Combatting the Adolescent Mental Health Crisis: A Patchwork of State Legislation Targeting Social Media's Addictive Design
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: development of artificial intelligence.1 There is a constant push to learn, to assimilate, and to connect with others through technology. 2 Technology will undoubtedly continue to change the world.As a society, we have an obligation to ensure that it changes it for the better.The creation of the smartphone has drastically changed the way that individuals connect and communicate.Previously unthinkable in earlier generations, smartphones have allowed people to converse with others from anywhere, at any time.While early smartphone designs were relatively simple, today's smartphones are mini-computers, personal assistants, banking hubs, music players, and pocket-sized tools for nearly anything imaginable.3 Because of their portable nature and capability to connect to high-speed wireless internet, smartphones have become a key part of our daily lives-by our side almost every waking minute.Generation Z is arguably the first generation in history to go through puberty "with a portal in their pocket" that pulls them away from society and into an alternative universe that is "exciting, addictive, and unstable."4 Social media platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok thrive in the mobile smartphone environment.These platforms allow users to digitally connect at a faster and more expansive rate than ever before.Social media's connective nature, including its benefits and burdens within the Gen Z and Gen Alpha generations, is the focus of this Comment.More specifically, this Comment examines currently introduced, pending, and enacted state legislation targeting social media companies' addictive 1 Max Roser, The Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: The Word has Changed Fast-What Might be Next, OUR WORLD IN
DOI: 10.60095/bvba6137
Author: Christine Cromie
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4409325386