In 2022, when the violence prevention organization Project Unloaded launched its first social media-focused campaign, its leaders had one goal: to challenge the notion among young people that guns make people more safe. Four years later, they’ve reached a conclusion: Social media platforms are an effective avenue for channeling public health messaging to young people.
“How do we harness the power of young people to drive culture change,” said Nina Vinik, founder of Project Unloaded, speaking of the Chicago-based organization’s inquiry into their online campaigns. “How do we make social media a tool for building safer communities? And how do we show the impact of that strategy?”
Through an analysis conducted earlier this year, Vinik and her colleagues may have gotten some answers. The results, published in July, found that one in six Snapchat users between the ages of 13 and 17 surveyed were aware of SNUG, the organization’s Safer Not Using Guns campaign, which uses Snapchat to share messaging about firearm access. They found that teens aware of the campaign were 17 points more likely to believe they were safer without guns.
To conduct the analysis, Project Unloaded brought in ISG Research, an independent group that surveyed more than 2,500 Snapchat users in the four-year teenage demographic. The study was nationally representative.
The analysis was conducted between March and April and comes as firearm violence continues to affect and take the lives of thousands of young people every year. Between 2014 and 2024, the number of children and teens dying by gun violence rose by 68 percent.
For young people like Esha Ambre, a sophomore at the University of California, Irvine, the study speaks to her firsthand experience and that of her peers.
“Gun violence is definitely relevant to any student today,” Ambre, who got involved with Project Unloaded as a high school student, told The Trace. “No matter what you believe in politically, a fear of having your life impacted like this is something that we’re all in unison about.”
By surveying teens and also examining the various ways that shootings affect teenagers’ lives, the new study raises several potential solutions. Just as in past decades when health campaigns targeted cigarette smoking and car safety, the key to gun violence messaging is rooted in reaching people through the most popular and accessible channels.
“What’s really important and powerful in the findings is that when young people see the SNUG campaign, the message gets through,” Vinik told The Trace. “We are giving them important, valuable information about the risks that come with having or using guns; that is new information to them, and it sticks.”
Akilah Townsend for The Trace
Nearly half of the teens surveyed said that gun violence negatively affected their mental health. More than 80 percent of those surveyed have seen gun violence on social media, with 57 percent actually watching someone being killed or being harmed on the internet.
Robert Schentrup, who manages youth training and engagement at Brady United, said he was most struck by that finding. Schentrup, whose sister Carmen was killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said the campaign likely resonated with teenagers because it gave them ‘a narrative for something that they know and feel, but haven’t been able to put into words.’
“We have to think about it as meeting people where they are. Young people spend so much time on their phones… and social media… so these are important tools in doing outreach and public health messaging,” he said.
The respondents represented diverse backgrounds, with more than half of those aware of the campaign being teenage boys. A quarter of the young people who were aware were Black, 29 percent were Hispanic, and 67 percent came from homes with guns. Although the results found that gun violence was universally affecting younger generations, its presence was more pronounced in communities with elevated risk of violence exposure; 64 percent of respondents exposed to gun violence said the issue negatively affected their mental health, as opposed to 48 percent who hadn’t experienced a shooting.
Ambre, the Project Unloaded participant, said the SNUG campaign’s political neutrality strengthened its message for young people.
“It’s good for people to get advocacy messages online in ways that aren’t politicized,” Ambre said. “You’re not reading another ad saying ‘Oh, you should be a Republican or Democrat.’ It’s more just about safety and making sure that we’re all taking care of ourselves and that we’re all feeling comfortable.”
The analysis comes at a time when researchers are voicing their concerns about how social media usage can contribute to gun violence. A 2021 study analyzing community violence in Philadelphia showed that patterns of social media activity showed specific effects on gun violence, with more interaction leading to more shootings. Another study looking at school shootings and social media found that social media usage, particularly in online discussion spaces, was connected to the timing of a school shooting.
“So many of the conversations that I have had with fellow survivors from Parkland, my friends who have been diagnosed with things like PTSD, depression, or clinical anxiety, show there are absolutely real consequences for folks who are in proximity to gun violence experience,” Schentrup said.
Ambre recounted the experiences of several of her friends who have been exposed to firearm violence. In the past year, when a gunman strode onto her college campus brandishing a weapon, text updates from the university’s alert system informed students of what was happening, a process that has become normalized in America.
“My advocacy and my love for advocacy started in 2020 when we all started using social media as a method to get the word out more about social injustice,” Ambre said. “You can’t really stay away from [gun violence] as much as people wish that they could. The truth is that it will eventually affect you in some way or another.”
