Where Data Tells the Story
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In late March 2026, jurors in California found that Meta Platforms and Google were partly responsible for the depression and anxiety of a woman who began compulsively using social media as a child.
The jury awarded $6 million in damages ($3 million in compensatory and $3 million in punitive), with Meta responsible for 70% of the total.
While the financial penalty is small compared with the companies’ vast resources, legal observers say the decision is significant because it marks one of the first times a jury has treated social media apps as potentially defective products engineered in ways that can harm young users.
In light of that, today’s visualization shows the average daily time spent on select social media platforms among adults aged 18 and above in the United States as of 2023.
Correlation Is Not Always Causation, But Exposure Matters
Researchers have long warned that correlation does not necessarily mean causation when it comes to mental health and technology use.
Factors such as:
...all influence emotional well-being. Simply spending time on social media does not automatically lead to anxiety or depression.
However, the scale of time spent has raised concerns among policymakers and researchers alike.