How social media affects young people – Researchers and youth share their perspectives

Published: 11 June 2026

Reading time: 4 minutes

When young people themselves put words to their experiences of social media, it confirms what research shows: the design of platforms affects behaviour, emotions and health—more than we think. Researchers and young people met on two occasions to learn from science and discuss how social media impacts health.

Conference on health and influence online brought together young people and societal stakeholders

Lisa Thorell and Sissela Nutley are both researchers at Karolinska Institutet. They gave lectures at the Ctrl+Rights | Youth Summit conference on how digital media affect young people’s health. The conference was organised by the Prince Couple’s Foundation with support from the Tim Bergling Foundation and with Forte among the collaborating partners. It brought together young people, decision-makers, researchers, platform representatives, civil society and authorities with the aim of jointly strengthening young people’s safety, health and influence online.

Video: The researchers’ lecture can be viewed in the video, (text in Swedish only).

Sissela and Lisa presented knowledge and insights from research. This included how the design of digital services influences our behaviours, emotions and actions, as well as what an alternative design of algorithms and platforms could look like.

– Business models reward us for spending time and interacting with platforms. It is a deliberate and highly effective way of triggering the parts of the brain that we do not have much ability to control through conscious choices, said Sissela Nutley.

Young people describe feeds that are hard to break away from

The difficulty of putting down the phone is clearly shown in surveys where ninth-grade students were asked whether they sleep with their mobile phone in the same room.

– A great many young people simply use their phones during the night, said Lisa Thorell.

A youth panel that took part in the conference reflected on their own behaviour on social media and how they were affected by what the researchers presented.

We have talked a bit about potential bans. At first it sounds very bad. But when we discussed what that reality would look like, I became more interested in living in that kind of reality myself.

Noa Weiss

Participant in youth panel and workshop

Workshop where young people and researchers discussed laws, age limits and addiction

As a result of the conference, Forte and the Prince Couple’s Foundation invited the two researchers and several young people to a more in-depth discussion about how social media affect everyday life. In this short video (text in Swedish only), some participants describe what they learned and how they believe the new knowledge will influence their use of mobile phones and social media.

The discussions explored, among other things, whether it is a good idea to introduce age limits for social media and other ways to regulate use. Several participants argued that short-form videos (“shorts”), which are common across many platforms, should have an age limit of 20:

"They are very addictive. It is a constantly ongoing feed – and you can get stuck in it. A YouTube video is something you click on – it is an active choice because you want to watch it. But just being fed content all the time is not good."

If social media were to disappear completely, young people said they would mainly miss social contact with friends and family, as well as longer videos. They would also miss group chats on Snapchat, long YouTube videos and Instagram groups with organisational accounts.

“You want to remove the bad and keep what is good” “It may be more effective and positive to change what tech companies are allowed to do, for example by introducing laws and age limits.” “If the norm changed so that social media were no longer seen as cool – then we would not have a problem.”

Views expressed by young participants during the workshop

The young people highlighted that they see a trend where more and more people are reducing their use of social media. Helene Öberg, Secretary General of the Prince Couple’s Foundation, also took part in the workshop. She noted that the ability to communicate with friends is what young people consider most important.

– My take away from today´s workshop is that it may no longer be as high status to present and showcase one’s life on social media.

TEXT: Lotta Segelberg

The conference on Safer Internet Day

Forte and the Prince Couple’s Foundation invited the researchers Lisa Thorell and Sissela Nutley, along with a youth panel, to a lecture and discussion on how the design of digital services affects our behaviours, emotions and actions.

The recording with the researchers is from 10 February 2026, Safer Internet Day. In the presence of H.R.H. Princess Sofia, the Prince Couple’s Foundation—with support from the Tim Bergling Foundation—brought together young people, decision-makers, researchers, platform representatives, civil society and public authorities to strengthen young people’s safety, health and influence online. Ctrl+Rights | Youth Summit is an arena created together with young people that enables a genuine dialogue about the responsibility adults need to take to ensure a safer digital everyday life.

Forte is a partner in the conference.

Read more: The Prince Couple’s Foundation: Ctrl+Rights | Youth Summit – PPS External link.

More current research on young people and the impact of social media on health

How does content and communication on social media affect eating disorders and self-harm? – The Swedish Agency for the Media External link.

The Swedish Agency for the Media’s knowledge overview of how online cultures linked to eating disorders and self-harm affect young people. By Lisa Thorell and Sissela Nutley at Karolinska Institutet and the organisation Det syns inte, commissioned by the Swedish Media Council.