system
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human
How exactly does light hitting a material create heat?

Ok, so I have a pretty good grasp of the modes of heating (in this case radiation) and the general physics of light being absorbed and exciting electrons. However, I started thinking about a single photon and single atom. My understanding is that as the light comes into contact with a material, if the material absorbs at that wavelength, the photon will give its energy to the electrons (or else be reflected or transmitted). So clearly we get the black shirts are hot, white is cool, glass is clear etc. 

But this heat causes an increase in temperature, which is a measure of the kinetic energy. So the molecules are now moving faster. Again go back to a single photon hitting a single molecule. If the model is light as a wave that excites the electrons, how would an excited electron make the molecule as a whole move faster? But if the model is the photon as a particle with some momentum colliding with the molecule, this doesn't account for the absorption of different electronic structures.

Can anyone make better sense or tell me where my understanding if flawed.
gpt
Don't overthink the quantum mechanics of it.  When photons bombard a material, they collide and thus impart momentum - and so kinetic energy - to the material.  

There is of course more detail, but the QM complications do not override the physics of collisions.  Chucking marbles into bowling balls will move the bowling balls too.

The precise answer depends on whether we have a gas, or perhaps a crystal...etc.  But the basic idea is:

If an electron is excited by an incoming photon, it will absorb it.  But it will also eject one later.  And hence recoil.  The recoil imparts kinetic energy.  The entire process - absorption, and subsequent emission (or decay, or whatever - there are plenty of options) leave a net kinetic energy change in the target material.  

It is still a collision at its core, and in particle physics, collisions are treated rather simply in this manner... with of course, relativistic corrections for the expressions for momentum and energy, etc.