Nearly half of Generation Z wish TikTok had “never been invented,” survey finds

The truth is: About half of Generation Z (47%) and Generation X (50%) wish TikTok didn't exist, despite – or perhaps because – they spend four hours a day on social media, which is the norm for more than half of respondents, according to a new survey.

The results of a nationally representative survey of 1,006 Generation Z adults (ages 18-27) conducted by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and the Harris Poll offer a sobering snapshot of how young adults are dealing with the addictive nature of smartphones and social media.

Haidt, author of the controversial bestseller The fearful generation, which promotes four basic rules for children and smartphones – none before high school, no social media before age 16, no phones in school and more unsupervised gaming – shares the results in a New York Times Opinion piece on Tuesday.

He finds it “astonishing” how much time Generation Z spends on social media – 60% spend four hours a day and 23% spend seven or more hours a day. This is particularly “astonishing” because 60% also say that social media has a negative impact on society (compared to 32% who say it has a positive impact).

And while 52 percent say social media has enriched their lives and 29 percent say it has harmed them, young people from historically disadvantaged groups have benefited less, he writes. For example, 44 percent of women and 47 percent of LGBTQ respondents say social media has had a negative impact on their mental health. By comparison, the figure is 31 percent for men and 35 percent for non-LGBTQ respondents.

When it comes to wishing a platform had “never been invented,” TikTok and X received the most votes, followed by Snapchat (43%), Facebook (37%), and Instagram (34%). The lowest scores in this category went to the smartphone itself (21%), messaging apps (19%), and streaming services like Netflix (17%) and YouTube (15%).

“We interpret these low numbers as an indication that Generation Z does not have strong regrets about the basic communication, storytelling and information-finding functions of the Internet,” Haidt writes. “If smartphones simply allowed people to text each other, watch movies and search for useful information or interesting videos (without personalized recommendation algorithms designed to hook users), there would be far less regret and resentment.”

While only 36 percent of respondents support a social media ban for children under 16, 69 percent support a law that would require social media companies to develop a child-safe option for children under 18.

That's something the House is currently considering, Haidt notes, urging lawmakers to take action on the Kids Online Safety Act, which would first disable addictive product features and require tech companies to give young users the option to turn off personalized algorithm feeds. (On Tuesday, Instagram responded to growing concerns about young people and social media by announcing that all teen accounts would be private by default.)

Haidt concludes his commentary by asking readers to imagine that walkie-talkies harm millions of young people and that more than a third of young people wish they didn't exist, “but still feel compelled to use them for five hours a day.”

If that were the case, he argues, “we would take action. We would insist that manufacturers make their products safer and less addictive for children. The same standard applies to social media companies: They must either adapt their products to ensure the safety of young users or stop making them available to children altogether.”

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This story originally appeared on Fortune.com