A recent study found that using social media was unrelated to long-term mental health problems in Norwegian youth. One well-intentioned scholar suggested that doomsayers proclaiming that social media is causing suicide and other mental health problems in youth would need to “reckon” with this new study. To which I replied, in effect, they would do no such thing. As happens during technology moral panics, evidence that calls the panic into question would simply be ignored. Indeed, as far as I am aware, this new study has gotten zero news media or political attention.
