Nearly half of Gen Zers wish TikTok ‘was never invented'

Nearly half of Gen Zers wish TikTok ‘was never invented,’ survey finds per FORTUNE.

In a New York Times opinion piece, Jonathan Haidt, author of the controversial best-seller The Anxious Generation, discusses four fundamental rules for children and smartphones: no smartphones before high school, no social media before age 16, no phones in schools, and encouraging more unsupervised play. Haidt shares alarming findings about Generation Z's social media use, with 60% spending four hours a day on social platforms, and 23% spending seven or more hours. What he finds particularly surprising is that, despite this heavy usage, 60% of Gen Z believes social media negatively impacts society, compared to just 32% who say it has a positive effect.

While 52% of Gen Z say social media has benefited their lives, 29% say it has harmed them. Haidt notes that historically disadvantaged groups report even less benefit: 44% of women and 47% of LGBTQ respondents say social media has negatively affected their mental health, compared to 31% of men and 35% of non-LGBTQ individuals.

When asked which platforms they wished had never been invented, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) topped the list, followed by Snapchat (43%), Facebook (37%), and Instagram (34%). However, fewer respondents expressed regret about the invention of smartphones (21%), messaging apps (19%), and streaming services like Netflix (17%) and YouTube (15%).

Haidt interprets these lower regret levels as a sign that Gen Z values the core functions of the internet—communication, storytelling, and information-seeking. He suggests that if smartphones were only used for texting, watching movies, and searching for information, without the addictive algorithms that personalize content, there would be much less regret.

Although only 36% of those surveyed support banning social media for kids under 16, 69% back laws requiring social media companies to create safer platforms for users under 18. Haidt points out that Congress is currently considering such legislation, specifically the Kids Online Safety Act. This law would disable addictive features and allow young users to turn off personalized algorithmic feeds. In response to growing concerns, Instagram recently announced that all teen accounts will default to private settings.

Haidt concludes his piece with a thought experiment, asking readers to imagine if walkie-talkies were harming millions of young people and that more than a third of them wished they didn’t exist, yet felt forced to use them for five hours every day. "If that were the case," Haidt argues, "we would take action. We’d demand that manufacturers make their products safer and less addictive for kids. Social media companies should be held to the same standard: either make their platforms safer or stop providing them to children altogether."