While scrolling through social media one afternoon, senior Macie Dwyer expected to see the usual stream of jokes, trends and pop-culture chatter. Instead, she encountered an image she says she will “never unsee”. Without warning, Dwyer was horrified to see a man shot and killed.
Dwyer froze. She hadn’t searched for the video, nor had she expected it. Yet there it was—pushed onto her feed in a matter of seconds.
From graphic car-crash footage to the widely circulated shooting of political commentator Charlie Kirk, children have viewed the unthinkable. For some, violent content manifests unsolicited on their screens when they haven’t asked for it. For others, a quick Google search cures curiosities that are more damaging than they realize. No matter how a child sees the content, the unfiltered world of social media constantly exposes children to real-world violence.
Researchers say this shift has reshaped childhood. Just a decade ago, more children roamed their neighborhoods with friends, making memories and experiencing their surroundings. Now, children in the same neighborhoods sit inside on technology, playing the newest video games or watching videos. As a result, social media algorithms target the impressionability of children, often involving the use of violent content to capture a child’s attention.
A study from the Youth Endowment Fund, which surveyed 10,000 teens aged 13-17 years old, revealed that 70% of teens have experienced real-life violence online. Of the 70%, 25% of teens said they viewed the content through the social media platforms’ promotion, while only 6% said they searched for the content. Half said they had viewed it from a friend’s phone, and 35% had content shared directly with them.
This means the majority of kids who use social media have seen or will see traumatizing content without even meaning to. For many teens, this exposure is not only disturbing—it is traumatic. Jonathan Haidt, author of “The Anxious Generation”, argues that the frequent exposure to violence through social media has led to an exponential surge of anxiety in young people.
Katie Smith, a counselor at HHS, has seen these effects firsthand.
“It becomes like what we see in PTSD, where someone is having flashbacks, or they are thinking about it regularly, and they can’t get those images out of their heads,” Smith said. “It can cause people to have nightmares and also impact the way they feel about their own safety in public spaces.”
Beyond trauma, Smith worries about desensitization and declining empathy, outcomes she notices are becoming increasingly evident in students’ behavior.
“Everything is so polarized,” Smith said. “When you sit behind a screen, versus sitting face to face and having a conversation with someone, it’s very easy to dehumanize. You start to think of someone as a caricature of themselves, rather than really thinking about a person and what they’re going through.”
Students themselves say the impact is unmistakable. Dwyer describes a shift in how she viewed others after the video appeared on her feed.
“It exposed me to the hatred humans can have,” Dwyer said. “After seeing [the video], I went around talking to people with the idea that everyone hated each other.”
Other HHS students also shared their experiences. Senior Catherine Lard said she has seen graphic photographs of war and believes those images have altered her emotional responses.
“What I’ve seen has definitely made me less sensitive to certain events that happen in real life,” Lard said.
Junior Angelina Chicnes Pizarro recalled watching a video of a dog being run over.
“Initially, I was obviously grossed out,” Pizarro said. “I’m fine after the fact; however, I’ve definitely noticed myself being less sensitive to things I should be, as I’ve spent more time on social media.”
As violent content becomes woven into the routine experience of adolescence, educators and researchers warn that its effects may extend far beyond the moment of shock. For many teens, the images that appear uninvited on their screens may shape how they perceive danger, conflict and even one another—long after they put their phones down.
