts because of your use, interfering with sleep, school, work, relationships. So it's really a spectrum of behaviors and kind of captures one's relationship to technology. Not just simply, "Oh, I use it a lot. Oh, I really enjoy going on my phone." It's more, "I'm using it a lot; I'm having trouble stopping my use. It's causing me some problems and I need some help with fixing my relationship with technology." Whereas sometimes when we use the term addiction, it can be very alarmist and you think it's like all or nothing like, oh, I'm addicted or not. Whereas it really is a spectrum of behaviors that could be addressed for improving your relationship with technology.
But then also sometimes when we hear people using the term, it seems like the onus is on the individual and it can be shaming or kind of stigmatizing, oh, they're addicted, versus what is it about this technology that makes it so hard for us to put it down? What are the features of these apps that really kind of pull us back into using them? And so when we shift it to those design features as contributing to our challenges and putting the phones down or our social media away, it then opens the door for bigger conversations about what can be done to prevent this. And we also think framing it that way promotes agency around making changes to your behaviors, which is totally possible.
Erin Frick (05:41):
What are some of those risk factors that make certain youth maybe more susceptible to some of the bad parts of social media?
Sarah Domoff (05:49):
Yeah. Generally speaking, if we think about different age ranges, for adolescents, it's really important to have peer acceptance. You're figuring out who you are. And so social media can kind of play on that. So just at a developmental stage because of the social reinforcement. But when we look at just individual differences, we see that some youth who have emotion regulation concerns are at greater risk for excessive use. And that could be for a number of reasons. It could be that for some, whether it's digital media or social media, it can kind of be a way to escape and not have to think about negative affect or emotions that are distressing. It could also be they're really susceptible to positive or rewarding feelings, and so they want to engage in that more versus things that may not be as rewarding or enjoyable. So it's kind of like a mixture of concerns regarding this escapism as well as really being attuned to affect that is really reinforcing. And so I think that plays a role as well.
Erin Frick (06:49):
So it's sort of well understood at this point that a lot of social media apps are in some way designed to be addictive. You have endless scroll, you have all these things that encourage you to keep clicking, keep scrolling, keep picking up your phone, responding to the notifications. Can you talk about that a little bit, just in terms of what are the actual features of social media platforms that make them so hard to stop engaging with?
Sarah Domoff (07:11):
We see that content that is really eliciting a response, oftentimes that's negative emotions, can get our attention more and keep us on longer and make us want to look through more of the content. So I think where the design features really come in play is like what you're being shown. So what content comes across your feed? Some of the tricks that we recommend for teens and adults is to kind of reset your algorithm or to turn off recommendations that you find are jarring, that grab your attention, but you don't want to see because it kind of sucks you in more. We'd like to shift that, and obviously if there's content that's really enjoyable that could be beneficial to someone, that could be awesome. But unfortunately, the way some of these platforms work is that they promote content that gets engagement, and unfortunately, more often than not, it's those negative types of posts.
Erin Frick (08:00):
We hear it all the time, whether it's online shopping or different technological contexts about "the algorithm". I mean, it's a really vague kind of term, but what does that actually mean in a social media context?
Sarah Domoff (08:12):
So basically it kind of works to show you things that will keep you engaged and maybe what it thinks you may like. So for example, you're looking up information about healthy eating. Over time, some of that can shift to more extreme content related to restrictive eating and so forth. And so it can kind of tailor what's shared with you or recommended on your feed to maybe what you've clicked before of what you've looked at. But then over time, the content can be a little more extreme to keep you on longer, to keep you more engaged. So that's kind of what we mean by the algorithm at play. And so what we recommend is change your settings so that you can kind of reset it and that you can select, don't show me this content anymore so that you'll be less likely to see it. Now it's not foolproof, but that's one thing that we recommend.
And what contributes to their negative experiences when they're on social media is seeing content that is not what they want to see. It can be very jarring, upsetting, polarizing. And unfortunately that seems to be for a lot of folks what can kind of be pushed to them or what they have shown to them in their feeds.
Erin Frick (09:19):
What are some of the primary mental health concerns that you see in youth or even adults who have these sort of tendencies of problematic social media use?
Sarah Domoff (09:29):
When we break it down to specific mental health concerns, it again ties to that content piece that may be triggering or reinforcing messages. If you think about somebody who is coping with body image concerns or comparison to others, social media can be really hard for them to navigate because a lot of the content that's shown is idealized lifestyles or bodies or tips on how to lose weight and so forth. And so it can be the content for some people that intersects with maybe something that they're dealing with that makes it really hard to have an environment where those reminders aren't there. For others, maybe folks who are struggling with anxiety, even just news clips that are shared on social media can be jarring, upsetting, and can make them think that this is what's happening all around them. It can really skew perceptions of the world.
So the content matters, especially for people who have underlying mental health concerns. On the other side, it's also content that is personally jarring. For example, if they're experiencing cyber victimization or bullying online. For teens, it's not just the content, but also how they're engaging with others online. And we know that experiencing harmful interactions with others can contribute to feelings of loneliness and isolation and can be really challenging for teens or really anyone who experienced that. The other piece that we see in terms of how it links to mental health is what does our use of social media or our phones, what does it get in the way of? So for some, if they're escaping into gaming or social media and not learning ways to cope with stressors or regulate their emotions in different ways, that can be really reinforcing and kind of keep them on longer.
For others, it's we're using it very late into night and so it's interfering with sleep and that can have an effect on wellbeing and mental health as well.
Erin Frick (11:21):
A lot of these platforms have gained popularity in recent years, but people have been coming to the internet to find community and connect for decades. And I'm curious, what has changed in that landscape that has led to more concerning behaviors or uses? Was it something that happened gradually or did you see kind of one big change sort of led to these more problematic instances?
Sarah Domoff (11:44):
If I go back to when Facebook first came out when I was in college, it was really just my college's Facebook. I could connect and see who all was on my campus and reach out to them. And it did seem like it was a social connection with people in your community. Several years later, anyone could have Facebook. And then also you would see content on apps that were posts from people you were connected to. These are people in your circle or your network. You would see their posts, you could look at their profiles and you could see what they shared. And it wasn't so much of, at least now what we're seeing is a lot of it is advertisements or maybe bots or influencers. I don't know who these people are. Those aspects of it have changed. We don't pay for a subscription to our social media apps with money, but we do pay for it with what we see in terms of ads.
We are also seeing mass production of content versus authentic user generated content. So all in all, it's changed the experience from something that was supposed to be a way to connect with others or learn about things happening in your community and connecting in that way to it seems way more commercialized and profit driven. Part of the challenge is how can we get the benefits of these platforms which have huge reach and can introduce you to things that are of great interest to you and that could be positive while weeding through the negative and not getting pulled into content that's meant to grab your attention. For that reason, there's great interest in different apps that could be developed that really center wellbeing and that really go back to the roots of what it was supposed to do.
Erin Frick (13:29):
I know you've created with collaborators as a toolkit to kind of guide users on best practices and healthy social media use. What are your top tips? And I'm also curious if you have any personal things like you do that maybe help manage use.
Sarah Domoff (13:42):
Let's just recognize what's happening when we're going on social media, just for any person. It can be very different. That's the thing that's really tricky about this research is that there are huge individual differences in one's experience on social media. And so I like to just first hear from folks about what do you like to see? What types of content do you want to see more of? Who did you connect with in your real life or in professionally or in your creative endeavors that inspires you online and you want to learn more about and connect more with? You can kind of then shift to, well, what does this look like after you use social media? What have you noticed that is a good thing? Maybe what's not working out for you? For some people it's like, well, I really like this because when I'm working out, I can watch something on my phone and that's a great way for me to keep going with my workout and be distracted and that's good.
So I don't mind that. But I don't like that I'm using it late at night and it's getting in the way of my sleep. So kind of really thinking about what do you want different? And so then we kind of shift to, for some, especially if it's content related, there are things you can do with your app itself to block content. I don't want to see this kind of reset your algorithm. And we have instructions on how to do that. For others, it's recognizing I have these goals, these are things that I want to achieve, or these are things that I value. And social media is kind of getting in the way of things I want to do. Really what the toolkit is meant to do is for each person to figure out what's working and what's not. And then in terms of your day-to-day use, it won't interfere with something you need to get done or something that's good for you. So I think those are some of the best tips to start with.
Erin Frick (15:16):
So these are a lot of really good sort of personal evaluations you can make. I'm curious on the policy side, what do you think works?
Sarah Domoff (15:25):
When we increase access to mental healthcare, for example, we see that that can have a benefit for sure. As it relates to banning use of social media or alerts that this may cause harm, we still have yet to see if that will make a dent in different concerns. I think a lot of people are not optimistic about it changing the mental health landscape writ large because there's so many things that are at play for that. Could it facilitate more in-person interactions during a school day? We hear from teachers that it does. But I think part of what the research will be carrying out over these next couple years is to see how do these policies really play out and do they make a difference? A lot of it is that there are stressors facing families, supporting the families, ensuring that each child has at least one strong relationship with an adult, like caregiver, parent, access to healthcare.
I mean, there's so many other policy domains that I think are super relevant to what we're seeing that go beyond social media use that sometimes I think don't get as much attention.
Erin Frick (16:37):
AI is of course coming into the picture with all of this. Could you talk about that a little bit and some of your latest research that connects all of these things, social media, youth mental health, and now also AI?
Sarah Domoff (16:49):
One cool project that I'm working on with some collaborators is we've developed this chatbot that basically simulates a teen. And so it's meant for parents to practice conversing about really hard topics as it relates to social media. And it simulates back to the parent a teen's response to maybe the parent trying to set limits or trying to have a conversation when they don't really want to have a conversation. And then it evaluates the language used by the parents and gives them feedback. We can take what we know about healthy and successful family relationships and kind of leverage some of this technology to help parents practice this. And we see this as this can be prevention, but also clinicians can use this type of technology in between sessions. And so it's a way to practice skills that you're learning with a therapist and get feedback on it.
There's a lot of great research and advocacy happening in this area and that it's going to take a lot of different levels of influence to make changes to what youth and adults see online such that they can get more of the benefits and less of the risks. And I think advocacy organizations that really are trying to kind of lead the way on legislation and policy changes to mitigate some of the risks. And so I think there will be more to come, but know that there are multiple groups really working towards trying to make changes out there and we need to keep doing this research.
Erin Frick (18:10):
That was Sarah Domoff, Assistant Professor of Psychology at UAlbany's College of Arts and Sciences. This week, Sarah walked us through problematic social media use, what it looks like, how to catch it before it spirals, and how to stay connected, for those who want to be, without losing sight of health, wellbeing and the world beyond the screen. If you want to learn more about how social media platforms could make their spaces safer and to explore practical tools for more balanced social media use, this is your sign to check out The Long(er) Version in our show notes. Our conversation with Sarah was the first of two episodes examining the intersection of technology and addiction. Next week, we'll talk to Jessica Martin of UAlbany's Center for Behavioral Health Promotion and Applied Research about how the sudden widespread legalization of mobile sports betting has impacted college students.
Jessica Martin (19:00):
I don't think we're blowing this out of proportion. It's here, it's here to stay, and I think we are behind the ball here. We are really playing catch up in terms of figuring out who's most at risk and what do we do about it.
Erin Frick (19:13):
You're not going to want to miss that one. The Short Version would not be possible without contributions from many people, including for this episode, Scott Freedman, who provided audio production and editing from the UAlbany Digital Media Studio deep inside the podium tunnels. We'll be back next week with another short conversation about something interesting.
###