Candice Odgers

In our longitudinal studies, social media does not emerge as a major predictor of teen mental health.

Many others find the same, including, and I'm going to quote, that social media is one of the least influential factors in predicting teen mental health.

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.

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've always worried that I'd reach the age where I'd look back and immediately judge the youth of today for what they wear, 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.

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.