This story is jointly published as part of the Utah College Media Collaborative, a cross-campus project bringing together emerging journalists from Salt Lake Community College, Southern Utah University, the University of Utah, Utah Tech University and Weber State University. The collaborative is an Amplify Utah project with support from PBS Utah and POV.
You’ve probably been told your entire life that there’s a lot of negatives to social media use. In the third episode of Ctrl+Z, host Gabriel Small explores some of these negative impacts on Generation Z.
Research shows that technology use has shortened our attention spans, and can also lead users to feel anxiety and FOMO (the fear of missing out.)
“I definitely think attention span has gone by the wayside,” says Dr. Matthew Barton, a professor at Southern Utah University. He sees students struggle to focus and read longer texts in his classes. Heather Turner, a communications student at SUU, describes feeling “a pit in my stomach” after scrolling through endless content and acknowledges that social media can be addictive.
Meanwhile, Utah lawmakers in the 2025 Legislative Session drafted regulations to hold social media companies accountable for addictive algorithms. The legislature passed two laws aimed at social platforms, including one requiring app stores to verify users’ ages.
In the next episode, Brynn Smith will explore how some Gen Z social media users have formed a healthier relationship with technology.
Gabriel Small reported and produced this story as a communication student at Southern Utah University.
