The Brief

A new study finds that addiction to social media, mobile phones and video games is linked to a higher risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

The study, published in JAMA on Wednesday, looked at data on more than 4,000 kids from an ongoing longitudinal study following them for years, starting at ages 9 to 10. It found that by age 14, about one-third of the kids had become increasingly addicted to social media, about a quarter had become increasingly addicted to their mobile phone and more than 40% showed signs of addiction to video games.

"And these youth are significantly more likely to report suicidal behaviors and thoughts," says study author Yunyu Xiao, a professor at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

"It's an important study and raising awareness about screen addiction," says Dr. Jason Nagata, a pediatrician specializing in adolescent screen use at the University of California, San Francisco. "It shows that elements of addiction related to screen use are more strongly predictive of poorer mental health and even suicide risk compared to just screen time. So, I think that it provides more nuance."

A large study known as ABCD

Xiao and her colleagues used data from a large-scale ongoing longitudinal study called the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. It's been following thousands of kids over the years, and assessing them periodically for both their average daily screen time as well as for symptoms of addiction, which also allowed them to see how these addictive behaviors changed over time.

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On February 18th, 2024, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest public school district in the country, implemented an all-day cell phone ban for its students. Now that it’s the end of the school year, we head to Venice High School to see how the ban actually went. Listen to the podcast, and read the LAist report.

Did the cellphone ban in high schools work?

On February 18th, 2024, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest public school district in the country, implemented an all-day cell phone ban for its students. Now that it’s the end of the school year, we head to Venice High School to see how the ban actually went. Listen to the podcast, and read the LAist report.

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They assessed addiction with a standardized questionnaire asking them to respond to statements like, "'I spend a lot of time thinking about social media apps or planning to use the social media apps,'" explains Xiao. "'I try to use the social media app less, but I can't.' And also, 'I feel stressed and or upset if I am not allowed to use my social media apps' or 'I use it so much already it has a bad effect on my schoolwork.'"

Her team was able to group the teens based on how these answers changed over time.

With social media, they found that almost 60% had low levels of addiction to social media, and that stayed stable over the years. But about 10% had increasing addiction that peaked around year three and four of the study, and one-third showed increasing addiction.

With mobile phone use, about half showed high addiction and one-quarter had increasing addiction. With video games, they found only two groups — with about 60% showing low addiction that stayed stable over time, and 41% were highly addicted to it through the period.

Questions about suicidal behavior

The study also evaluated suicidal thoughts and behaviors. It uses a questionnaire that asked about passive and active thoughts of suicide, as well as any suicide attempts. At year four of the study, nearly 18% reported having had suicidal thoughts, and 5% admitted to suicidal behaviors, which includes making suicide plans and attempts.

The groups with high and increasing addiction to mobile phone and social media were associated with a higher risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The highly addictive group for video games also had a higher risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors compared to the group with low addictive use. However, total screen time was not linked to a higher suicide risk.

"What surprised us is that these are substantial groups, and they are associated with 2 to 3 times [risk] of suicidal behaviors," says Xiao.

Screen time is not inherently good or bad

Researchers, educators, and parents often point to the amount of time teens spend on their screens to gauge problematic use, say Xiao and Nagata.

"We all get reports from our phones about our weekly screen time," says Nagata. "Screen time is an easily understandable metric because it's minutes or hours a day that we're spending on screens."

But, he adds, screen time isn't inherently good or bad, so he welcomes the nuance this study adds to the conversation since it flags signs of addiction.

"Some kids might spend their time on screen reading the news, and some might be trolling some pretty dangerous sites," says psychologist Mitch Prinstein, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "So it's really hard to know what to make of screen time as a risk factor."

That's why screen time alone is "not a helpful measure," says psychologist Mary Alvord. It's more important to understand how a teen is using their screen time.

"They may be talking to a friend, but are they talking to a friend I-R-L, or are they talking to an avatar created by AI?" says Alvord. "And are they using screens to avoid things in real life?"

Avoidance of real life is a red flag

One of the statements in the addictive use questionnaire is: "I play video games so I can forget about my problems."

"Avoidance is a key symptom of both anxiety and depression," says Alvord, and it is revelatory about a teen's mental health status and relationship with video games or screens in general.

"We're starting to really try and understand what are the specific features or the specific behaviors that might be more concerning," explains Prinstein, who has co-chaired the American Psychological Association's advisory panel on social media use in adolescents. "And the extent to which kids say, 'I can't stop even when I'm trying to. I'm having withdrawal, dependence, tolerance symptoms,' that's important."

Nagata has also used data from the ABCD study to understand how teens are using social media over time and how that's affecting their risk of mental health symptoms.

"One thing that was really striking to me is that, unfortunately, these symptoms of screen addictions are actually pretty common," says Nagata. He also found that some of the symptoms get more common over time.

He and his colleagues found that 47.5% of 11-12 year olds said that "I lose track of how much I am using my phone"; 22.5% said "I spend a lot of time thinking about social media apps or planning my use of social media apps"; and 18.4% said "I use social media apps so I can forget about my problems."

By age 12-13, 25% said they use social media to forget about their problems, and 25% admitted to spending a considerable amount of time thinking about social media apps.

Using the same data from the ABCD study, he and his colleagues also found that time on social media increased for preteens over the course of the study. "At the beginning of the study, the average time was only 7 minutes a day, but four years later, the average time was over 70 minutes a day."

And the more time these kids spent on social media, the more their depressive symptoms increased.

"Parents, teachers, clinicians should be, on the lookout for warning signs for screen addictions, particularly as they may relate to higher depression risk or suicide risk in teenagers," Nagata says.

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A federal judge ruled today that the Trump administration is not entitled to personal information belonging to California’s 23 million voters. Judge David O. Carter made the ruling.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice sued California, along with 22 other states and Washington, D.C., for access to their full, unredacted voter files. That includes driver’s license, social security numbers and other sensitive data.

DOJ officials said they needed the data to assess whether states were properly maintaining their voter rolls and ensuring "only American citizens are voting, only one time," as Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a social media post in December.

California refused, citing state and federal privacy law. Only a handful of states have complied with the government’s request for their full voter files, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which has been tracking the issue nationwide.

What did the judge say?

In Judge Carter’s ruling, he wrote that amassing sensitive information at the federal level would have a chilling effect on voter registration, which would lead to decreased turnout “as voters fear that their information is being used for some inappropriate or unlawful purpose.”

He added, “This risk threatens the right to vote which is the cornerstone of American democracy."

LAist emailed a request for comment to a spokesperson for the Department of Justice but has not yet received a response.

Reaction to the ruling

Jenny Farrell, executive director of the League of Women Voters of California, applauded the decision. The group had joined California in opposing the government’s data request.

“ We think that voters should never have to choose between their privacy interests and the right to participate in our democracy,” she said.

Justin Levitt, a Loyola Law School professor and former Department of Justice employee said, “The court did what we thought the court should do.”

Levitt and a group of other former DOJ employees had filed an amicus brief in the case, siding with California.

In a news release, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber wrote: “I will continue to uphold my promise to Californians to protect our democracy, and I will continue to challenge this administration's disregard for the rule of law and our right to vote.”

What's next?

The DOJ's lawsuits against other states are still making their way through the courts.

During a hearing in the case in December, Judge Carter said he anticipated his eventual ruling — whichever way it went — would be appealed, and that a final decision on the issue could rest with the U.S. Supreme Court.

A Superior Court judge has found that the city of Los Angeles violated public open records laws nearly two years ago by taking action on matters related to its homelessness response and failing to report it.

That decision could be a factor in an ongoing hearing in federal court where a different judge is considering whether to hold the city in contempt of court.

In a ruling last week, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Curtis A. Kin found that the city violated the Brown Act on two occasions in January and May 2024 when it took action in closed session on the following:

— approving an encampment reduction plan;

— approving a memorandum of understanding with the county for support on interim housing beds and other issues.

Afterward, the city did not report those approvals in open session.

The city argued its actions were allowed under the Brown Act because they stemmed from the ongoing settlement between the city and the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group of business owners and residents who sued the city over its response to the homelessness crisis.

But Kin disagreed with that argument, saying what the city had done in closed session did not fall within the Brown Act exemptions because they were policy decisions, not litigation decisions concerning the L.A. Alliance settlement.

In federal court, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter has been overseeing the city’s compliance with the settlement. Carter has said he’s concerned “the city has demonstrated a continuous pattern of delay” in meeting its obligations.

Carter has been hearing testimony since November from city officials and others in an ongoing contempt-of-court hearing. This week, the judge said in court documents that he would consider Kin’s ruling as the contempt hearing proceeds.

The parties were last in federal court earlier this week. It’s not yet clear when that hearing will resume.

Sidewalk vendors can now apply to receive a free, health-code-compliant food vending cart through a new program launched in a partnership between the county and the city of Los Angeles.

Who can apply

To receive a cart, applicants must be at least 18 years old, live in LA County, be self-employed as a sidewalk vendor, and earn less than $75,000 annually from vending, according to a news release. Applicants must operate within unincorporated LA County or the city of LA, and commit to full compliance with public health and safety regulations.

You can find the application here.

Permits to secure

Vendors who are awarded carts will have to secure required permits in order to begin operating as fully permitted businesses. This includes obtaining the Compact Mobile Food Operation (CMFO) certificate from the LA County Department of Public Health and any Sidewalk Vending Registration Certifications or permits required to comply with the county and city sidewalk vending programs.

Applications will be selected by lottery, will be reviewed on a monthly basis, and will be prioritized based on “compliance readiness.” Priority will also be given to those who are based in the county’s “highest-need areas,” as according to the county equity explorer map.

Eligible applicants will be connected to partner organizations like Inclusive Action for the City to help navigate the permitting process and to provide business business support and language assistance.

What kind of carts?

Carts offered through the program include:

• Integrated grill carts for precooked meat for tacos, hot dogs, and hamburgers that are assembled on a cart
• Hot-holding carts for pre-portioned cooked tamales, corn, quesadillas, gyros, pupusas
• Cut fruit carts for fruits, bionicos, and acai bowls
• Cold-hold ice cream carts that store prepackaged ice cream items

Currently, the county and city have 50 hot-holding and 30 cold-holding carts for the first round of awards with 40 integrated grill carts underway.

More about the program

The launch of the Sidewalk Vending Cart Program – which invests $2.8 million in more than 280 carts – follows the passage of state legislation that decriminalized street vendors and that streamlined the permitting process.

“The program aims to help vendors meet new legal requirements, overcome financial barriers to formalization, and operate safely and legally in their communities,” according to the news release.

Los Angeles County Board Chair Hilda Solis said the program can help ensure a “permitted pathway” toward entrepreneurship.
“Many vendors are navigating increasingly difficult and uncertain times due to cruel federal immigration actions, and we know vendors play an essential role in the economic and cultural vitality of Los Angeles County,” Solis said in a statement. “This is more than a program — this is a chance to support small business growth, economic stability, and even generational wealth.”

The biggest mobile network in the United States, Verizon, experienced a huge outage on Wednesday, leaving at least tens of thousands of customers without cell service for much of the day.

An update on Verizon's website today said the outage had been resolved. "We are sorry for what you experienced and will continue to work hard day and night to provide the outstanding network and service that people expect from Verizon," it said.

What happened?

It's still unclear. Verizon has not posted details nor an explanation of the cause of the outage on its website. In an email to NPR, a company spokesperson wrote that the problem stemmed from "a software issue" and that Verizon is conducting a full review.And while Verizon hasn't released a figure for how many customers were affected, the staff at the Downdetector website — where users go to report service outages — posted on Facebook that they received 2.3 million outage reports for Verizon throughout the day. (That doesn't necessarily translate to 2.3 million affected customers.)

Cell networks experience small outages fairly regularly, though, and sizable ones are not uncommon. Verizon had a disruption across several major cities in September 2024, and competitor AT&T was hit by a large outage in February 2024, affecting more than 125 million registered devices and customers in all 50 states.

Sanjoy Paul, a wireless network expert at Rice University, says telecommunications systems have become more complex over the past decade and a half as they've moved from physical infrastructure — wires and cables — and into the cloud.

"What used to be a completely hardware-dependent network transformed into a complete software-dependent network," he said. That shift has given operators more flexibility to add services or tweak products but, he said, it has come at the expense of reliability.

With a cloud and software-based networks, there are more opportunities for glitches and attacks, he said. Small issues with computer code buried inside these systems can have big consequences.

What have been some consequences of the outage?

Users had no connectivity for much of the day and were only able to access "SOS" mode during the outage.

Verizon, which has styled itself as America's best and most reliable network, has been in damage control mode. The company has issued instructions for customers to restart their devices to reconnect to the network if they are still having problems. It also pledged $20 credits as "a way of acknowledging your time and showing that this matters to us," according to their website.

The Federal Communications Commission said in a statement it was "continuing to actively investigate and monitor the situation to determine next steps."

Could it happen again?

Yep — to Verizon or any of its competitors.

Since the cause of this latest outage remains unclear, it's too early to say whether or not this exact thing could happen again. But Lee McKnight, an associate professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, told NPR's Morning Edition outages are "a fact of life these days for major telecommunications firms."

"Modern telecom networks are cloud networks. 5G networks are mainly, like, hundreds of different cloud services," he said. "The telecom companies haven't yet adjusted their training to that reality, that their staff have to be expert not just in cell towers and wireless, like we think about, but about cloud services, like AWS, or Microsoft, or Google."

At the end of the day, experts say, consumers should consider having a "Plan B" for connectivity. That may mean a land line for your house or getting a second phone on a different cell network.
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