Larner College of Medicine News & Media

WCAX Interviews Dickerson about Social Media’s Mental Health Toll on Teens

May 17, 2023 by Lucy Gardner Carson

(MAY 17, 2023) Jeremiah Dickerson, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at Larner College of Medicine and a child psychiatrist at the UVM Medical Center, was interviewed by WCAX-TV for a story on social media and teen mental health.

Jeremiah Dickerson, M.D.

(MAY 17, 2023) Jeremiah Dickerson, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at Larner College of Medicine and a child psychiatrist at the UVM Medical Center, was interviewed by WCAX-TV for a story on social media and teen mental health.

“There’s a very different quality of connectedness in real life versus the quality of connections that are built over social media,” he said. “For some people, it’s really easy to fall into this vicious cycle, and it can be really difficult to extract yourself from that, especially if you’re continuing to use social media a lot,” he adds. “If parents are able to set limits and set boundaries around their child’s use, the better the outcome.”

In response to an unprecedented surge in teen depression, anxiety, and loneliness over the past decade, the American Psychological Association recently published a list of recommendations for adolescent social media use.