GRACE AIGNER: Hi everyone! I’m Grace Aigner from the Minnesota Daily. Welcome back to another episode of In The Know, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota. 

With a month-long semester break ahead of us, I’ve been thinking about how I can minimize my screen time during the time away from school. I know on days when I spend more than three hours on my phone, I feel worse, and many of my friends agree. And we’ve all made multiple, occasionally successful, attempts to reduce our screen time.

And I wondered if my changed perspective on screen time and social media had to do with starting college, and if my peers had a similar experience. On today’s episode, we’ll hear from University of Minnesota students and faculty, and a high school student, about young people’s relationships to social media—and the psychology behind them.

Natalie Larson, a third-year student studying strategic communication and Spanish, said she cared less about posting on social media after starting college.

NATALIE LARSON: I really stopped using Instagram, to be honest. I haven’t posted on Instagram since high school graduation was my last post, so it’s been two and a half years-ish. And I feel like it’s just because I feel like I felt a lot of pressure to post in high school. I don’t know, I felt like everyone would always post about their life, so I felt like I had to keep people updated. 

But once I got to college, I just didn’t really care anymore. I don’t know if I had a specific moment where I was like, “I’m just gonna stop posting.” I think it was just after a few months of not posting, I didn’t miss it. When I was younger, like middle school, high school, it did cause me a little bit of stress. 

I know people who would post on Instagram and then delete the app because they didn’t wanna see how many comments or likes they got, which I was never that bad, but when I got to college, it just didn’t seem as important to me anymore to keep it up.

AIGNER: Larson added that her most-used social media platforms are Instagram, TikTok and X formerly known as Twitter—but she rarely posts her own content. She said her social media feeds are where she updates herself on pop culture news.

Maddy Cleverly, a third-year student also studying strategic communication, said when she got Instagram in middle school, she treated social media like a chore to keep up with friends, classmates and family. 

MADDY CLEVERLY: That was also kind of when Instagram was new, so it was this new thing where it was very much for people to keep in contact with each other or like people to just see fun posts. And I also moved around a lot as a kid a little bit, and so it was kind of funny to be able to be like, after I had moved away from all these places, be able to see them randomly pop up on Instagram and be like, “Oh, I have not seen them in years.” 

I’m the type of person that like, also doesn’t like to leave anything uncompleted. I read every single one of my emails, because if I leave it unread, then I feel like I have something to do. So I would always make sure I watched all the stories and I would scroll until I got the check mark, like you’ve seen everyone’s posts, because I was like, well, “What if I miss something? What if I miss a crazy update from someone’s life?”

So I would always do that until like, again, moving around a lot and meeting so many new people. Once I came to college, there were just so many people that I was like, I can’t  keep up with it all.

AIGNER: Cleverly said she felt pressure to post on apps like Instagram in high school. Instead, she opted to take photos for her friends, rather than worry about posting photos of herself. 

Their social media habits through high school were more homogenous, Larson and Cleverly said. Larson, who is from Minnetonka, Minnesota said most of her classmates all worried about the same things, like follower count and number of likes on a post.

LARSON: I feel like in high school it was such a big thing to have like a big amount of followers. You know I remember being on the bus in high school and people would like mass follow a bunch of people just so that they would get a follow back and then they’d unfollow those same people to get their ratio up, which I think is, was kind of silly. 

But I just think that’s what was important to us at the time in high school is trying to be as maybe, I don’t know if popular or well known is like a good word, but just to seem like you have like a big following and like are consistent with posting. 

It’s definitely something I’ve noticed, I think in where I grew up, but I think as I got to college and meeting new people, I’ve realized that. There’s a lot of difference and I think that changes as we get older.

AIGNER: Larson went to Minnetonka High School, one of many schools across the U.S. that are implementing stricter phone policies because of the pervasiveness of phone and social media use among teens. 95% of U.S. teenagers ages 13 to 17 have access to a smartphone, according to a 2025 study from the American Psychological Association.

In September, Minnetonka High School started a phone ban policy—forbidding students from having their phones on them during class. When students enter their classrooms, they must put their phone on silent and place it in a numbered pocket holder for the entire class period.

A senior at Minnetonka High School, who will remain anonymous to protect her privacy, said she doesn’t mind the phone ban because it’s made her classmates talk more genuinely with one another.

ANONYMOUS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Now it’s just a time that when we’re done with stuff, we’ll talk to each other, we get ahead on work. So I think it has helped to reduce the workload because you are using your time more effectively in class rather than sitting on your phone and not doing anything.

We would talk to each other before, but I don’t think it was as genuine of a conversation because we’d probably talk about something that we saw on our phone. Which like, can be genuine in some instances, but now it’s just like we’re talking about like random things that it produces more like funny conversations or just like conversations that you wouldn’t expect to happen because people would be on their phone otherwise.

AIGNER: The student added that the phone ban has helped her stay off her phone outside of the classroom, too. While she will only have one year of school with the ban, she thinks it will help current Minnetonka freshmen have healthier phone habits even after graduation.

However, the student knows how attached she and her peers are to their phones, and said some of her friends are frustrated with the phone ban because of it.

ANONYMOUS: I do know that some of my friends who are even in my classes don’t like the phone policy because they would rather, not necessarily rather be on their phone, but it’s just like everyone has that attachment to social media. Of like, “Oh, I saw like there was a notification on Snapchat. I wanna see what it is.” Or like they’re waiting until the bell rings so they can see their phone and see if their friends texted them or anything. 

But it also, at the same time, it’s like no one’s texting each other because their phones are all away. So it’s like they’re kind of just waiting to see though if there’s like a notification or just to go on their phone, which I think is just a part of the, everyone’s attached to their technology now, which is just something that everyone experiences.

AIGNER: Family social science professor Xiaoran Sun, who researches the impact of social media, AI and phone usage on adolescents, said teenagers are an important age group to study because their developing brains are often more vulnerable to the appeal of social media.

XIAORAN SUN: Adolescents can be especially tuned in or attracted to social media because this is a critical period for them to develop their identity and have their social and relational development. During the developmental period their brain is really tuned to getting more peer relationships, even popularity among their peers as they’re sort of gaining a lot of autonomy and independence from their parents. 

So we think in this development period they’re especially drawn to content on social media, where they see what other people are doing and also gain popularity among their peers. 

I think they can also be vulnerable to risks on social media because at this stage, their emotions can be very strong, but their executive function of their brains are not necessarily that well developed yet. So they are prone to have more risky behaviors and also, again, like more likely to be shaped by what they’re seeing in the online world.

AIGNER: Sun added she and her fellow researchers are most concerned with the type of content teenagers see on their social media feeds, rather than the amount of time they spend on the platforms. Social media content—particularly AI-generated content—that promotes unrealistic beauty standards, body types and diet culture are especially harmful for teenagers’ mental health and self esteem. 

For example, two teens could spend the same amount of time on social media per day, but depending on the type of content they see, one could be more negatively influenced by social media than the other, Sun said.

Strategic communication professor Shayla Thiel-Stern said young people’s relationships to social media undergoes a shift when they enter college. 

Thiel-Stern said teenagers’ face-to-face social circles are relatively small in high school. This, in turn, encourages them to rely on social media to broaden their worldviews. But, when young people move to colleges like the U of M, their interpersonal social lives become much bigger—and the need for social media connection lessens.

SHAYLA THIEL-STERN: You find your people, but you also find your echo chamber. You know, you find your bubble. And it feels more comfortable to do that. I do think teenagers do have an awareness of curating their feeds, especially on TikTok. They do tend to know, here’s the kind of content I tend to see and my friends tend to see. 

But I think when you get to college, your world has broadened, you have more of a sense of media literacy. You have more of a sense of who you wanna be with and what you wanna see and who you wanna be. 

There is an easier option of opting out of social media when you get into college. Like you can opt out or you can just only engage with certain friends. And I think it can be more of a closed community experience. 

AIGNER: Sun said that there is continuity between high school and college students’ relationships to social media. However, entering college makes young adults better at regulating their phone and social media usage on their own.

SUN: When teens are living with their parents, their parents probably are using some parenting strategies, some are more sophisticated than others, but some parents might still limit screen time, some parents have rules, some parents like to discuss regularly about what the teens are seeing on their social media and kind of discuss any concerns or any uncomfortable stuff that they’re seeing on their smartphone. 

But in college, I mean, you’re still using smartphones to connect with your parents probably, but you’re also more like on your own. From my perspective, this can actually be an even more risky period for stuff like smartphone addiction or just use of social media and smartphones excessively. 

Or sometimes it could also look like gaming excessively just because you don’t have that kind of structure and regulations around your smartphone and social media use anymore. But you’re probably still trying to, first of all, figuring out your life and also developing some skills for you to be more mindful and aware about your digital media use and kind of regulate your digital media activities.

AIGNER: Cleverly discovered that she wants to work in social media content creation after graduation. She said working towards this career made her more critical about her media consumption, and less attached to social media. 

CLEVERLY: I want to kinda be a social media coordinator for a sports team later in life. So then you would think its significance in my life grows. But I think when I look at that as a job, it’s one of those things where it’s like there are so many other factors that go into it before you actually open the app and post.

It may seem like it’s one of those things that would cause it to grow in my life, but since it didn’t grow, it’s kind of shrinking in that personal sense. And so then thinking about how easy it is to see misinformation, and then also hearing from the typical like, “Oh, did you just get that from TikTok?”

It’s like, I don’t wanna be the person that got their news from TikTok or like Instagram or something. So making sure I go to like other sources. So, yeah, I would definitely say it’s shrunk in my life and I’m trying to rely on other ways to get the information that I need.

AIGNER: Sun said she’s seen teenagers and young adults recognize that social media is addictive and make an effort to reduce their screen time. Things like having low screen time competitions with friends, deleting apps or putting your phone out of sight while doing homework are all great ways to work on digital self-regulation. 

She added that she recognizes how hard it can be to stay away from your phone and off social media.

SUN: I want young people to give yourself some credit, like you are trying to do something that is helpful for you. And I also wanna acknowledge that it is hard. It is hard because you are essentially working against the super smart algorithms that are being developed by tech giants for whom a lot of the best, like computer engineers in the world, are working for, right? 

The algorithms design are, it, it is hard to fight against. So if I have to give young people some message, I will be saying like, well, don’t blame yourself too badly because this is just the problem that everyone faces, and this is just the, the more of the problem of the algorithms itself than, than you.

AIGNER: Sun expressed new worry about the rise in AI companionship among teenagers, rather than social media use. 72% of U.S. teenagers have used an AI companion software and more than 50% use it regularly, a 2025 study by Common Sense Media found.

Sun said learning how to self-regulate social media use and avoid phone addiction as a young adult could potentially help young people avoid substance abuse and other addictions.

Thiel-Stern said independence and broadened social circles make college a great time to work on digital self-regulation.

THIEL-STERN: I would’ve had a different answer to this 10 to 15 years ago. And I was always kind of eye-rolly at my colleagues who would be, a big common assignment that people used to give, was go on a media diet like no digital, no social media for X amount of time. And I would always be like why? That is not normal. Like that will never happen.

I have to say like 15 years later, I’m kind of like, “Oh, how lovely that would be if that could happen. Like what would the world be like? Oh my god.” So I guess I think we all have to unplug at some point. Most of us are always reachable, always on, no break. So you have to set personal boundaries. And I do think college is a really good time to start thinking about what does that look like. 

And maybe that’s like, it’s pretty tough when you’re working on the end of the semester assignments to just be like, I’m done at seven and I’m not logging back on until nine tomorrow morning. But you can do that, you know? So I would say college is a great time to start experimenting with setting boundaries on your digital availability.

AIGNER: Larson wants to work on going on TikTok less, and Cleverly wants to stop going on her phone before she goes to bed.

While she knows it takes time and conscious effort to detach from social media, Larson said she feels like she and her peers in college have a more balanced perspective on the role of social media in their lives.

LARSON: I feel like when we’re 16, everything matters around us and everything we see on social media we think is the truth and the way that it should be. When I feel like when you’re 20, you have such a different grasp on the world itself. I feel like college just kind of opens everyone up to new sorts of ideas, new thinking. 

So I feel like we kind of can bring that into social media as well. Our lives get bigger. Social media gets smaller. We realize it’s not, it’s not our whole life online. I have bigger things to live for than having a bunch of followers on Instagram.

AIGNER: Ahead of our time away from school, I encourage you to reflect on your relationship with social media, and cut yourself some slack when it comes to trying to avoid your phone. 

Larson’s point definitely resonates with me. I know I have more interesting things to do than scroll through my Instagram explore page over winter break. Inspired by today’s episode, I’m making a mental list of things I can do when I feel too attached to my phone. Such as reading a book, watching a movie or asking a friend to get coffee instead.

That’s all I’ve got for you today, folks! This episode was written by Grace Aigner and produced by Ceci Heinen. Thanks for listening and if you have any questions, comments or concerns, don’t be afraid to send us an email at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you.

My name is Grace Aigner, and I’ll talk to you next time on In The Know.