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Social media harms teens’ mental health, mounting evidence shows. what now.

Understanding what is going on in teens’ minds is necessary for targeted policy suggestions

Most teens use social media, often for hours on end. Some social scientists are confident that such use is harming their mental health. Now they want to pinpoint what explains the link.

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By Sujata Gupta

February 20, 2024 at 7:30 am

In January, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta, appeared at a congressional hearing to answer questions about how social media potentially harms children. Zuckerberg opened by saying: “The existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health.”

But many social scientists would disagree with that statement. In recent years, studies have started to show a causal link between teen social media use and reduced well-being or mood disorders, chiefly depression and anxiety.

Ironically, one of the most cited studies into this link focused on Facebook.

Researchers delved into whether the platform’s introduction across college campuses in the mid 2000s increased symptoms associated with depression and anxiety. The answer was a clear yes , says MIT economist Alexey Makarin, a coauthor of the study, which appeared in the November 2022 American Economic Review . “There is still a lot to be explored,” Makarin says, but “[to say] there is no causal evidence that social media causes mental health issues, to that I definitely object.”

The concern, and the studies, come from statistics showing that social media use in teens ages 13 to 17 is now almost ubiquitous. Two-thirds of teens report using TikTok, and some 60 percent of teens report using Instagram or Snapchat, a 2022 survey found. (Only 30 percent said they used Facebook.) Another survey showed that girls, on average, allot roughly 3.4 hours per day to TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, compared with roughly 2.1 hours among boys. At the same time, more teens are showing signs of depression than ever, especially girls ( SN: 6/30/23 ).

As more studies show a strong link between these phenomena, some researchers are starting to shift their attention to possible mechanisms. Why does social media use seem to trigger mental health problems? Why are those effects unevenly distributed among different groups, such as girls or young adults? And can the positives of social media be teased out from the negatives to provide more targeted guidance to teens, their caregivers and policymakers?

“You can’t design good public policy if you don’t know why things are happening,” says Scott Cunningham, an economist at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Increasing rigor

Concerns over the effects of social media use in children have been circulating for years, resulting in a massive body of scientific literature. But those mostly correlational studies could not show if teen social media use was harming mental health or if teens with mental health problems were using more social media.

Moreover, the findings from such studies were often inconclusive, or the effects on mental health so small as to be inconsequential. In one study that received considerable media attention, psychologists Amy Orben and Andrew Przybylski combined data from three surveys to see if they could find a link between technology use, including social media, and reduced well-being. The duo gauged the well-being of over 355,000 teenagers by focusing on questions around depression, suicidal thinking and self-esteem.

Digital technology use was associated with a slight decrease in adolescent well-being , Orben, now of the University of Cambridge, and Przybylski, of the University of Oxford, reported in 2019 in Nature Human Behaviour . But the duo downplayed that finding, noting that researchers have observed similar drops in adolescent well-being associated with drinking milk, going to the movies or eating potatoes.

Holes have begun to appear in that narrative thanks to newer, more rigorous studies.

In one longitudinal study, researchers — including Orben and Przybylski — used survey data on social media use and well-being from over 17,400 teens and young adults to look at how individuals’ responses to a question gauging life satisfaction changed between 2011 and 2018. And they dug into how the responses varied by gender, age and time spent on social media.

Social media use was associated with a drop in well-being among teens during certain developmental periods, chiefly puberty and young adulthood, the team reported in 2022 in Nature Communications . That translated to lower well-being scores around ages 11 to 13 for girls and ages 14 to 15 for boys. Both groups also reported a drop in well-being around age 19. Moreover, among the older teens, the team found evidence for the Goldilocks Hypothesis: the idea that both too much and too little time spent on social media can harm mental health.

“There’s hardly any effect if you look over everybody. But if you look at specific age groups, at particularly what [Orben] calls ‘windows of sensitivity’ … you see these clear effects,” says L.J. Shrum, a consumer psychologist at HEC Paris who was not involved with this research. His review of studies related to teen social media use and mental health is forthcoming in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

Cause and effect

That longitudinal study hints at causation, researchers say. But one of the clearest ways to pin down cause and effect is through natural or quasi-experiments. For these in-the-wild experiments, researchers must identify situations where the rollout of a societal “treatment” is staggered across space and time. They can then compare outcomes among members of the group who received the treatment to those still in the queue — the control group.

That was the approach Makarin and his team used in their study of Facebook. The researchers homed in on the staggered rollout of Facebook across 775 college campuses from 2004 to 2006. They combined that rollout data with student responses to the National College Health Assessment, a widely used survey of college students’ mental and physical health.

The team then sought to understand if those survey questions captured diagnosable mental health problems. Specifically, they had roughly 500 undergraduate students respond to questions both in the National College Health Assessment and in validated screening tools for depression and anxiety. They found that mental health scores on the assessment predicted scores on the screenings. That suggested that a drop in well-being on the college survey was a good proxy for a corresponding increase in diagnosable mental health disorders. 

Compared with campuses that had not yet gained access to Facebook, college campuses with Facebook experienced a 2 percentage point increase in the number of students who met the diagnostic criteria for anxiety or depression, the team found.

When it comes to showing a causal link between social media use in teens and worse mental health, “that study really is the crown jewel right now,” says Cunningham, who was not involved in that research.

A need for nuance

The social media landscape today is vastly different than the landscape of 20 years ago. Facebook is now optimized for maximum addiction, Shrum says, and other newer platforms, such as Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, have since copied and built on those features. Paired with the ubiquity of social media in general, the negative effects on mental health may well be larger now.

Moreover, social media research tends to focus on young adults — an easier cohort to study than minors. That needs to change, Cunningham says. “Most of us are worried about our high school kids and younger.” 

And so, researchers must pivot accordingly. Crucially, simple comparisons of social media users and nonusers no longer make sense. As Orben and Przybylski’s 2022 work suggested, a teen not on social media might well feel worse than one who briefly logs on. 

Researchers must also dig into why, and under what circumstances, social media use can harm mental health, Cunningham says. Explanations for this link abound. For instance, social media is thought to crowd out other activities or increase people’s likelihood of comparing themselves unfavorably with others. But big data studies, with their reliance on existing surveys and statistical analyses, cannot address those deeper questions. “These kinds of papers, there’s nothing you can really ask … to find these plausible mechanisms,” Cunningham says.

One ongoing effort to understand social media use from this more nuanced vantage point is the SMART Schools project out of the University of Birmingham in England. Pedagogical expert Victoria Goodyear and her team are comparing mental and physical health outcomes among children who attend schools that have restricted cell phone use to those attending schools without such a policy. The researchers described the protocol of that study of 30 schools and over 1,000 students in the July BMJ Open.

Goodyear and colleagues are also combining that natural experiment with qualitative research. They met with 36 five-person focus groups each consisting of all students, all parents or all educators at six of those schools. The team hopes to learn how students use their phones during the day, how usage practices make students feel, and what the various parties think of restrictions on cell phone use during the school day.

Talking to teens and those in their orbit is the best way to get at the mechanisms by which social media influences well-being — for better or worse, Goodyear says. Moving beyond big data to this more personal approach, however, takes considerable time and effort. “Social media has increased in pace and momentum very, very quickly,” she says. “And research takes a long time to catch up with that process.”

Until that catch-up occurs, though, researchers cannot dole out much advice. “What guidance could we provide to young people, parents and schools to help maintain the positives of social media use?” Goodyear asks. “There’s not concrete evidence yet.”

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• Open access
• Published: 06 July 2023

Pros & cons: impacts of social media on mental health

• Ágnes Zsila 1 , 2 &
• Marc Eric S. Reyes   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5280-1315 3  

BMC Psychology volume  11 , Article number:  201 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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The use of social media significantly impacts mental health. It can enhance connection, increase self-esteem, and improve a sense of belonging. But it can also lead to tremendous stress, pressure to compare oneself to others, and increased sadness and isolation. Mindful use is essential to social media consumption.

Social media has become integral to our daily routines: we interact with family members and friends, accept invitations to public events, and join online communities to meet people who share similar preferences using these platforms. Social media has opened a new avenue for social experiences since the early 2000s, extending the possibilities for communication. According to recent research [ 1 ], people spend 2.3 h daily on social media. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat have become increasingly popular among youth in 2022, and one-third think they spend too much time on these platforms [ 2 ]. The considerable time people spend on social media worldwide has directed researchers’ attention toward the potential benefits and risks. Research shows excessive use is mainly associated with lower psychological well-being [ 3 ]. However, findings also suggest that the quality rather than the quantity of social media use can determine whether the experience will enhance or deteriorate the user’s mental health [ 4 ]. In this collection, we will explore the impact of social media use on mental health by providing comprehensive research perspectives on positive and negative effects.

Social media can provide opportunities to enhance the mental health of users by facilitating social connections and peer support [ 5 ]. Indeed, online communities can provide a space for discussions regarding health conditions, adverse life events, or everyday challenges, which may decrease the sense of stigmatization and increase belongingness and perceived emotional support. Mutual friendships, rewarding social interactions, and humor on social media also reduced stress during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 4 ].

On the other hand, several studies have pointed out the potentially detrimental effects of social media use on mental health. Concerns have been raised that social media may lead to body image dissatisfaction [ 6 ], increase the risk of addiction and cyberbullying involvement [ 5 ], contribute to phubbing behaviors [ 7 ], and negatively affects mood [ 8 ]. Excessive use has increased loneliness, fear of missing out, and decreased subjective well-being and life satisfaction [ 8 ]. Users at risk of social media addiction often report depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem [ 9 ].

Overall, findings regarding the impact of social media on mental health pointed out some essential resources for psychological well-being through rewarding online social interactions. However, there is a need to raise awareness about the possible risks associated with excessive use, which can negatively affect mental health and everyday functioning [ 9 ]. There is neither a negative nor positive consensus regarding the effects of social media on people. However, by teaching people social media literacy, we can maximize their chances of having balanced, safe, and meaningful experiences on these platforms [ 10 ].

We encourage researchers to submit their research articles and contribute to a more differentiated overview of the impact of social media on mental health. BMC Psychology welcomes submissions to its new collection, which promises to present the latest findings in the emerging field of social media research. We seek research papers using qualitative and quantitative methods, focusing on social media users’ positive and negative aspects. We believe this collection will provide a more comprehensive picture of social media’s positive and negative effects on users’ mental health.

Data Availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

Ágnes Zsila was supported by the ÚNKP-22-4 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Culture and Innovation from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.

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Ágnes Zsila

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• Published: 19 March 2024

Variation in social media sensitivity across people and contexts

• Sumer S. Vaid 1   nAff6 ,
• Lara Kroencke 2 ,
• Mahnaz Roshanaei 1 ,
• Sanaz Talaifar 3 ,
• Jeffrey T. Hancock 1 ,
• Mitja D. Back 2 ,
• Samuel D. Gosling 4 , 5 ,
• Nilam Ram 1 &
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• Human behaviour

Social media impacts people’s wellbeing in different ways, but relatively little is known about why this is the case. Here we introduce the construct of “social media sensitivity” to understand how social media and wellbeing associations differ across people and the contexts in which these platforms are used. In a month-long large-scale intensive longitudinal study (total n = 1632; total number of observations = 120,599), we examined for whom and under which circumstances social media was associated with positive and negative changes in social and affective wellbeing. Applying a combination of frequentist and Bayesian multilevel models, we found a small negative average association between social media use AND subsequent wellbeing, but the associations were heterogenous across people. People with psychologically vulnerable dispositions (e.g., those who were depressed, lonely, not satisfied with life) tended to experience heightened negative social media sensitivity in comparison to people who were not psychologically vulnerable. People also experienced heightened negative social media sensitivity when in certain types of places (e.g., in social places, in nature) and while around certain types of people (e.g., around family members, close ties), as compared to using social media in other contexts. Our results suggest that an understanding of the effects of social media on wellbeing should account for the psychological dispositions of social media users, and the physical and social contexts surrounding their use. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of social media sensitivity for scholars, policymakers, and those in the technology industry.

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Introduction

How does social media impact wellbeing? This is an important question for a variety of stakeholders, ranging from social-media users and academic researchers to those in technology companies and policy makers. Here, we introduce the construct of “social media sensitivity” to help explain how social media’s effects on wellbeing may differ between people (e.g., based on their psychological dispositions) and within a person over time (e.g., based on the context in which the media use is occurring). We conceptualize social media sensitivity as a person-level construct that captures heterogeneity in how individuals respond psychologically to social media within a defined time period (e.g., change after an hour, a day, a week). At its core, social media sensitivity can thus be understood as a state that reflects positive or negative change in a person’s psychological experiences after they have used social media. However, like other constructs, social media sensitivity states can also be aggregated or assessed in reference to longer time periods (e.g., months, years) to reflect a trait-like tendency to respond to social media. As such, people can experience social media sensitivity that is negative (e.g., feeling worse after using social media), positive (e.g., feeling better after using social media), or neutral (e.g., feeling no better or worse after using social media) in the moment, and on average over longer periods of time.

Here, we investigate the psychological and contextual factors that may help explain social media sensitivity at both the between and within-person levels. Using data from two large-scale samples of month-long experience sampling studies, we show that people’s momentary social media sensitivity depends on their psychological dispositions ( who they are) as well as the physical and social contexts in which they are using social media platforms ( where and around whom social media use is occurring).

Studies from a variety of disciplines have focused on identifying the magnitude and valence of the associations between social media and wellbeing 1 , consistently finding that on average, there is a small and negative association. For example, correlational has generally found small negative associations between social media use and cognitive and social wellbeing 2 , 3 . Quasi-experimental evidence based on observational data suggests that the introduction of Facebook on college campuses led to small decreases in mental health indices and increases in depression symptomatology 4 . Causal evidence has shown that decreased social media use improves subjective wellbeing [e.g., satisfaction with life, feelings of happiness, loneliness: 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Past research suggests that in general, there is a small and negative effect of social media use on wellbeing outcomes, but a growing body of evidence has found there are considerable differences in sensitivity to social media across people, based on who is using these platforms and how they are using them [e.g., 6 , 7 ]. Moreover, many studies have relied on measuring the associations between social media use and well-being at a single point in time 1 , 8 , 9 , 10 , precluding the possibility of separating out between-person associations from within-person associations [e.g., 11 ]. As a result, research in this area has generated questions about what drives the heterogeneity of these associations across different people [e.g., 12 ].

The last two decades have witnessed the transformation of social media platforms’ userbase from a relatively small and homogenous group of tech-savvy enthusiasts to include millions of young adults, who have varying psychological dispositions that may make them particularly sensitive to the effects of social media use. The expansion of social media’s user base is consequential for understanding how platforms affect a range of outcomes across wellbeing domains (e.g., affective, social). Hence, one possible explanation for the heterogeneity in social media effects focuses on psychological dispositions to understand who is using social media, and whether some people are more psychologically vulnerable than others to the effects of social media use on wellbeing.

Indeed, research suggests that people’s personality traits (e.g., extraversion) are systematically linked with their patterns of social media use 13 , and that psychological dispositions are closely linked to feelings of wellness 14 . In particular, much of the past work has focused on whether people’s dispositional wellbeing, such as their self-esteem 15 , loneliness 16 , and attachment style 17 , explains the relationship between social media use and wellbeing. Past research on this topic suggests that people who are psychologically vulnerable (i.e., those who have a dispositional tendency towards worse wellbeing) tend to suffer greater declines in wellbeing outcomes after using social media, as compared to people who have better dispositional wellbeing. For example, people who are higher in dispositional loneliness tend to feel lonelier after using social media, compared with people who are lower in dispositional loneliness [e.g., 18 ]. The converse is true as well for those who have more sociable dispositions: people who have greater goal-driven behavior are less likely to suffer the negative psychological effects of using social media 19 . Hence, people with greater psychological vulnerabilities tend to have negative social media sensitivities whereas people with lesser psychological vulnerabilities may have positive or neutral social media sensitivities.

When the first social media platforms were launched at the turn of the millennium, they were primarily desktop-based websites that were used in a limited number of places by a relatively small number of people. Over the course of the past two decades, revolutions in computing technologies have transformed social media websites into mobile platforms that are used on-the-go in the contexts of everyday life [e.g., 20 , 21 ] . Compared to dispositional traits, relatively little research has examined the extent to which a person’s surrounding context shapes social media sensitivity in the moment 22 . Some empirical evidence supports the idea that people’s physical and social contexts (e.g., where they are and who they are with) can complement or interfere with their social media sensitivities. For instance, when using smartphones while engaging in social interactions, people tend to report lower feelings of enjoyment in comparison to engaging in social interactions without using their smartphones 23 . To the best of our knowledge, only one study has investigated the extent to which places moderate the relationship between social media use and wellbeing outcomes. This study found that using Facebook while at home was linked to lower emotional arousal as compared to using Facebook at other places 24 , suggesting that using social media outside of the home may be favorable for wellbeing.

Cumulatively, past research on social media sensitivity has been subject to several key limitations. First, some of this past research focused on time domains that do not capture everyday social media sensitivity [e.g., instead studying trends aggregated over months and years: 3 , 25 ]. Second, past research into how the effect of social media differs from person to person has recruited participants that are not representative of the largest user base of social media platforms—young adults—focusing instead on adolescents [e.g., 15 ]. Third, a large subset of past research has either failed to capture within-person associations our routinely conflated between and within-person associations between social media use and wellbeing, leading to biased assessments of effect sizes [see 25 for more details]. Fourth, even when between and within-person effects are modelled separately, past studies have only controlled for a small number of variables (e.g., sex and age) that are correlated with both social media use and wellbeing. Typically, modelling-complexity issues are cited for such modeling decisions [e.g., 18 ], but these can lead to an overestimation of the effect sizes and of the heterogeneity associated with social media use and wellbeing constructs. Fifth, the most recent research has operationalized wellbeing through a small (albeit still important) set of constructs [e.g., self-esteem, attachment style: 24 , 25 ] rather than the capturing the full breadth of what it means to feel well. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the bulk of past research has ignored the role played by physical and social contexts in modifying the relationship between social media use and wellbeing [e.g., 15 , 20 , for an important exception, see: 26 ].

In the present research, we build upon the past research in multiple ways. First, we collect intensive longitudinal data from people’s everyday life, instead of relying on data collected at more coarse temporal domains (e.g., once every six months). Second, unlike recent research that has focused on adolescent populations, our target population of interest is young adults in the United States, who form the largest user-base of social media platforms in the country 27 . To the best of our knowledge, our study is significantly larger in terms of sample size and data collection duration, as compared to past studies about the effects of social media on wellbeing in daily life. Third we deploy a mixture of frequentist and Bayesian analytical strategies that allow us to decompose within and between-person components of social media use. These strategies allow us to specify random slopes (i.e., a slope for each person is estimated) for the relationship between social media use and wellbeing outcomes, which allows us to investigate how social media sensitivity differs across people. Fourth, the richness of our data (e.g., the number of observations per participant) allows us to include many control variables (e.g., sex, age, preceding wellbeing states, engagement in multitasking; see Table S41 for more details) without hindering model computation. Finally, in addition to examining person-level heterogeneity, we also examine how social media sensitivity varies across the physical and social contexts in which these platforms are used.

We structure our contributions using three research questions:

RQ 1: What is the relationship between social media use and subsequent wellbeing in daily life? RQ 2: To what extent does the relationship between social media use and wellbeing depend on people’s psychological dispositions? RQ 3: To what extent does the relationship between social media use and wellbeing depend on the physical and social context in which use is occurring?

Our data were collected from a large sample of young adults in the United States (n participant  = 1632; n obs  = 120,599) using a combination of cross-sectional surveys and four weeks of experience sampling surveys. We analyzed these data using multilevel models to examine the relationship between social media use and momentary affective and social wellbeing, and to determine whether these associations were moderated by people’s psychological dispositions and the context in which they used social media.

We operationalized social media use by collecting data about whether people used social media (“Social Media Use,” defined as a binary variable of use vs. non-use in a given hour) and the degree of their usage if they had used social media (“Duration of Social Media Use,” defined as the duration of social media use in 15-min increments during the hour). For our affective and social wellbeing outcomes, we asked people to report their momentary stress, affect balance, loneliness, and feelings of being accepted. To assess psychological dispositions, we measured people’s Big Five personality traits (i.e., their levels of openness, extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and agreeableness) 28 and dispositional measures of social, affective, and cognitive wellbeing (i.e., loneliness, depression, affect balance, satisfaction with life) 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 . To assess people’s physical and social context at the time of social media use, we asked people to report the places they had been (e.g., if they were at home, the gym, in nature when they were using social media platforms) and the people they had spent time with in-person (e.g., if they were around close ties, distant ties, family ties).

To begin examining the construct of social media sensitivity, we first conducted an exploratory analysis of data collected in the fall of 2020 from a sample of 920 participants (observations = 73,284). We used the exploratory findings to generate hypotheses that were then pre-registered for a confirmatory analysis of data collected in the spring of 2021 from a second sample of 764 participants (observations = 55, 903). Our anonymized pre-registration, analytical code and data needed to reproduce all analysis can be found on our project’s Open Science Framework page: https://osf.io/xtpvn/.

 In general, most of the exploratory findings observed in the Fall 2020 dataset did not replicate in the 2021 dataset. For RQ1, 4 of 5 pre-registered hypotheses were confirmed. For RQ2, 2 of 9 pre-registered hypotheses were confirmed. For RQ3, 4 of 12 pre-registered hypotheses were confirmed.

We suspect that the lack of replication across the two datasets might be due, in part, to the macro-level differences in the experiences of our participants. Specifically, the first cohort of participants were living off-campus and experiencing the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic, while the second cohort was back on campus and experiencing the lifting of restrictions on daily life activities. Given such macro-level differences across our two datasets, we subsequently performed a mega analysis 33 , by pooling the exploratory and confirmatory datasets together. Our research questions and analytical approach (e.g., exclusion criteria for observations and participants, modeling strategy) did not change from the preregistration for the purposes of the pooled dataset analysis. Combining the datasets in a mega-analysis allowed us to control for sample-specific differences, permitting a more robust analysis of social media sensitivity. Moreover, this approach allowed us to obtain more reliable point estimates given the increased between-person power. Given that we deviated from our pre-registration plan by focusing on the results from a mega-analysis (instead of exploratory and confirmatory sample findings), the findings should be considered exploratory in nature. We point interested readers to the supplemental materials, which contain the exploratory and confirmatory sample findings. In the main manuscript, we present the results of the mega-analysis.

What is the relationship between social media use and subsequent wellbeing?

Social media use (vs non-use).

People reported lower feelings of being accepted, negative affect balance, and greater feelings of loneliness after using social media, as compared to after not using social media (Fig.  1 a).

Social media sensitivity across affective and social wellbeing. Note : The figure depicts the random-effects coefficients of social media use and wellbeing outcomes. Stress and loneliness were reverse coded such that higher values (> 0) indicate lower levels of stress and loneliness.

Duration of use

People reported negative affect balance, and greater feelings of loneliness after using social media for longer durations than their own average, as compared to after using social media for shorter durations than their own average (Fig.  1 b).

To what extent does the relationship between social media use and wellbeing depend on people's psychological dispositions?

To examine whether between-person differences in psychological dispositions explain the within-person relationship between social media use and momentary wellbeing outcomes, we focus here on the significant cross-level interactions observed. Generally, we find that people who are more psychologically vulnerable feel worse after using social media as compared to people who are less psychologically vulnerable. (There were several significant findings at the between-person level (see supplementary materials). For the purposes of brevity and clarity we have chosen to only interpret the within-person findings in the main text.

People who were higher in neuroticism (Table S33 , Fig.  2 a) and depression (Table S33 , Fig.  2 b) reported feeling lonelier in the moments after using social media platforms, as compared to after not using social media. Similarly, people who were lower in satisfaction with life (Table S33 , Fig.  2 c) and had a generally negative affect balance (Table S33 , Fig.  2 d) reported feeling lonelier in the moments after using social media platforms, as compared to after not using social media. In contrast, people who were not psychologically vulnerable (those who were low in neuroticism and depression or had a generally positive affect balance and high satisfaction with life) did not report significant changes in their feelings of loneliness after using social media as compared to not using social media .

Dispositional moderators. Note : Stress and loneliness were reverse coded such that higher values indicate lower levels of stress and loneliness. Bands depict 95% confidence interval of simple slope estimates.

People who were higher in dispositional loneliness (Table S34 Fig.  2 e) reported feeling significantly more stressed after using social media, as compared to people who were lower in dispositional loneliness.

Affect balance

People who were higher in depression (Table S35 , Fig.  2 f) reported a greater negative affect balance in the moments after using social media, as compared to after not using social media. People who were lower in depression did not report significant changes in their affect balance in the moments after using social media. Similarly, people who were higher in agreeableness reported a greater negative affect balance in the moments after using social media, as compared to after not using social media. People who were lower in agreeableness did not report feeling significantly better or worse after using social media (Table S35 , Fig.  2 g).

To what extent does the relationship between social media and wellbeing depend on the physical and social context in which social media is being used?

People used social media platforms most frequently around family members and close ties (Fig.  3 a), and while in study places and in transit (Fig.  3 b). They were used least frequently when people were alone and around distant ties, and while in the gym and workplace. In terms of the degree of use, people used social media platforms for longer durations than their own average when they were alone and around family ties (Fig.  3 c), and while they were at home and in study places (Fig.  3 d). Similarly, people used social media for shorter durations than their own average when they were around close ties and distant ties, and while in transit and in nature.

Social media usage across physical and social contexts. Note : Social media use frequency represents the % of observations in which people reported using social media. Duration represents the average time spent in the past hour using social media platforms. Points depict the mean level of social media use in different contexts. Error bars depict one standard deviation above and below the mean for social media use in different contexts.

Physical context moderators

People reported feeling lonelier after using social media while they were in transit (Table S37 , Fig.  4 a), as compared to using social media in other places. Similarly, people reported feeling lonelier after using social media for longer durations of time than their own average in work-places (Table S37 , Fig.  5 a) as compared to other places.

Physical context moderators of social media use vs non-use). Note : Stress and loneliness were reverse coded such that higher values indicate lower levels of stress and loneliness. Bands depict 95% confidence interval of simple slope estimates.

Physical context moderators of duration of use. Note : Stress and loneliness were reverse coded such that higher values indicate lower levels of stress and loneliness. Bands depict 95% confidence interval of simple slope estimates. Values less than 0 denote below person-specific average duration of social media use. Values greater than 0 denote above person-specific average duration of social media use.

People reported feeling greater stress after using social media when they were in nature (Table S38 , Fig.  4 d), as compared to using social media in other places.

People reported a greater negative affect balance after using social media when they were outside the home (Table S39 , Fig.  4 e), as compared to using social media when they were at home. Specifically, people reported a greater negative affect balance after using social media when they were at the gym (Table S39 , Fig.  4 f), in nature (Table S39 , Fig.  4 g) and in social places (Table S39 , Fig.  4 h), as compared to using social media in other places. Conversely, people reported a positive affect balance after using social media when they were in study places (Table S39 , Fig.  4 i), as compared to using social media in other types of contexts. In terms of the degree of use, people reported a greater negative affect balance after using social media for longer durations than their own average outside their home (Table S39 , Fig.  5 b) as compared to using social media for longer durations than their own average while they were at home. Similarly, people reported a greater negative affect balance after using social media for longer durations than their own average when they were at the gym (Table S39 , Fig.  5 c) and in nature (Table S39 , Fig.  5 d), as compared to using social media for longer durations than their own average in other places.

Feelings of being accepted

People reported lower feelings of being accepted after using social media in nature (Table S40 , Fig.  4 j), social places (Table S40 , Fig.  4 k) and study places (Table S40 , Fig.  4 l), as compared to using social media in other places. In terms of the degree of use, people reported lower feelings of being accepted after using social media for longer durations than their own average when they were at their workplaces (Table S40 , Fig.  5 e), as compared to after using social media for longer durations than their own average in other places.

Social context moderators

People reported lower feelings of stress when using social media around people that were not close ties (Table S38 , Fig.  6 b), as compared to using social media around people who were close ties. Similarly, people reported feeling greater stress after using social media for longer durations than their own average when they were around family ties (Table S38 , Fig.  7 ), as compared to after using social media around other people.

Social context moderators of social media use vs non-use. Note : Stress and loneliness were reverse coded such that higher values indicate lower levels of stress and loneliness. Bands depict 95% confidence interval of simple slope estimates.

Social context moderators  duration of use. Note : Stress and loneliness were reverse coded such that higher values indicate lower levels of stress and loneliness. Bands depict 95% confidence interval of simple slope estimates.

People reported a greater negative affect balance after using social media around others (Table S39 , Fig.  6 c), as compared to using social media alone. Specifically, people reported a greater negative affect balance after using social media around close ties (Table S39 , Fig.  6 d), as compared to after using social media around other people.

People reported lower feelings of being accepted after using social media around others (Table S40 , Fig.  6 e), as compared to using social media alone. Specifically, people reported lower feelings of being accepted after using social media around family ties (Table S40 , Fig.  6 f) and close ties (Table S40 , Fig.  6 g), as compared to after using social media around other people.

Our primary goal in this research paper was to introduce and empirically investigate the construct of social media sensitivity. On average, social media use was associated with worse wellbeing, but this average association masked a great deal of heterogeneity in whether and the degree to which social media was associated with lower wellbeing within and across individuals. To examine how social media sensitivities varied across and within people, we analyzed a large experience sampling dataset collected from young adults over the course of a month using a mixture of frequentist and Bayesian multilevel modelling techniques. We found support for the idea that (1) people experience different social media sensitivities that are associated with their psychological dispositions, and (2) the physical and social contexts in which people use social media platforms are associated with their social media sensitivity in the moment. Our analytic approach allowed us to comprehensively disaggregate between and within-person effects, and account for many different control variables (including preceding wellbeing states) to precisely estimate effect sizes for people’s social media sensitivity.

We have three sets of findings that are consequential for research on the psychological effects of social media use and the regulation of social media platforms. First, we found evidence that supports the idea that there is generally a negative, albeit a small association between social media use and social and affective wellbeing. That is, on average, people reported feeling greater negative affect, lower feelings of being accepted, greater stress, and greater feelings of loneliness after using social media, compared to after not using social media. A similar pattern of results was observed for the duration of social media use. When people used social media for longer durations than usual (in reference to their own average duration as a baseline), they reported lower social (e.g., feelings of being accepted, loneliness) and affective wellbeing (e.g., affect balance, stress), compared to when they used social media for shorter durations than usual. However, we also observed considerable heterogeneity between people in the relationship between social media use and wellbeing outcomes. Hence, we corroborate many recent findings that indicate that social media and wellbeing associations tend to differ from person to person [e.g., 6 , 34 ].

Much of the past research has studied social media’s effects on affective wellbeing in adolescents. We build upon this past work in two concrete ways. First, we investigated associations between social media and wellbeing in a large sample of young adults and found similar levels of heterogeneity as those observed in adolescents. Second, we investigated the heterogeneity in associations between social media use an social wellbeing, which is particularly relevant for platforms meant to facilitate the formation and maintenance of social relationships 35 . We found qualitatively similarly levels of heterogeneity in associations between social media use and social and affective wellbeing, suggesting that heterogenous associations between social media use and wellbeing are not limited to affective operationalizations of the latter construct. Hence, this set of findings addresses concerns raised by past scholars how about different operationalizations of wellbeing might influence findings about associations between social media and wellbeing 36 , 37 .

Our results revealed that people with dispositional psychological vulnerabilities (e.g., higher depression, lower satisfaction with life) experienced greater negative social media sensitivities across the social and affective wellbeing outcomes, in comparison to people who were less psychologically vulnerable. These findings corroborate recent research that has similarly found psychologically vulnerable people to asymmetrically suffer from poor mental health as a result of using social media 38 , 39 . We replicated this pattern of results using experience sampling methods. In contrast, most past research on this topic that has focused on panel data [e.g., 3 , 40 ]. Hence the convergent findings are particularly noteworthy given that they imply, for example, that vulnerabilities might magnify the negative effects of social media use on wellbeing while simultaneously buffering any positive effects 40 , 41 , 42 .

Being in specific physical contexts (e.g., in social places and in nature) while using social media was also associated with greater negative social media sensitivity on average. Similarly, being in the company of certain people (e.g., close ties, family ties) was associated with greater negative social media sensitivity on average. In contrast, people were least sensitive to social media when they used social media platforms at home or while alone. These findings suggest that not all social media use results in negative wellbeing outcomes. By focusing on understanding the context in which social media use is occurring, researchers and policymakers can gain a better understanding of when, where and around whom social media use is detrimental, and when it might be beneficial. Furthermore, the construct of social media sensitivity allows researchers to accommodate differences in the relationship between social media use and wellbeing across three dimensions: from person-to-person, from context-to-context, and from time-to-time. In the current paper, we focused on understanding how the relationship between social media and wellbeing varies from person-to-person and context-to-context. Future research should examine how the relationship varies from time-to-time.

We further highlight two important observations. First, we failed to find specific dispositions that make people positively sensitive to social media use. That is, there were no dispositional traits (e.g., extraversion) that made people more likely to feel better after using social media platforms. Similarly, there were no physical contexts that made people more likely to feel better after using social media. These patterns of findings were also true for social context: there were no people around whom social media use was associated with positive wellbeing outcomes. A second limitation was that the negative social media sensitivity that we did observe were small in terms of effect sizes (in the range of 0.02–0.08). It is possible that these small associations, and the absence of positive social media sensitivity findings are being driven by (a) idiosyncrasies of our data samples (collected primarily during the pandemic) and (b) by analytical decisions made about comparison groups (e.g., being in social places vs. other places as compared to being in social places vs. at home). An analysis of individual participants’ data might reveal that certain people have positive social media sensitivities in certain contexts, however at the average level, these associations are masked. In any case, it is not particularly surprising that the observed effect sizes were small, given that affective and social wellbeing are psychological outcomes that are being independently affected by many different processes 43 . Indeed, our findings corroborate a large body of research that finds small to near-zero associations between social media use and wellbeing, especially as examined in the temporal domain of everyday life 44 , 45 , 46 . Hence, the possibility remains that the true effect size of interest is truly in the range of small effect sizes—a possibility that is difficult to ignore given that our work has greater between-person power as compared to previous experience sampling research on social media use and wellbeing.

For public policy legislation, it is essential to consider how legislation can be targeted to prioritize the wellbeing of the most vulnerable. Since associations between social media and wellbeing were heterogenous across people and operationalizations of wellbeing, any universally applicable legislation (e.g., wherein social media use is discouraged) will be more effective for some people (e.g., those who have a negative social media sensitivity). Hence, the conversation surrounding the legislation of social media should focus on determining which segments of the population would benefit from external regulation of social media platforms (e.g., those with psychologically vulnerable dispositions) instead of focusing overtly on the unrealistic end-goal of benefiting all segments of the population by implementing blanket policies. Similarly, public policy initiatives can focus on informational campaigns that educate the public about social media’s heterogenous effects, while social media companies can increase transparency regarding which of their users may be sensitive to positive or negative effects of their platforms and provide tools to assist with self-regulation of social media use 47 , 48 .

The main weakness of the current research is that we operationalized social media use via a binary (use vs non-use) and duration-based measure using self-report methods. This is a limitation for several reasons. First, self-report measures of social media use have been shown to correlate only weakly with objective measures of social media use obtained from log data [e.g., 49 , 50 ]. This weakness is caveated with newer literature that suggests that self-report measures of social media use have comparable predictive validity for psychological outcomes as compared to digital trace data. Hence, we expect that that many of our findings are likely to replicate with more objective measures of social media use 51 . Moreover, in relying on self-report measures, we capture people’s social media mindsets which have shown proximate associations with wellbeing outcomes 52 . Similarly, self-report measures allow us to collect social media data from iPhone users, which is typically impossible to do in an objective manner without ethical concerns [e.g., this requires “jailbreaking” out of the default system settings:, 53 ]. Lastly, by relying on self-report methods, we were able to capture social media use across desktop and smartphones, which is typically difficult to do with more objective traces of data.

Second, global self-report measures of social media use prevent an adequate understanding of platform-level differences. By using global self-report measures, we failed to capture heterogeneity in wellbeing associations that was explained by what people were doing on specific social media platforms. This can be a fertile ground for future research. Specifically, future research can capture on-platform behavior and content consumption on social media platforms using novel screenshot techniques [e.g., 54 ]. Such work could extend the contributions of the current research to create a portrait of how people’s dispositions and context of social media use relate to what they are doing on social media platforms. Similarly, to better understand the mechanisms that explain our observed patterns of findings, researchers can conduct additional experience sampling studies that capture the extent to which social media use interfered with or was conducive to the contexts that participants occupied. For instance, it is possible that using social media around others results in lowered wellbeing as a result of an active interference process 55 , where in people’s attention is divided between their devices and their social company. These variables can be explicitly measured by asking participants to report the perceived utility of their social media use.

Our research is also limited in that it samples participants from highly industrialized Western settings. Hence, we emphasize that our findings generalize to college-going young adults in the United States but may not generalize to other cross-sections of the American population or populations outside of the United States. Indeed, since social media platforms are used ubiquitously across the globe, which has led to recent calls for research examining their effects on wellbeing in diverse populations in the Global South 56 . Since we are interested in examining the moderating role of physical and social context on social media and wellbeing associations, we cannot ignore the role played by cultural differences in shaping people’s patterns of social media use, their global feelings of wellness, as well as the plurality of physical and social contexts they inhabit. Even though we collected data from highly industrialized Westernized settings, our sample composition is quite ethnically diverse: over 50% of our sample is composed of people of color (see Methods sections). Future research could further alleviate these weaknesses by collecting data from representative panels of non-Western social media users to validate the construct of social media sensitivity in understudied populations.

These weaknesses aside, our paper makes a pivotal contribution to social media and wellbeing research. We formulate the construct of social media sensitivity to examine three dimensions along which social media and wellbeing associations differ: who is using these platforms, where these platforms are being used, and around whom these platforms are being used. Our results suggest that each of these three dimensions introduce heterogeneity in social media sensitivity. Specifically, we find that the associations between social media use and wellbeing differ significantly across people and the contexts in which they use social media. Psychologically vulnerable people are more likely to suffer from the negative repercussions of using social media. Social media use is not detrimental to wellbeing when used alone and at home but is associated with negative changes in wellbeing when used in social and natural places. As a result of our contribution, future research is better prepared to understand the myriad factors that contribute to social media sensitivity, especially using combinations of novel methodologies (e.g., objective trace data) and causal designs (e.g., field-experiments).

Materials and methods

Participants.

Participants were college students recruited from an introductory psychology class at University of Texas at Austin. Research protocols were approved by the university IRB (Protocol No. 2018-07-0035). The datasets analyzed in this paper were collected in Fall 2020 (exploratory sample: n = 920, observations = 73,284) and Spring 2021 (confirmatory sample: n = 764, observations = 55,903). Prior to data analysis, we followed an initial data procedure to ensure that only high-quality experience sampling occasions were retained in the final sample:

ESM surveys completed too quickly. We computed a threshold based on the number of questions completed in each ESM survey (by multiplying this number by 0.5 s). We subsequently filtered any reports that were completed faster than the threshold.

Participant-specific ESM surveys completed too close in time to each other (less than 60 min after the previous report).

ESM surveys that took too long to complete (more than 60 min).

Participants who indicated in the post-survey that they had not been truthful in the ESM surveys.

We then excluded participants who failed to complete more than 65% of the total required experience sampling reports to gain credit for the assignment. As a final step, we removed participants who were older than 24 years of age since our target population of interest was young adults.

Initial data cleaning procedures resulted in the removal of 32 participants corresponding to 5245 observations for the exploratory sample. Subsequently, we removed 18 participants corresponding to 1528 observations who were older than 24 years of age from the exploratory sample. Finally, we removed 49 participants corresponding to 577 observations because they failed to complete more than 65% of the total number of experience sampling questions required to gain credit for the assignment. Hence, the final sample size of the exploratory sample was 821 participants corresponding to 65,934 observations.

Similarly, initial data cleaning procedures led to the removal of 20 participants corresponding to 3343 observations from the confirmatory sample. We additionally removed 10 participants corresponding to 837 observations who were older than 24 years of age from the confirmatory sample. Finally, we removed 53 participants corresponding to 837 observations because they failed to complete more than 65% of the total number of experience sampling questions required to gain credit for the assignment. Hence, the final size of the confirmatory sample was 681 participants corresponding to 51,500 observations.

In the combined sample consisting of both the exploratory and confirmatory sample, most participants identified as female (69.1%) with a mean age of 18.7 years and were enrolled in either their first (58.7%) or second year of college (26.1%). Most participants identified as Anglo/White (32.5%), Asian/Asian American (21.7%), Hispanic/Latino (25.6%) and African Americans (5.1%).

Participants completed a demographic survey during the first week of the semester and a range of personality questionnaires during other weeks of the semester. Participants received seven daily ESM surveys for up to four weeks. Participants received full credit if they provided at-least fourteen days of data with at least four surveys on each of those days. Participants downloaded an application onto their smartphones which sent periodic push notifications to participants about pending surveys. The notifications were programmed to arrive at semi-random times within seven 120-min blocks between 8 am and 10 pm, with a minimum time window of 60 min between each consecutive notification. Participants were permitted to complete surveys on their phones or computers, but notifications expired by the end of each block. Hence, the average time window between two consecutive surveys within the same day was 163 min. The surveys were distributed in the following pattern throughout the day: 22% during the morning, 24% during the midday, 27% during midday, 27% during afternoon and 24% during the evening. All participating students were compensated with class credit and personalized feedback reports that summarized their social media use trends and psychological wellbeing patterns over the course of the semester.

Momentary measures

Wellbeing was measured using seven adjectives: “happy”, “sad”, “valued and accepted by others”, “lonely”, “worried”, “angry” and “stressed”. Participants responded to each scale using a 1–4 Likert scale (ranging from “not at all” to “a great deal”). The question stem asked participants to indicate their feelings “right now”, explicitly capturing momentary wellbeing at the time of the ESM. The adjectives “angry”, “worried”, “happy”, and “sad” were borrowed directly from past work 31 . Following past research 31 , 57 , we computed momentary affect balance by subtracting the “happy” score from the arithmetic mean score of “sad”, “worried” and “angry”. We treated momentary affect balance and stress as indicators of affective wellbeing. Conversely, we treated momentary feelings of being accepted and loneliness as indicators of social wellbeing. We reverse scored stress and loneliness variables such that higher values on different wellbeing outcomes all indicated “positive wellbeing”. Hence, higher values of loneliness, stress, affect balance and feelings of being accepted all indicate positive wellbeing.

During each ESM survey, participants indicated the activities they had engaged in the past hour using a “select all that apply” multiple choice question. The question stem was “During the PAST HOUR, I spent time doing the following activities (check all that apply)”. The response options consisted of 19 different behaviors (summarized in Table S41 ) of which one was “Using social media”. We created a new categorical dummy variable that indexed all instances of social media use (vs non-use). All instances of social media use were labelled as “1”. All instances of non-social media use were labelled as “0”. All missing values were preserved. We also assessed participants’ engagement in multitasking as the number of activities performed in the past hour, specifically calculated as the number of activities they indicated performing during the past hour.

If participants selected “using social media” as an activity, branch logic displayed a follow-up question asking participants to rate the duration of their social media use in the past hour on a 4-point scale: 1 = 1–15 min, 2 = 16–30 min, 3 = 31–45 min, 4 = 46–60 min.

At each ESM survey, participants indicated, via “select all that apply” multiple choice response, who they were with during the last hour (social context) and what places they had been in during the last hour (physical context). The social context question stem was: “During the PAST HOUR, I spent time with the following people in-person (check all that apply)”. Participants could indicate having spent time with 8 different categories of people (see Table S41 ). Based on past research, we created a set of 4 dummy variables from the 8 response options: alone, with family ties, with close ties, and with distant ties (see Table S41 ). Dummy variables were created such that target social context categories were encoded with a 1, and non-target categories were encoded with a 0 (e.g., Alone = 1, With Other People = 0). All missing values were preserved.

Similarly, the physical context question stem was: “During the PAST HOUR, I spent time in the following places (check all that apply)”. People could indicate having spent time in 13 different types of places. Motivated by theoretical frameworks about psychologically salient physical and social context 55 , 58 , 59 , we created a set of 8 dummy variables from these responses: home, social places, natural places, work places, transit, study places, religious places (see Table S41 ). Dummy variables were created such that target places were encoded with a 1, while non-target places were encoded with a 0 (e.g., Home = 1, Other Places = 0). All missing values were preserved.

Individual differences and dispositional measures

Demographics.

Participants’ age and sex was measured in the demographics survey administered prior to the experience sampling component of the study.

Personality traits

Participants’ Big Five Personality Traits were measured before the start of the experience sampling component of the study. We used the BFI-2 instrument, which consists of 60-items answered using a 5-point Likert Scale 28 , 60 . The Big Five Traits measure uses the average of 12 items to measure interindividual differences in extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness. Extraversion captures differences in individuals’ tendency to be gregarious, assertive, energetic, and talkative. Agreeableness captures differences in individuals’ tendency to be trustful, altruistic, modest, and warm. Neuroticism capture one’s tendency to be anxious, angry/hostile, depressed, self-conscious, and impulsive. Conscientiousness captures one’s tendency to be competent, orderly, dutiful achievement striving, self-discipline and deliberative. Finally, Openness captures one’s tendency to be imaginative, have an aesthetic proclivity, preference for variety and curiosity.

Dispositional wellbeing

The following wellbeing tendencies were measured before the start of the experience sampling component of the study: depressive symptoms, satisfaction with life, loneliness, and affect balance.

Depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale that asks participants to indicate a variety of depressive symptoms in the preceding week, including loneliness, poor appetite, and restless sleep 30 . Higher values corresponded with greater depression symptomatology.

Satisfaction with life was measured using the Diener Satisfaction with Life Scale, as the average of responses provided on a 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) scale to 5 statements that operationalizes a holistic perspective towards their lived and ideal lives 32 . People’s satisfaction with life scores are calculated by taking an arithmetic mean of the 5 items of the scale. Higher values corresponded with greater satisfaction with life.

Loneliness was measured using the UCLA loneliness scale, that measures participants’ agreement with 9 statements that ask about the frequency with which participants experience moments of social connection or social disconnection 61 . Participants responded using a 1 ( I never feel this way) to 4 ( I always feel this way) scale. Upon reverse scoring a subset of the statements, the final score is calculated by computing an arithmetic mean of all response items. Higher values corresponded to greater loneliness.

Dispositional affect balance was measured using a modified form of the SOEP scales (e.g., Angry, Worried, Happy, Sad, Enthusiastic, Relaxed: 31 ). People indicated the extent to which they felt angry, worried, happy, sad, enthusiastic, and relaxed using a 1 ( Very rarely)— 5 ( Very often) scale. People’s dispositional affect balance was computed by subtracting the mean of their negative emotion scores (e.g., angry, worried, sad, relaxed) from their positive emotion scores (e.g., happy, sad, enthusiastic and relaxed). Hence, positive values corresponded to greater positive affect whereas negative values corresponded to greater negative affect.

Modelling strategy

Data analyses for each of the three research questions was done using multilevel models that accommodated the nested nature of the data (repeated measures nested within-persons). Following usual practice within and between-person effects are disentangled through person-mean centering of all time-varying (Level 1) predictor variables and sample-mean centering of all person-level (Level 2) predictor variables 62 . Much of the past research has disproportionately focused on examining between-person associations between social media and wellbeing. Hence, to build upon past research, we were especially interested in cross-level interactions (e.g., the extent to which between-person differences in psychological dispositions explain within-person relationships between social media and wellbeing) and within-person moderation effects (e.g. comparing people’s feelings of wellbeing after using social media as compared to when they did not use social media).

For main effect analysis, our general analytic approach consisted of specifying separate models wherein: (1) one of our four possible wellbeing outcomes is specified as a dependent variable and (2) one of two possible operationalizations of social media use are included as predictors. As a result, a total of 8 main effects models were computed. Similarly, for moderation analysis, our general analytic approach consisted of specifying separate models wherein: (1) one of four possible wellbeing outcomes (e.g., feelings of being accepted, loneliness, stress and affect balance) is specified as a dependent variable, (2) one of two possible operationalizations of social media use (e.g., use vs non-use; duration of use) are included as predictors and (3) one of nine possible dispositional variables or one of eleven possible context variables are included as moderators. As a result, a total of 168 moderator models were computed. Across both main effects, dispositional moderators and contextual moderators, a total of 172 models were computed.

What is the relationship between social media use and wellbeing in young adults’ daily lives?

We used frequentist linear regression models in lme4 63 with random intercepts and random slopes allowed to vary across participants to determine the extent to which social media use and wellbeing are related at the within and between-person levels:

where wellbeing at occasion t for person i is modeled as a function of a person-specific intercept coefficient \({\beta }_{0i}\) that indicates the individual’s prototypical level of wellbeing, a set of person-specific coefficients \({\beta }_{1i}\) to \({\beta }_{7i}\) that indicate the within-person associations between the predictor variables and wellbeing, and residual \({e}_{ti}\) that are assumed normally distributed with standard deviation \({\sigma }_{e}.\) The person-specific coefficients are then modeled as a function of between-person differences. Specifically,

where the gammas are sample-level parameters that indicate the intercept and effects for the prototypical individuals, and the residuals \({u}_{0i}\) and \({u}_{1i}\) are residual individual differences in intercept and the within-person association between social media use and wellbeing that are assumed multivariate normal with standard deviations \({\sigma }_{u0}\) and \({\sigma }_{u1}\) and correlation \({r}_{{\sigma }_{u0}{\sigma }_{u1}}\) . Of specific interest are the \({\gamma }_{10}\) and \({\sigma }_{u1}\) parameters. We define social media sensitivity as referring to the \({\gamma }_{10}\) parameter whereas \({\sigma }_{u1}\) captures the person-level heterogeneity of social media sensitivity.

What is the relationship between dispositional traits and social media sensitivity?

Dispositional moderators were fit using the lme4 package 63 in R with restricted maximum likelihood and missing data (< 0.1%) was treated as missing at random. Statistical significance was evaluated at alpha = 0.05. Dispositional moderators were modelling using the following model:

where \({\gamma }_{03}\) is the between-person interaction and \({\gamma }_{11}\) is the cross-level interaction.

What is the relationship between context of use and social media sensitivity?

Random intercepts and slopes were specified for social media, context, and their resulting interactions, resulting in complex models that did not converge in a frequentist framework. Hence, we used a Bayesian paradigm for model estimation to facilitate model convergence. The move to Bayesian estimation allowed us to examine the extent to which multiple momentary contexts moderate the relationship between momentary social media use and wellbeing. The expanded model is specified by the following equation:

where \({\beta }_{9}\) is the within-person interaction, \({\gamma }_{03}\) is the between-person interaction and \({\gamma }_{11}\) is the cross-level interaction between average social media use and context. Contextual moderators were fit using the brms package 64 with 12,000 iterations (half warm-up) since convergence was not possible with lme4. All models were specified with normal priors and achieved convergence with 12,000 iterations. We did not specify hyperpriors to constrain the hyperparameters of the model. We used the Monte Carlo Markov Chain sampler when fitting the Bayesian models. Specifically, we used 4 separate chains in each model and ensured that they each yielded stable estimates by examining the R-hat values (all values did not exceed 1.01) 65 . We determined which models yielded coefficients that were larger than 0 by examining the corresponding 95% credibility intervals for each estimate.

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Mounting research documents the harmful effects of social media use on mental health, including body image and development of eating disorders

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

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Media influences and conventional beauty standards have long plagued society.

This issue took on new urgency in May 2023 when the U.S. surgeon general issued a major public advisory over the links between social media and youth mental health .

Research shows that images of beauty as depicted in movies, television and magazines can lead to mental illness , issues with disordered eating and body image dissatisfaction .

These trends have been documented in women and men , in the LGBTQ+ community and in people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Experts have long suspected that social media may be playing a role in the growing mental health crisis in young people . However, the surgeon general’s warning is one of the first public warnings supported by robust research .

Social media can be toxic

Body dissatisfaction among children and adolescents is commonplace and has been linked to decreased quality of life, worsened mood and unhealthy eating habits.

As an eating disorder and anxiety specialist , I regularly work with clients who experience eating disorder symptoms, self-esteem issues and anxiety related to social media .

I also have firsthand experience with this topic : I am 15 years post-recovery from an eating disorder, and I grew up when people were beginning to widely use social media. In my view, the impact of social media on diet and exercise patterns needs to be further researched to inform future policy directions, school programming and therapeutic treatment.

The mental health of adolescents and teens has been declining for the past decade , and the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to worsening youth mental health and brought it into the spotlight. As the mental health crisis surges, researchers have been taking a close look at the role of social media in these increasing mental health concerns.

The pros and cons of social media

About 95% of children and adolescents in the U.S. between the ages of 10 and 17 are using social media almost constantly .

Research has shown that social media can be beneficial for finding community support . However, studies have also shown that the use of social media contributes to social comparisons, unrealistic expectations and negative mental health effects .

In addition, those who have preexisting mental health conditions tend to spend more time on social media. People in that category are more likely to self-objectify and internalize the thin body ideal . Women and people with preexisting body image concerns are more likely to feel worse about their bodies and themselves after they spend time on social media.

A breeding ground for eating disorders

A recent review found that, as with mass media, the use of social media is a risk factor for the development of an eating disorder , body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating. In this review, social media use was shown to contribute to negative self-esteem, social comparisons, decreased emotional regulation and idealized self-presentation that negatively influenced body image.

Another study, called the Dove Self-Esteem Project , published in April 2023, found that 9 in 10 children and adolescents ages 10 to 17 are exposed to toxic beauty content on social media and 1 in 2 say that this has an impact on their mental health.

Eating disorders are complex mental illnesses that develop because of biological, social and psychological factors. Eating disorder hospitalizations and the need for treatment have dramatically increased during the pandemic .

Some reasons for this include isolation, food scarcity, boredom and social media content related to weight gain, such as the “ quarantine15 .” That was a reference to the weight gain some people were experiencing at the beginning of the pandemic, similar to the “freshman 15” belief that one will gain 15 pounds in the first year of college. Many teens whose routines were disrupted by the pandemic turned to eating disorder behaviors for an often-false sense of control or were influenced by family members who held unhealthy beliefs around food and exercise.

Researchers have also found that increased time at home during the pandemic led to more social media use by young people and therefore more exposure to toxic body image and dieting social media content.

While social media alone will not cause eating disorders, societal beliefs about beauty , which are amplified by social media, can contribute to the development of eating disorders.

‘Thinspo’ and ‘fitspo’

Toxic beauty standards online include the normalization of cosmetic and surgical procedures and pro-eating-disorder content, which promotes and romanticizes eating disorders. For instance, social media sites have promoted trends such as “thinspo,” which is focused on the thin ideal, and “fitspo,” which perpetuates the belief of there being a perfect body that can be achieved with dieting, supplements and excessive exercise.

Research has shown that social media content encouraging “clean eating ” or dieting through pseudoscientific claims can lead to obsessive behavior around dietary patterns. These unfounded “wellness” posts can lead to weight cycling, yo-yo dieting , chronic stress, body dissatisfaction and higher likelihood of muscular and thin-ideal internalization .

Some social media posts feature pro-eating-disorder content , which directly or indirectly encourages disordered eating. Other posts promote deliberate manipulation of one’s body, using harmful quotes such as “nothing tastes as good as thin feels.” These posts provide a false sense of connection, allowing users to bond over a shared goal of losing weight, altering one’s appearance and continuing patterns of disordered eating.

While young people can often recognize and understand toxic beauty advice’s effects on their self-esteem, they may still continue to engage with this content. This is in part because friends, influencers and social media algorithms encourage people to follow certain accounts.

How policy changes could help

Legislators across the U.S. are proposing different regulations for social media sites .

Policy recommendations include increased transparency from social media companies, creation of higher standards of privacy for children’s data and possible tax incentives and social responsibility initiatives that would discourage companies and marketers from using altered photos.

Phone-free zones

Small steps at home to cut down on social media consumption can also make a difference. Parents and caregivers can create phone-free periods for the family. Examples of this include putting phones away while the family watches a movie together or during mealtimes.

Adults can also help by modeling healthy social media behaviors and encouraging children and adolescents to focus on building connections and engaging in valued activities .

Mindful social media consumption is another helpful approach. This requires recognizing what one is feeling during social media scrolling. If spending time on social media makes you feel worse about yourself or seems to be causing mood changes in your child, it may be time to change how you or your child interact with social media.

• Social media
• Eating disorders
• Youth mental health
• Body dissatisfaction
• Cyberbullying
• Self-esteem
• Eating disorders and pandemic
• Body dysmorphia
• Body image disorders

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Living Better

The truth about teens, social media and the mental health crisis.

Michaeleen Doucleff

For years, the research picture on how social media affects teen mental health has been murky. That is changing as scientists find new tools to answer the question. Olivier Douliery /AFP via Getty Images hide caption

For years, the research picture on how social media affects teen mental health has been murky. That is changing as scientists find new tools to answer the question.

Back in 2017, psychologist Jean Twenge set off a firestorm in the field of psychology.

Twenge studies generational trends at San Diego State University. When she looked at mental health metrics for teenagers around 2012, what she saw shocked her. "In all my analyses of generational data — some reaching back to the 1930s — I had never seen anything like it," Twenge wrote in the Atlantic in 2017.

Twenge warned of a mental health crisis on the horizon. Rates of depression, anxiety and loneliness were rising. And she had a hypothesis for the cause: smartphones and all the social media that comes along with them. "Smartphones were used by the majority of Americans around 2012, and that's the same time loneliness increases. That's very suspicious," Twenge told NPR in 2017.

But many of her colleagues were skeptical. Some even accused her of inciting a panic with too little — and too weak — data to back her claims.

Now, six years later, Twenge is back. She has a new book out this week, called Generations , with much more data backing her hypothesis. At the same time, several high-quality studies have begun to answer critical questions, such as does social media cause teens to become depressed and is it a key contributor to a rise in depression?

In particular, studies from three different types of experiments, altogether, point in the same direction. "Indeed, I think the picture is getting more and more consistent," says economist Alexey Makarin , at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Shots - Health News

How to help young people limit screen time — and feel better about how they look, a seismic change in how teens spend their time.

In Generations , Twenge analyzes mental health trends for five age groups, from the Silent Generation, who were born between 1925 and 1945, to Gen Z, who were born between 1995 and 2012. She shows definitively that "the way teens spend their time outside of school fundamentally changed in 2012," as Twenge writes in the book.

Take for instance, hanging out with friends, in person. Since 1976, the number of times per week teens go out with friends — and without their parents — held basically steady for nearly 30 years. In 2004, it slid a bit. Then in 2010, it nosedived.

"It was just like a Black Diamond ski slope straight down," Twenge tells NPR. "So these really big changes occur."

At the same time, around 2012, time on social media began to soar. In 2009, only about half of teens used social media every day, Twenge reports. In 2017, 85% used it daily. By 2022, 95% of teens said they use some social media, and about a third say they use it constantly, a poll from Pew Research Center found .

"Now, in the most recent data, 22% of 10th grade girls spend seven or more hours a day on social media," Twenge says, which means many teenage girls are doing little else than sleeping, going to school and engaging with social media.

Not surprisingly, all this screen time has cut into many kids' sleep time. Between 2010 and 2021, the percentage of 10th and 12th graders who slept seven or fewer hours each night rose from a third to nearly one-half. "That's a big jump," Twenge says. "Kids in that age group are supposed to sleep nine hours a night. So less than seven hours is a really serious problem."

Teen girls and LGBTQ+ youth plagued by violence and trauma, survey says

On its own, sleep deprivation can cause mental health issues. "Sleep is absolutely crucial for physical health and for mental health. Not getting enough sleep is a major risk factor for anxiety and depression and self-harm," she explains. Unfortunately, all of those mental health problems have continued to rise since Twenge first sounded the alarm six years ago.

"Nuclear bomb" on teen social life

"Every indicator of mental health and psychological well-being has become more negative among teens and young adults since 2012," Twenge writes in Generations . "The trends are stunning in their consistency, breadth and size."

Across the board, since 2010, anxiety, depression and loneliness have all increased . "And it's not just symptoms that rose, but also behaviors," she says, "including emergency room visits for self-harm, for suicide attempts and completed suicides." The data goes up through 2019, so it doesn't include changes due to COVID-19.

All these rapid changes coincide with what, Twenge says, may be the most rapid uptake in a new technology in human history: the incorporation of smartphones into our lives, which has allowed nearly nonstop engagement with social media apps. Apple introduced the first iPhones in 2007, and by 2012, about 50% of American adults owned a smartphone, the Pew Research Center found .

The timing is hard to ignore, says data scientist Chris Said , who has a Ph.D. in psychology from Princeton University and has worked at Facebook and Twitter. "Social media was like a nuclear bomb on teen social life," he says. "I don't think there's anything in recent memory, or even distant history, that has changed the way teens socialize as much as social media."

Murky picture becomes clearer on causes of teen depression

But the timing doesn't tell you whether social media actually causes depression in teens.

In the past decade, scientists have published a whole slew of studies trying to answer this question, and those studies sparked intense debate among scientists and in the media. But, Said says, what many people don't realize is scientists weren't using — or didn't even have — the proper tools to answer the question. "This is a very hard problem to study," he says. "The data they were analyzing couldn't really solve the problem."

Mental Health

The mental health of teen girls and lgbtq+ teens has worsened since 2011.

So the findings have been all over the place. They've been murky, noisy, inconclusive and confusing. "When you use tools that can't fully answer the question, you're going to get weak answers," he says. "So I think that's one reason why really strong evidence didn't show up in the data, at least early on."

On top of it, psychology has a bad track record in this field, Said points out. For nearly a century, psychologists have repeatedly blamed new technologies for mental and physical health problems of children, even when they've had little — or shady — data to back up their claims.

For example, in the 1940s, psychologists worried that children were becoming addicted to radio crime dramas, psychologist Amy Orben at the University of Cambridge explains in her doctoral thesis. After that, they raised concerns about comic books, television and — eventually — video games. Thus, many researchers worried that social media may simply be the newest scapegoat for children's mental health issues.

A handful of scientists, including MIT's Alexey Makarin, noticed this problem with the data, the tools and the field's past failures, and so they took the matter into their own hands. They went out and found better tools.

Hundreds of thousands of more college students depressed

Over the past few years, several high-quality studies have come that can directly test whether social media causes depression. Instead of being murky and mixed, they support each other and show clear effects of social media. "The body of literature seems to suggest that indeed, social media has negative effects on mental health, especially on young adults' mental health," says Makarin, who led what many scientists say is the best study on the topic to date.

In that study, Makarin and his team took advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: the staggered introduction of Facebook across U.S. colleges from 2004 to 2006. Facebook rolled out into society first on college campuses, but not all campuses introduced Facebook at the same time.

For Makarin and his colleagues, this staggered rollout is experimental gold.

"It allowed us to compare students' mental health between colleges where Facebook just arrived to colleges where Facebook had not yet arrived," he says. They could also measure how students' mental health shifted on a particular campus when people started to spend a bunch of their time on social media.

Luckily, his team could track mental health at the time because college administrators were also conducting a national survey that asked students an array of questions about their mental health, including diagnoses, therapies and medications for depression, anxiety and eating disorders. "These are not just people's feelings," Makarin says. "These are actual conditions that people have to report."

They had data on a large number of students. "The data comes from more than 350,000 student responses across more than 300 colleges," Makarin says.

This type of study is called a quasi-experiment, and it allows scientists to estimate how much social media actually changes teens' mental health, or as Makarin says, "We can get causal estimates of the impact of Facebook on mental health."

So what happened? "Almost immediately after Facebook arrives on campus, we see an uptick in mental health issues that students report," Makarin says. "We especially find an impact on depression rates, anxiety disorders and other questions associated with depression in general."

And the effect isn't small, he says. Across the population, the rollout of Facebook caused about 2% of college students to become clinically depressed. That may sound modest, but with more than 17 million college students in the U.S. at the time, that means Facebook caused more than 300,000 young adults to suffer from depression.

For an individual, on average, engaging with Facebook decreases their mental health by roughly 22% of the effect of losing one's job, as reported by a previous meta-analysis, Makarin and his team found.

Facebook's rollout had a larger effect on women's mental health than on men's mental health, the study showed. But the difference was small, Makarin says.

He and his colleagues published their findings last November in the American Economic Review . "I love that paper," says economist Matthew Gentzkow at Stanford University, who was not involved in the research. "It's probably the most convincing study I've seen. I think it shows a clear effect, and it's really credible. They did a good job of isolating the effect of Facebook, which isn't easy."

Of course, the study has limitations, Gentzkow says. First off, it's Facebook, which teens are using less and less. And the version of Facebook is barebones. In 2006, the platform didn't have a "like" button" or a "newsfeed." This older version probably wasn't as "potent" as social media now, says data scientist Chris Said. Furthermore, students used the platform only on a computer because smartphones weren't available yet. And the study only examined mental health impacts over a six-month period.

Nevertheless, the findings in this study bolster other recent studies, including one that Gentzkow led.

Social media is "like the ocean" for kids

Back in 2018, Gentzkow and his team recruited about 2,700 Facebook users ages 18 or over. They paid about half of them to deactivate their Facebook accounts for four weeks. Then Gentzkow and his team looked to see how a Facebook break shifted their mental health. They reported their findings in March 2020 in the American Economic Review.

This type of study is called a randomized experiment, and it's thought of as the best way to estimate whether a variable in life causes a particular problem. But with social media, these randomized experiments have big limitations. For one, the experiments are short-term — here only four weeks. Also, people use social media in clusters, not as individuals. So having individuals quit Facebook won't capture the effect of having an entire social group quit together. Both of these limitations could underestimate the impact of social media on an individual and community.

Nevertheless, Gentzkow could see how deactivating Facebook made people, on average, feel better. "Being off Facebook was positive across well-being outcomes," he says. "You see higher happiness, life satisfaction, and also lower depression, lower anxiety, and maybe a little bit lower loneliness."

Gentzkow and his team measured participants' well-being by giving them a survey at the end of the experiment but also asking questions, via text message, through the experiment. "For example, we sent people text messages that say, 'Right now, would you say you're feeling happy or not happy,'" he explains.

Again, as with Makarin's experiment, the effect was moderate. Gentzkow and his colleagues estimate that temporarily quitting Facebook improves a person's mental health by about 30% of the positive effect seen by going to therapy. "You could view that meaning these effects are pretty big," he explains, "or you could also see that as meaning that the effects of therapy are somewhat small. And I think both of those things are true to an extent."

Scientists still don't know to what extent social media is behind the rising mental health issues among teenagers and whether it is the primary cause. "It seems to be the case — like it's a big factor," says MIT's Alexey Makarin, "but that's still up for debate."

Still, though, other specifics are beginning to crystallize. Scientists are narrowing in on what aspects of social media are most problematic. And they can see that social media won't hurt every teen — or hurt them by the same amount. The data suggests that the more hours a child devotes to social media, the higher their risk for mental health problems.

Finally, some adolescents are likely more vulnerable to social media, and children may be more vulnerable at particular ages. A study published in February 2022 looked to see how time spent on social media varies with life satisfaction during different times in a child's life (see the graphic).

The researchers also looked to see if a child's present use of social media predicted a decrease of life satisfaction one year later. That data suggests two windows of time when children are most sensitive to detrimental effects of social media, especially heavy use of it. For girls, one window occurs at ages 11 through 13. And for boys, one window occurs at ages 14 and 15. For both genders, there's a window of sensitivity around age 19 — or near the time teenagers enter college. Amy Orben and her team at the University of Cambridge reported the findings in Nature Communications .

This type of evidence is known as a correlative. "It's hard to draw conclusions from these studies," Gentzkow says, because many factors contribute to life satisfaction, such as environmental factors and family backgrounds. Plus, people may use social media because they're depressed (and so depression could be the cause, not the outcome of social media use).

"Nevertheless, these correlative studies, together with the evidence from the causal experiments, paint a picture that suggests we should take social media seriously and be concerned," Gentzkow adds.

Psychologist Orben once heard a metaphor that may help parents understand how to approach this new technology. Social media for children is a bit like the ocean, she says, noting that it can be an extremely dangerous place for children. Before parents let children swim in any open water, they make sure the child is well-prepared and equipped to handle problems that arise. They provide safety vests, swimming lessons, often in less dangerous waters, and even then parents provide a huge amount of supervision.

Alyson Hurt created the graphic. Jane Greenhalgh and Diane Webber edited the story.

• smartphones
• mental health
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64% of americans say social media have a mostly negative effect on the way things are going in the u.s. today.

About two-thirds of Americans (64%) say social media have a mostly negative effect on the way things are going in the country today, according to a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted July 13-19, 2020. Just one-in-ten Americans say social media sites have a mostly positive effect on the way things are going, and one-quarter say these platforms have a neither positive nor negative effect.

Those who have a negative view of the impact of social media mention, in particular, misinformation and the hate and harassment they see on social media. They also have concerns about users believing everything they see or read – or not being sure about what to believe. Additionally, they bemoan social media’s role in fomenting partisanship and polarization, the creation of echo chambers, and the perception that these platforms oppose President Donald Trump and conservatives.

This is part of a series of posts on Americans’ experiences with and attitudes about the role of social media in politics today. Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand how Americans think about the impact of social media on the way things are currently going in the country. To explore this, we surveyed 10,211 U.S. adults from July 13 to 19, 2020. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for this report, along with responses, and its methodology.

The public’s views on the positive and negative effect of social media vary widely by political affiliation and ideology. Across parties, larger shares describe social media’s impact as mostly negative rather than mostly positive, but this belief is particularly widespread among Republicans.

Roughly half of Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party (53%) say social media have a largely negative effect on the way things are going in the country today, compared with 78% of Republicans and leaners who say the same. Democrats are about three times as likely as Republicans to say these sites have a mostly positive impact (14% vs. 5%) and twice as likely to say social media have neither a positive nor negative effect (32% vs. 16%).

Among Democrats, there are no differences in these views along ideological lines. Republicans, however, are slightly more divided by ideology. Conservative Republicans are more likely than moderate to liberal Republicans to say social media have a mostly negative effect (83% vs. 70%). Conversely, moderate to liberal Republicans are more likely than their conservative counterparts to say social media have a mostly positive (8% vs. 4%) or neutral impact (21% vs. 13%).

Younger adults are more likely to say social media have a positive impact on the way things are going in the country and are less likely to believe social media sites have a negative impact compared with older Americans. For instance, 15% of those ages 18 to 29 say social media have a mostly positive effect on the way things are going in the country today, while just 8% of those over age 30 say the same. Americans 18 to 29 are also less likely than those 30 and older to say social media have a mostly negative impact (54% vs. 67%).

However, views among younger adults vary widely by partisanship. For example, 43% of Democrats ages 18 to 29 say social media have a mostly negative effect on the way things are going, compared with about three-quarters (76%) of Republicans in the same age group. In addition, these youngest Democrats are more likely than their Republican counterparts to say social media platforms have a mostly positive (20% vs. 6%) or neither a positive nor negative effect (35% vs. 18%) on the way things are going in the country today. This partisan division persists among those 30 and older, but most of the gaps are smaller than those seen within the younger cohort.

Views on the negative impact of social media vary only slightly between social media users (63%) and non-users (69%), with non-users being slightly more likely to say these sites have a negative impact. However, among social media users, those who say some or a lot of what they see on social media is related to politics are more likely than those who say a little or none of what they see on these sites is related to politics to think social media platforms have a mostly negative effect on the way things are going in the country today (65% vs. 50%).

Past Pew Research Center studies have drawn attention to the complicated relationships Americans have with social media. In 2019, a Center survey found that 72% of U.S. adults reported using at least one social media site. And while these platforms have been used for political and social activism and engagement , they also raise concerns among portions of the population. Some think political ads on these sites are unacceptable, and many object to the way social media platforms have been weaponized to spread made-up news and engender online harassment . At the same time, a share of users credit something they saw on social media with changing their views about a political or social issue. And growing shares of Americans who use these sites also report feeling worn out by political posts and discussions on social media.

Those who say social media have negative impact cite concerns about misinformation, hate, censorship; those who see positive impact cite being informed

When asked to elaborate on the main reason why they think social media have a mostly negative effect on the way things are going in this country today, roughly three-in-ten (28%) respondents who hold that view mention the spreading of misinformation and made-up news. Smaller shares reference examples of hate, harassment, conflict and extremism (16%) as a main reason, and 11% mention a perceived lack of critical thinking skills among many users – voicing concern about people who use these sites believing everything they see or read or being unsure about what to believe.

In written responses that mention misinformation or made-up news, a portion of adults often include references to the spread, speed and amount of false information available on these platforms. (Responses are lightly edited for spelling, style and readability.) For example:

“They allow for the rampant spread of misinformation.” –Man, 36

“False information is spread at lightning speed – and false information never seems to go away.” –Woman, 71

“Social media is rampant with misinformation both about the coronavirus and political and social issues, and the social media organizations do not do enough to combat this.” –Woman, 26

“Too much misinformation and lies are promoted from unsubstantiated sources that lead people to disregard vetted and expert information.” –Woman, 64

People’s responses that centered around hate, harassment, conflict or extremism in some way often mention concerns that social media contributes to incivility online tied to anonymity, the spreading of hate-filled ideas or conspiracies, or the incitement of violence.

“People say incendiary, stupid and thoughtless things online with the perception of anonymity that they would never say to someone else in person.” –Man, 53

“Promotes hate and extreme views and in some cases violence.” –Man, 69

“People don’t respect others’ opinions. They take it personally and try to fight with the other group. You can’t share your own thoughts on controversial topics without fearing someone will try to hurt you or your family.” –Woman, 65

“Social media is where people go to say some of the most hateful things they can imagine.” –Man, 46

About one-in-ten responses talk about how people on social media can be easily confused and believe everything they see or read or are not sure about what to believe.

“People believe everything they see and don’t verify its accuracy.” –Man, 75

“Many people can’t distinguish between real and fake news and information and share it without doing proper research …” –Man, 32

“You don’t know what’s fake or real.” –Man, 49

“It is hard to discern truth.” –Woman, 80

“People cannot distinguish fact from opinion, nor can they critically evaluate sources. They tend to believe everything they read, and when they see contradictory information (particularly propaganda), they shut down and don’t appear to trust any information.” –Man, 42

Smaller shares complain that the platforms censor content or allow material that is biased (9%), too negative (7%) or too steeped in partisanship and division (6%).

“Social media is censoring views that are different than theirs. There is no longer freedom of speech.” –Woman, 42

“It creates more divide between people with different viewpoints.” –Man, 37

“Focus is on negativity and encouraging angry behavior rather than doing something to help people and make the world better.” –Woman, 66

Far fewer Americans – 10% – say they believe social media has a mostly positive effect on the way things are going in the country today. When those who hold these positive views were asked about the main reason why they thought this, one-quarter say these sites help people stay informed and aware (25%) and about one-in-ten say they allow for communication, connection and community-building (12%).

“We are now aware of what’s happening around the world due to the social media outlet.” –Woman, 28

“It brings awareness to important issues that affect all Americans.” –Man, 60

“It brings people together; folks can see that there are others who share the same/similar experience, which is really important, especially when so many of us are isolated.” –Woman, 36

“Helps people stay connected and share experiences. I also get advice and recommendations via social media.” –Man, 32

“It keeps people connected who might feel lonely and alone if there did not have social media …” – Man, 65

Smaller shares tout social media as a place where marginalized people and groups have a voice (8%) and as a venue for activism and social movements (7%).

“Spreading activism and info and inspiring participation in Black Lives Matter.” –Woman, 31

“It gives average people an opportunity to voice and share their opinions.” –Man, 67

“Visibility – it has democratized access and provided platforms for voices who have been and continue to be oppressed.” –Woman, 27

Note: This is part of a series of blog posts leading up to the 2020 presidential election that explores the role of social media in politics today. Here are the questions used for this report, along with responses, and its methodology.

Other posts in this series:

• 23% of users in U.S. say social media led them to change views on an issue; some cite Black Lives Matter
• 54% of Americans say social media companies shouldn’t allow any political ads
• 55% of U.S. social media users say they are ‘worn out’ by political posts and discussions
• Americans think social media can help build movements, but can also be a distraction

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Social Media Fact Sheet

7 facts about americans and instagram, social media use in 2021, share of u.s. adults using social media, including facebook, is mostly unchanged since 2018, most popular.

About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

Exploring what works, what doesn’t, and why.

How to calm The Anxious Generation

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When it comes to our young people and their mental health, the news is not good. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for people under 24 in the U.S., and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report last year found 20 percent of the country’s 12- to 17-year-olds had had at least one major depressive episode —results unlike anything the CDC had seen in thirty years of collecting such data. Its director of adolescent and school health, Kathlee Ethie, called the findings “devastating.” She said, “Young people are telling us they are in crisis . The data really call on us to act.”

There are plenty of recommendations for action in Jonathan Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness . Haidt, a psychologist at New York University, starts by giving a readers a baseline on kids, why girls have higher rates of mood disorders and self-harming behavior, and why today’s boys are more at risk of “failure to launch” (that is, transition from adolescence to adulthood). And—perhaps not surprising, from the author of The Coddling of the American Mind —he argues that parents are overprotecting their kids in the real, physical world and underprotecting them in the Wild West online.

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Haidt makes a strong case that social media—as distinct from the internet at large—is severely harming young people. Rates of mood disorders among U.S. college undergraduates suddenly spiked in the early 2010s. The number of kids reporting depression and anxiety rose steadily every year of that decade, till rates were up 134 percent and 106 percent, respectively, by 2020. Similar statistics are being seen in countries around the world. It’s probably no accident that Apple introduced its first front-facing camera phone in summer of 2010, and Instagram, which worked only on smartphones at the time, launched later that year. After Facebook purchased Instagram, its user base exploded, from 10 million users at the end of 2011 to 90 million by early 2013. The result, Haidt says: “Gen Z became the first generation in history to go through puberty with a portal in their pockets that called them away from the people nearby and into an alternative universe that was exciting, addictive, unstable, and … unsuitable for children and adolescents.”

Few of us have healthy relationships with our phones, but kids are especially vulnerable. Their brains are still developing; they’re still learning impulse control and values. Haidt cites a range of studies that help to make his case. Half of all teens reported feeling “addicted” to their phones in a survey published in 2016, for instance, while three out of five parents felt their kids were addicted. A more recent Pew Research Center study found nearly 100 percent of American teens have a smartphone, and roughly half say they’re online “constantly.”

It’s that level of attachment that leads Haidt to say a computerized device doesn’t simply correlate with the youth mental health crisis; it drives it. In 2022, he testified before Congress that one to two hours a day of social media use isn’t associated with a decline in mental health—but three or four hours a day is. In his book, he also cites studies establishing a causal relationship between Facebook adoption and depression and anxiety—particularly for girls. (To help understand why that might be, consider that internal research for Instagram led to a report saying, “We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.”)

Haidt also rebuts the idea that social media helps kids who feel out of place or marginalized by connecting them to peer groups and social support. “Unlike the extensive evidence of harm found in correlational, longitudinal, and experimental studies, there is very little evidence showing benefits to adolescent mental health from long-term or heavy social media use,” he writes.

Parental “safetyism”—i.e., keeping children away from anything the least bit risky, especially unsupervised outdoor play, is also part of the problem, both for younger children and adolescents. “A healthy human childhood with a lot of autonomy,” he writes, “sets children’s brains to operate mostly in ‘discover mode,’ with a well-developed attachment system and an ability to handle the risks of daily life.”

As for what we can do, Haidt makes plenty of cogent suggestions. My favorite was probably to make schools phone-free. Haidt holds up Mountain Middle School, located in an area of Colorado with some of the highest teen suicide rates in the state, as an example. A new principal at the charter school saw students suffering from cyberbullying, excessive social comparison, and phone-related sleep deprivation; he banned phones at school. The effects were nearly instantaneous—and dramatic. Kids talked to each other more. They lived in the moment, rather than on their phones. Soon enough they also reported being happier and less stressed . The school, still phone-free, was subsequently awarded Colorado’s highest academic performance rating.

Haidt calls on all of us to ask local and federal government to implement changes such as raising the age of legal “internet adulthood” from 13 to 16. He offers sensible, easy suggestions for parents, starting with telling your child, “ Do something new, on your own .” It can be something as simple as making a meal, climbing a tree, or taking the dog for a walk. You’ll see the results immediately, he says.

Haidt begins his book by saying we’d never pack our kids off to an unfamiliar planet where humans hadn’t lived before. And yet, he says our kids are basically living on another planet right here on Earth because they no longer grow up engaged in physical play, physically surrounded by other human beings and communities. He ends his book by saying, “Let’s bring our children home.” Let us indeed.

Book cover courtesy of Penguin Random House

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• Tween and teen health

Teens and social media use: What's the impact?

Social media is a term for internet sites and apps that you can use to share content you've created. Social media also lets you respond to content that others post. That can include pictures, text, reactions or comments on posts by others, and links to information.

Online sharing within social media sites helps many people stay in touch with friends or connect with new ones. And that may be more important for teenagers than other age groups. Friendships help teens feel supported and play a role in forming their identities. So, it's only natural to wonder how social media use might affect teens.

Social media is a big part of daily life for lots of teenagers.

How big? A 2022 survey of 13- to 17-year-olds offers a clue. Based on about 1,300 responses, the survey found that 35% of teens use at least one of five social media platforms more than several times a day. The five social media platforms are: YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

Social media doesn't affect all teens the same way. Use of social media is linked with healthy and unhealthy effects on mental health. These effects vary from one teenager to another. Social media effects on mental health depend on things such as:

• What a teen sees and does online.
• The amount of time spent online.
• Psychological factors, such as maturity level and any preexisting mental health conditions.
• Personal life circumstances, including cultural, social and economic factors.

Here are the general pros and cons of teen social media use, along with tips for parents.

Healthy social media

Social media lets teens create online identities, chat with others and build social networks. These networks can provide teens with support from other people who have hobbies or experiences in common. This type of support especially may help teens who:

• Lack social support offline or are lonely.
• Are going through a stressful time.
• Belong to groups that often get marginalized, such as racial minorities, the LGBTQ community and those who are differently abled.
• Have long-term medical conditions.

Sometimes, social media platforms help teens:

• Express themselves.
• Connect with other teens locally and across long distances.
• Learn how other teens cope with challenging life situations and mental health conditions.
• View or take part in moderated chat forums that encourage talking openly about topics such as mental health.
• Ask for help or seek healthcare for symptoms of mental health conditions.

These healthy effects of social media can help teens in general. They also may help teens who are prone to depression stay connected to others. And social media that's humorous or distracting may help a struggling teen cope with a challenging day.

Unhealthy social media

Social media use may have negative effects on some teens. It might:

• Distract from homework, exercise and family activities.
• Disrupt sleep.
• Lead to information that is biased or not correct.
• Become a means to spread rumors or share too much personal information.
• Lead some teens to form views about other people's lives or bodies that aren't realistic.
• Expose some teens to online predators, who might try to exploit or extort them.
• Expose some teens to cyberbullying, which can raise the risk of mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

What's more, certain content related to risk-taking, and negative posts or interactions on social media, have been linked with self-harm and rarely, death.

The risks of social media use are linked with various factors. One may be how much time teens spend on these platforms.

In a study focusing on 12- to 15-year-olds in the United States, spending three hours a day using social media was linked to a higher risk of mental health concerns. That study was based on data collected in 2013 and 2014 from more than 6,500 participants.

Another study looked at data on more than 12,000 teens in England between the ages of 13 to 16. The researchers found that using social media more than three times a day predicted poor mental health and well-being in teens.

But not all research has found a link between time spent on social media and mental health risks in teens.

How teens use social media also might determine its impact. For instance, viewing certain types of content may raise some teens' mental health risks. This could include content that depicts:

• Illegal acts.
• Self-harm or harm to other people.
• Encouragement of habits tied to eating disorders, such as purging or restrictive eating.

These types of content may be even more risky for teens who already have a mental health condition. Being exposed to discrimination, hate or cyberbullying on social media also can raise the risk of anxiety or depression.

What teens share about themselves on social media also matters.

With the teenage brain, it's common to make a choice before thinking it through. So, teens might post something when they're angry or upset, and regret it later. That's known as stress posting.

Teens who post content also are at risk of sharing sexual photos or highly personal stories. This can lead to teens being bullied, harassed or even blackmailed.

Protecting your teen

You can take steps to help your teens use social media responsibly and limit some of the possible negative effects.

Use these tips:

Set rules and limits as needed. This helps prevent social media from getting in the way of activities, sleep, meals or homework.

For example, you could make a rule about not using social media until homework is done. Or you could set a daily time limit for social media use.

You also could choose to keep social media off-limits during certain times. These times might include during family meals and an hour before bed.

Set an example by following these rules yourself. And let your teen know what the consequences will be if your rules aren't followed.

• Manage any challenging behaviors. If your teen's social media use starts to challenge your rules or your sense of what's appropriate, talk with your teen about it. You also could connect with parents of your teen's friends or take a look at your teen's internet history.
• Turn on privacy settings. This can help keep your teen from sharing personal information or data that your teen didn't mean to share. Each of your teen's social media accounts likely has privacy setting that can be changed.

Monitor your teen's accounts. The American Psychological Association recommends you regularly review your child's social media use during the early teen years.

One way to monitor is to follow or "friend" your child's social accounts. As your teen gets older, you can choose to monitor your teen's social media less. Your teen's maturity level can help guide your decision.

Have regular talks with your teen about social media. These talks give you chances to ask how social media has been making your teen feel. Encourage your teen to let you know if something online worries or bothers your teen.

Regular talks offer you chances to give your child advice about social media too. For example, you can teach your teen to question whether content is accurate. You also can explain that social media is full of images about beauty and lifestyle that are not realistic.

• Be a role model for your teen. You might want to tell your child about your own social media habits. That can help you set a good example and keep your regular talks from being one-sided.

Explain what's not OK. Remind your teen that it's hurtful to gossip, spread rumors, bully or harm someone's reputation — online or otherwise.

Also remind your teen not to share personal information with strangers online. This includes people's addresses, telephone numbers, passwords, and bank or credit card numbers.

• Encourage face-to-face contact with friends. This is even more important for teens prone to social anxiety.

Talk to your child's healthcare professional if you think your teen has symptoms of anxiety, depression or other mental health concerns related to social media use. Also talk with your child's care professional if your teen has any of the following symptoms:

• Uses social media even when wanting to stop.
• Uses it so much that school, sleep, activities or relationships suffer.
• Often spends more time on social platforms than you intended.
• Lies in order to use social media.

Your teen might be referred to a mental healthcare professional who can help.

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• Hagan JF, et al., eds. Promoting the healthy and safe use of social media. In: Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents. 4th ed. https://publications.aap.org/pediatriccare. American Academy of Pediatrics; 2017. Accessed Oct. 3, 2023.
• Social media can help connect: Research-based tips from pediatricians for families. Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health. https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/media-and-children/center-of-excellence-on-social-media-and-youth-mental-health/. Accessed Oct. 3, 2023.
• Health advisory on social media use in adolescence. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/social-media-internet/health-advisory-adolescent-social-media-use. Accessed Oct. 3, 2023.
• Social media and teens. American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Social-Media-and-Teens-100.aspx. Accessed Oct. 3, 2023.
• Social media and youth mental health: The U.S. surgeon general's advisory. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/youth-mental-health/social-media/index.html. Accessed Oct. 3, 2023.
• Teens, social media and technology 2022. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/. Accessed Oct. 3, 2023.
• Popat A, et al. Exploring adolescents' perspectives on social media and mental health and well-being — A qualitative literature review. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 2023; doi:10.1177/13591045221092884.
• Valkenburg PM, et al. Social media use and its impact on adolescent mental health: An umbrella review of the evidence. Current Opinion in Psychology. 2022; doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.08.017.
• Berger MN, et al. Social media use and health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth: Systematic Review. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2022; doi:10.2196/38449.
• Self-Harm. Pediatric Patient Education. https://publications.aap.org/patiented. Accessed Oct. 3, 2023.
• Liu M, et al. Time spent on social media and risk of depression in adolescents: A dose-response meta-analysis. 2022; doi:10.3390/ijerph19095164.
• Coyne SM, et al. Does time spent using social media impact mental health? An eight year longitudinal study. Computers in Human Behavior. 2020; doi:10.1016/j.chb.2019.106160.
• Viner RM, et al. Roles of cyberbullying, sleep, and physical activity in mediating the effects of social media use on mental health and wellbeing among young people in England: A secondary analysis of longitudinal data. The Lancet. Child & Adolescent Health. 2019; doi:10.1016/S2352-4642(19)30186-5.
• Riehm KE, et al. Associations between time spent using social media and internalizing and externalizing problems among US youth. JAMA Psychiatry. 2019; doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2325.
• Hoge E, et al. Digital media, anxiety, and depression in children. Pediatrics. 2017; doi:10.1542/peds.2016-1758G.
• How to help kids navigate friendships and peer relationships. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/parenting/navigating-friendships. Accessed Oct. 24, 2023.
• Hoecker JL (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic. Oct. 31, 2023.
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Social Media and Teen Mental Health: A Complex Mix

There is strong evidence to suggest that teenagers in the United States are collectively in the midst of a mental health crisis, as rates of both depression and suicide have climbed in recent years. Could the popularity of social media among young people be to blame?

Melissa DuPont-Reyes, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Epidemiology

Melissa DuPont-Reyes , assistant professor of sociomedical sciences and epidemiology, says the answer may not be as simple as you think. She is leading a new study that takes a holistic perspective, broadening the focus from how the use of TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms can harm mental health to include an understanding of how they can be protective, too.

The National Institutes of Mental Health -funded longitudinal study is focused on Latinx adolescents, who use social media more than all other racial/ethnic or age groups, nationally. Beyond a simple measure of the frequency of social media use, Dupont-Reyes and colleagues will drill down into the diverse content young people encounter, including Spanish-language, Latinx-tailored, and English-language posts on a variety of platforms.

The study will collect data on both protective aspects like anti-stigma awareness campaigns and symptom support, as well as negative effects such as stigmatizing content, hate speech, and cyber-bullying. Researchers will examine how these exposures drive youths’ self-perception, help-seeking, and mental health outcomes, as well as the mediating role played by peers and family members.

To accomplish her study objective, in part, Dupont-Reyes will utilize validated, culturally appropriate survey assessments she developed as part of a project funded through a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pioneering Ideas Award. As part of the new study, young people will have the chance to research the question and have a say in how to address it through a process called Youth Participatory Action Research.

When it comes to social media’s effects on an adolescent mental health, Dupont-Reyes hypothesizes that context matters quite a lot. Her preliminary work has shown that for some youth, social media can be a lifeline. For instance, youth who are unaccompanied minors migrating, are LGBTQI+ in nontolerant settings, have a disability such as a speech impediment or even mental illness, or have experienced police brutality, all report that social media can be empowering as a tool to make their voices heard while also lending support and resources.

“I hope that my project demonstrates a more diverse portrait of adolescents in the U.S., and globally, as well as the social media that they encounter, and specifies the contexts in which social media can be beneficial to mental health and the contexts in which it might be harmful,” she says.

DuPont-Reyes says the evidence generated from the project could inform policies that are more equitable, accountable, and transparent—ultimately to create a safer technological landscape for diverse populations to promote mental health on a population level. At the same time, its findings can reach parents, teachers, the tech industry, health care providers, and others with its message that vilifying social media is not the answer.

“I hope my research can inform a more holistic and equitable approach to creating a safer social media environment for youth that doesn’t solely require restricting technology,” she says.

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Students Think Social Media Is Fine, But Teachers See a Mental Health Minefield

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Many adults—from teachers to the U.S. surgeon general —will tell you that social media has the potential to dangerously erode K-12 students’ mental health.

School districts and lawmakers alike have responded to the growing chorus of concern. More than 200 districts (and counting) have sued major social media companies while lawmakers at the federal and state levels have been crafting legislation that would greatly curtail youth access to social media .

But there’s one constituency that policymakers, educators, and parents may not be listening to enough: students.

Nearly three quarters of high school students say that social media either has no impact or a positive impact on their mental health and well-being, according to a new EdWeek Research Center survey. Students who responded to the survey also point to many benefits arising from their social media use, such as making new friends, promoting creativity, and learning about other cultures and people.

The EdWeek Research Center surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,056 high school students in February and March.

That doesn’t mean all teens are having a positive experience—29 percent of high schoolers said social media has a negative impact.

Explore the Survey Results

Whatever adults may think of how kids view social media, experts say it’s important to understand teens’ perspectives in order to teach students the social-emotional and digital- and media-literacy skills they need to use these platforms in a productive and healthy way.

“Often the question [adults are always asking] is, ‘What is technology doing to young people?’” said Ioana Literat, an associate professor at Columbia University, Teachers College, and the associate director of the school’s Media and Social Change Lab. “I like to ask, ‘What are young people doing with technology?’”

The answer: Teenagers say they are doing a lot. Forty-one percent said they have used social media to make new friends or build positive friendships, according to EdWeek’s survey. Around a quarter have used social media to develop a hobby, acquire knowledge or skills related to what they’re studying in school, and gain a better understanding of what they want to pursue after high school.

‘Peer connection or peer support on social media’

Teens also say they have connected with mentors and developed their communication and entrepreneurial skills through social media.

Nearly 1 in 3 high schoolers in the EdWeek survey said that social media has made them feel less alone.

Social media can especially be a lifeline for certain groups of students, said Chelsea Olson, a research scientist in the University of Wisconsin—Madison’s pediatrics department and a member of the university’s Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team. LGBTQ+ youth, for example, are more likely to be bullied and struggle with depression and anxiety.

“And so, social media is a way that they can find community, they can connect with others, they can learn about themselves, they can seek resources online,” she said. “It could also be youth with chronic illnesses, especially illnesses that are rare or complicated. They might be able to go find others who are experiencing the same thing, getting that peer connection or peer support on social media, joining support groups, accessing information about their illness that they may not be able to find elsewhere.”

Even youth who are socially anxious can benefit from social media, Olson said, using it as a lower-stakes venue to practice social skills.

That’s not to say that teenagers’ social media experiences are all rosy. Nearly a quarter of high schoolers reported believing fake information they saw on social media and not getting enough sleep—the two most common answers when students were asked in the EdWeek Research Center survey about the negative consequences of their social media use.

Building a rapport with students to discuss the potential harm of social media

Understanding teens’ complicated relationship with social media is an important step to building a rapport with them that will allow educators to discuss the harm social media can cause, said Merve Lapus, the vice president of education outreach and engagement for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that provides curricula and ratings on technology and media.

“The more we try to push our perspective without trying to take theirs into account, the more you build a rift between you as an educator and the students,” he said. “As a teacher, if I can’t try to authentically connect with how my kids are thinking, then there’s no way I’m going to be able to get them to connect to the way I’m thinking.”

And educators’ thoughts on the issue are decidedly more negative than teens’. The overwhelming majority of educators in a separate EdWeek Research Center survey said that social media has had a negative impact on students’ mental health and self-esteem. The nationally representative survey polled 595 teachers, school leaders, and district leaders and was conducted Dec. 2023 to Jan. 2024.

Ninety-one percent of educators said social media has had a negative impact on how students treat people in real life.

Educators are also far more concerned than teenagers about how the content that high schoolers post on social media today could jeopardize their future employment. Eight in 10 educators are very or somewhat concerned while only 4 in 10 teens are.

A quarter of educators indicated in the survey that they could not think of any positive outcomes their students experienced as a result of using social media, compared with 14 percent of students in the student survey.

“The biggest challenge here is that young people, especially those in middle and high school, need both autonomy and guidance,” said Heather Schwartz, a practice specialist at the Collaborative for Social Emotional Learning, or CASEL, in an email interview. “They are more expert in social media than many of their teachers, and they do not respond well when they feel they are being talked down to.”

‘It’s just another day in 8th grade’

The fact that educators see social media as such a threat to students’ mental health fits historical trends, said Columbia’s Literat.

“Whenever there is a communications technology that has a huge social impact, there is a tendency to panic. Often when we see these moral panics, the objects of the panic are young people and women,” she said, while acknowledging that the enormous scope of social media means that any negative impact from its use will be far reaching for all ages and genders.

All of this isn’t to say that educators’ opinions on how social media affects kids are wrong, said Lapus. Teens may not fully understand how social media might be impacting their mental health and well-being.

“In general, [teens] don’t have a comparison,” he said. “Educators, parents, you know a time of what school was like [before social media] when all the same dramas occurred, but they didn’t follow you home in the same capacity they do now. That has major effects on your mental health. We can see that, but for them, it’s just another day in 8th grade.”

Where there is more agreement among educators and students on the issue of social media and mental health and well-being is educators’ roles in helping students learn to navigate the challenges. Majorities of both groups—65 percent of educators and 75 percent of students—think that teachers should be responsible for helping students learn how to use social media in ways that will support students’ mental health and well-being.

But only a little more than half the students reported in the survey that a teacher has ever discussed the topic with them.

One simple step to make things better

One simple step that educators—and all adults—can take to help promote healthier social media habits among the young people they interact with is to model good behavior, experts say. That means showing respect to others on social media, not using their cellphones during class, and not posting photos or information about students without their permission (or their parents’ permission).

But to really help students reap the benefits of social media while minimizing the harm, schools need to teach digital-literacy skills—such as understanding the addictive design features of social media—paired with social-emotional skills such as self-regulation, self-awareness, empathy, and relationship-building skills.

“Self-awareness includes understanding our own identities,” Schwartz said in an email interview. “Self-management includes agency, or a sense that what we do makes a difference. This also means understanding when something is getting under their skin, and pausing before responding.”

Just as students’ views on social media are nuanced, so, too, should educators’ approaches to discussing the platforms that have become an indispensable venue for teens’ communication, socialization, and identity-formation, experts emphasize.

For example, while it’s important for schools to teach social-emotional skills, educators should acknowledge that it’s not always easy for students to apply them in real life. Social media often creates a tension with the explicit SEL skills schools are teaching, said Emily Weinstein, the executive director of the Center for Digital Thriving at Harvard University.

“It gets complicated when kids want to disconnect, but they have a friend who needs to talk: Their self-regulation and need for sleep, if it’s late at night, is pitted against their empathy,” said Weinstein. “It can be hard to figure this out in a world where you’re connected 24/7.”

The message educators should be driving home, said Lapus of Common Sense Media, is this: Yes, social media can be a positive force in students’ lives. But these platforms are also designed to override many of the social-emotional skills that help students protect their well-being, he said.

For instance, social media features such as the “like” button make it hard for users to exercise self-control, said Lapus, because they’re designed to keep users engaged on the app. “You see the number of likes and see people commenting, the impulse to not feel left out is real, and the ease of responding is built in by design.”

Teachers, he said, should encourage students to examine what’s important to them and how social media can help support those values. (For example, if family is important to a student, social media can help them stay connected with relatives who live far away.)

The goal, Lapus said, is to help students identify when social media isn’t serving their interests. “It’s up to you to be able to continue the cycle that’s helpful or break the cycle because it’s not giving you what you hope to get out of it,” he said.

Data analysis for this article was provided by the EdWeek Research Center. Learn more about the center’s work.

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PSYCH 424 blog

Social media: the pros and cons and how it affects our psychological well-being..

In today’s digital age, it is hard to escape the pervasive influence of social media. Have you ever stopped and wondered how much the influence of social media impacts your daily life? From mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or Facebook feeds for hours to staying connected with friends and family, social media has become essential in our modern society. Looking at the research conducted on the effects of social media on our psychological well, we see evidence of positive and negative effects of excessive social media use on our psychological well-being.

Research has revealed that social media can provide opportunities to boost the mental health of social media users by facilitating social connections and peer support (Zsila & Eric, 2023). As an immigrant coming from almost six thousand miles away from “home”, I have found myself relying heavily on social media to stay connected with family and friends I left behind. If it was not for social media, a lot of the strong connections I left behind would be gone. It has given me the space to be virtually present in my friends and families lives even though I cannot be there physically. When we experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, I noticed myself relying heavily on social media to keep up with the news on what was happening around the world and keep myself entertained during the lockdown. Social media can be seen as an escape from reality. For those who are introverts like some of my friends, they rely heavily on social media to connect with other people who might also be introverts and are not as social in one-on-one interactions in the real world. Using social media moderately while also being self-aware can have a positive impact on one’s life.

While social media brings several benefits to our psychological well-being, researchers have united to explore its potential drawbacks. According to several studies, there has been potentially detrimental effects of social media use on mental health (Zsila & Eric, 2023). Social media has facilitated social connections and peer support; however, it has raised concerns that it may lead to body image dissatisfaction, cyberbullying, and can negatively impact one’s mood. According to research, excessive use of social media, has increased loneliness, fear of missing out, and decreased subjective well-being and life satisfaction (Zsila & Eric, 2023). Social media can be risky for all age groups especially the younger age group users who are not are aware of the potential side effects of using social media. They are not able to see that social media is not as it seems. I remember when I first got Instagram in high school, I noticed myself changing to appear more likable on Instagram and to look like the influencers that I used to follow on Instagram. A lot of people, especially younger audiences on social media platform, often times fail to realize that social media platforms portray only the good aspect of someone’s life. Many celebrities on Instagram that have been called out for photoshopping their pictures and portraying this image perfect life of theirs because they have such a large influential platform that different age groups follow. Individuals who tend to be more introverted, may have their mood affected by seeing their peers being social and living a life that they are not living. Although, the users should be responsible for themselves and how they view social media platforms, it is inevitable to say that it has had a toll on the psychological well-being of social media users around the world.

As technology continues to advance, more social media platforms are going to be introduced to us. We have witnessed this in recent years with Instagram coming out after Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and several other platforms that we did not have as a part of our lives. It is important to raise awareness on the effects social media has on our psychological well-being. Although social media has made it easier for individuals to keep in touch with loves ones and stay entertained, the negative effects it could potentially have on our psychological well-being needs to be addressed to potentially decrease those negative effects. As a society we can come together to remind people that not everything they see on social media is real and therefore they should not let it negatively affect their mental health. We must treat social media they way we treat other aspects of our life by moderating our time spent on these platforms.

Zsila, Á., & Eric, M. (2023). Pros & cons: Impacts of Social Media on Mental Health.  BMC Psychology ,  11 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01243-x

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 21st, 2024 at 11:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment , or trackback from your own site.

I agree with your statement that social media brings several benefits to our psychological well being. It may bring that sense of connection. It makes it easier to communicate with family and friends. I have a 17 year old son that told me his screen time recently. I was floored by what he told me. One week was 52 hours. That is more than a full time job. I asked him what he looks at. He stated Tiktok videos. I know he is on his phone but to find out the amount of time was shocking. This is not healthy. I had a long conversation with him in regards to it. There has to be limits set to how much we are on or devices. It is not physically or mentally healthy to be using social media and electronics continually. There has been a recent debate on banning Tiktok. I understand that there are benefits of all social media. People use it as a way of communication. People use it for their business. As a parent it is my responsibility to regulate usage. If the ban for Tiktok goes through another platform will eventually take its place. There has to be a solution that works.

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/14/1238435508/tiktok-ban-bill-congress-china

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Decomposing Cultural Adaptation and Social Support in Relation to New Media Use and Psychological Well-Being Among Immigrants: a Chain Mediation Model

• Original Research
• Published: 27 March 2024

Cite this article

• Damilola Adetola Bolaji 1 ,
• Yuehua Wu 1 &
• Tosin Yinka Akintunde   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9392-8726 2 , 3  

New media use contributed to reducing pandemic risks and maintaining interpersonal relationships, but compromised psychological well-being. Until now, it is unclear how immigrants used new media during the pandemic to develop cultural adaptive strategies and gain access to social support beneficial to psychological well-being. This study tests the chain effects of cultural adaptation and social support on the association between new media use and the psychological well-being of immigrants. Cross-sectional data from 612 immigrants from a web-based survey in China was examined through partial least square structural equation models (PLS-SEM). The findings suggest that the independent mediating effect of cultural adaptation in the relationship between new media use and psychological well-being was significant with a dampening effect[ β  =  − 0.098; 95% CI (− 0.135, − 0.069); p  < 0.001]. Similarly, the independent mediation effect of social support on the relationship between new media use and psychological well-being was also significant with a negative effect [ β  =  − 0.023; 95% CI (− 0.045, − 0.009); p  < 0.05]. However, the chain mediation show a positive outcome such that the chain interaction of cultural adaptation and social support are pathways linking new media use to positive psychological well-being [ β  = 0.021; 95% CI (0.011, 0.035); p  < 0.001], such that new media use enhances psychological well-being through the chain interactions of cultural adaptation and social support of immigrants. This study emphasizes the importance of joint promotion of cultural adaptation and social support in supporting psychological well-being associated with new media use. This study is critical to theories and practices of supporting immigrants during health crises.

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Data Availability

Data used in this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Adedeji, A., Akintunde, T. Y., Idemudia, E. S., Ibrahim, E., & Metzner, F. (2021). Trust, sociability, and quality of life of Sub-Saharan African migrants in Germany. Frontiers in Sociology, 6 , 193. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.741971

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Adedeji, A., Akintunde, T. Y., Metzner, F., & Idemudia, E. (2023). Psychological health outcome of Sub-Saharan African migrants in Germany. Electronic Journal of General Medicine, 20 (1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejgm/12602

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Bolaji, D.A., Wu, Y. & Akintunde, T.Y. Decomposing Cultural Adaptation and Social Support in Relation to New Media Use and Psychological Well-Being Among Immigrants: a Chain Mediation Model. Applied Research Quality Life (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-024-10295-z

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The effect of social media on the development of students’ affective variables

1 Science and Technology Department, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, China

2 School of Marxism, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

3 Government Enterprise Customer Center, China Mobile Group Jiangsu Co., Ltd., Nanjing, China

The use of social media is incomparably on the rise among students, influenced by the globalized forms of communication and the post-pandemic rush to use multiple social media platforms for education in different fields of study. Though social media has created tremendous chances for sharing ideas and emotions, the kind of social support it provides might fail to meet students’ emotional needs, or the alleged positive effects might be short-lasting. In recent years, several studies have been conducted to explore the potential effects of social media on students’ affective traits, such as stress, anxiety, depression, and so on. The present paper reviews the findings of the exemplary published works of research to shed light on the positive and negative potential effects of the massive use of social media on students’ emotional well-being. This review can be insightful for teachers who tend to take the potential psychological effects of social media for granted. They may want to know more about the actual effects of the over-reliance on and the excessive (and actually obsessive) use of social media on students’ developing certain images of self and certain emotions which are not necessarily positive. There will be implications for pre- and in-service teacher training and professional development programs and all those involved in student affairs.

Introduction

Social media has turned into an essential element of individuals’ lives including students in today’s world of communication. Its use is growing significantly more than ever before especially in the post-pandemic era, marked by a great revolution happening to the educational systems. Recent investigations of using social media show that approximately 3 billion individuals worldwide are now communicating via social media ( Iwamoto and Chun, 2020 ). This growing population of social media users is spending more and more time on social network groupings, as facts and figures show that individuals spend 2 h a day, on average, on a variety of social media applications, exchanging pictures and messages, updating status, tweeting, favoring, and commenting on many updated socially shared information ( Abbott, 2017 ).

Researchers have begun to investigate the psychological effects of using social media on students’ lives. Chukwuere and Chukwuere (2017) maintained that social media platforms can be considered the most important source of changing individuals’ mood, because when someone is passively using a social media platform seemingly with no special purpose, s/he can finally feel that his/her mood has changed as a function of the nature of content overviewed. Therefore, positive and negative moods can easily be transferred among the population using social media networks ( Chukwuere and Chukwuere, 2017 ). This may become increasingly important as students are seen to be using social media platforms more than before and social networking is becoming an integral aspect of their lives. As described by Iwamoto and Chun (2020) , when students are affected by social media posts, especially due to the increasing reliance on social media use in life, they may be encouraged to begin comparing themselves to others or develop great unrealistic expectations of themselves or others, which can have several affective consequences.

Considering the increasing influence of social media on education, the present paper aims to focus on the affective variables such as depression, stress, and anxiety, and how social media can possibly increase or decrease these emotions in student life. The exemplary works of research on this topic in recent years will be reviewed here, hoping to shed light on the positive and negative effects of these ever-growing influential platforms on the psychology of students.

Significance of the study

Though social media, as the name suggests, is expected to keep people connected, probably this social connection is only superficial, and not adequately deep and meaningful to help individuals feel emotionally attached to others. The psychological effects of social media on student life need to be studied in more depth to see whether social media really acts as a social support for students and whether students can use social media to cope with negative emotions and develop positive feelings or not. In other words, knowledge of the potential effects of the growing use of social media on students’ emotional well-being can bridge the gap between the alleged promises of social media and what it actually has to offer to students in terms of self-concept, self-respect, social role, and coping strategies (for stress, anxiety, etc.).

Exemplary general literature on psychological effects of social media

Before getting down to the effects of social media on students’ emotional well-being, some exemplary works of research in recent years on the topic among general populations are reviewed. For one, Aalbers et al. (2018) reported that individuals who spent more time passively working with social media suffered from more intense levels of hopelessness, loneliness, depression, and perceived inferiority. For another, Tang et al. (2013) observed that the procedures of sharing information, commenting, showing likes and dislikes, posting messages, and doing other common activities on social media are correlated with higher stress. Similarly, Ley et al. (2014) described that people who spend 2 h, on average, on social media applications will face many tragic news, posts, and stories which can raise the total intensity of their stress. This stress-provoking effect of social media has been also pinpointed by Weng and Menczer (2015) , who contended that social media becomes a main source of stress because people often share all kinds of posts, comments, and stories ranging from politics and economics, to personal and social affairs. According to Iwamoto and Chun (2020) , anxiety and depression are the negative emotions that an individual may develop when some source of stress is present. In other words, when social media sources become stress-inducing, there are high chances that anxiety and depression also develop.

Charoensukmongkol (2018) reckoned that the mental health and well-being of the global population can be at a great risk through the uncontrolled massive use of social media. These researchers also showed that social media sources can exert negative affective impacts on teenagers, as they can induce more envy and social comparison. According to Fleck and Johnson-Migalski (2015) , though social media, at first, plays the role of a stress-coping strategy, when individuals continue to see stressful conditions (probably experienced and shared by others in media), they begin to develop stress through the passage of time. Chukwuere and Chukwuere (2017) maintained that social media platforms continue to be the major source of changing mood among general populations. For example, someone might be passively using a social media sphere, and s/he may finally find him/herself with a changed mood depending on the nature of the content faced. Then, this good or bad mood is easily shared with others in a flash through the social media. Finally, as Alahmar (2016) described, social media exposes people especially the young generation to new exciting activities and events that may attract them and keep them engaged in different media contexts for hours just passing their time. It usually leads to reduced productivity, reduced academic achievement, and addiction to constant media use ( Alahmar, 2016 ).

The number of studies on the potential psychological effects of social media on people in general is higher than those selectively addressed here. For further insights into this issue, some other suggested works of research include Chang (2012) , Sriwilai and Charoensukmongkol (2016) , and Zareen et al. (2016) . Now, we move to the studies that more specifically explored the effects of social media on students’ affective states.

Review of the affective influences of social media on students

Vygotsky’s mediational theory (see Fernyhough, 2008 ) can be regarded as a main theoretical background for the support of social media on learners’ affective states. Based on this theory, social media can play the role of a mediational means between learners and the real environment. Learners’ understanding of this environment can be mediated by the image shaped via social media. This image can be either close to or different from the reality. In the case of the former, learners can develop their self-image and self-esteem. In the case of the latter, learners might develop unrealistic expectations of themselves by comparing themselves to others. As it will be reviewed below among the affective variables increased or decreased in students under the influence of the massive use of social media are anxiety, stress, depression, distress, rumination, and self-esteem. These effects have been explored more among school students in the age range of 13–18 than university students (above 18), but some studies were investigated among college students as well. Exemplary works of research on these affective variables are reviewed here.

In a cross-sectional study, O’Dea and Campbell (2011) explored the impact of online interactions of social networks on the psychological distress of adolescent students. These researchers found a negative correlation between the time spent on social networking and mental distress. Dumitrache et al. (2012) explored the relations between depression and the identity associated with the use of the popular social media, the Facebook. This study showed significant associations between depression and the number of identity-related information pieces shared on this social network. Neira and Barber (2014) explored the relationship between students’ social media use and depressed mood at teenage. No significant correlation was found between these two variables. In the same year, Tsitsika et al. (2014) explored the associations between excessive use of social media and internalizing emotions. These researchers found a positive correlation between more than 2-h a day use of social media and anxiety and depression.

Hanprathet et al. (2015) reported a statistically significant positive correlation between addiction to Facebook and depression among about a thousand high school students in wealthy populations of Thailand and warned against this psychological threat. Sampasa-Kanyinga and Lewis (2015) examined the relationship between social media use and psychological distress. These researchers found that the use of social media for more than 2 h a day was correlated with a higher intensity of psychological distress. Banjanin et al. (2015) tested the relationship between too much use of social networking and depression, yet found no statistically significant correlation between these two variables. Frison and Eggermont (2016) examined the relationships between different forms of Facebook use, perceived social support of social media, and male and female students’ depressed mood. These researchers found a positive association between the passive use of the Facebook and depression and also between the active use of the social media and depression. Furthermore, the perceived social support of the social media was found to mediate this association. Besides, gender was found as the other factor to mediate this relationship.

Vernon et al. (2017) explored change in negative investment in social networking in relation to change in depression and externalizing behavior. These researchers found that increased investment in social media predicted higher depression in adolescent students, which was a function of the effect of higher levels of disrupted sleep. Barry et al. (2017) explored the associations between the use of social media by adolescents and their psychosocial adjustment. Social media activity showed to be positively and moderately associated with depression and anxiety. Another investigation was focused on secondary school students in China conducted by Li et al. (2017) . The findings showed a mediating role of insomnia on the significant correlation between depression and addiction to social media. In the same year, Yan et al. (2017) aimed to explore the time spent on social networks and its correlation with anxiety among middle school students. They found a significant positive correlation between more than 2-h use of social networks and the intensity of anxiety.

Also in China, Wang et al. (2018) showed that addiction to social networking sites was correlated positively with depression, and this correlation was mediated by rumination. These researchers also found that this mediating effect was moderated by self-esteem. It means that the effect of addiction on depression was compounded by low self-esteem through rumination. In another work of research, Drouin et al. (2018) showed that though social media is expected to act as a form of social support for the majority of university students, it can adversely affect students’ mental well-being, especially for those who already have high levels of anxiety and depression. In their research, the social media resources were found to be stress-inducing for half of the participants, all university students. The higher education population was also studied by Iwamoto and Chun (2020) . These researchers investigated the emotional effects of social media in higher education and found that the socially supportive role of social media was overshadowed in the long run in university students’ lives and, instead, fed into their perceived depression, anxiety, and stress.

Keles et al. (2020) provided a systematic review of the effect of social media on young and teenage students’ depression, psychological distress, and anxiety. They found that depression acted as the most frequent affective variable measured. The most salient risk factors of psychological distress, anxiety, and depression based on the systematic review were activities such as repeated checking for messages, personal investment, the time spent on social media, and problematic or addictive use. Similarly, Mathewson (2020) investigated the effect of using social media on college students’ mental health. The participants stated the experience of anxiety, depression, and suicidality (thoughts of suicide or attempts to suicide). The findings showed that the types and frequency of using social media and the students’ perceived mental health were significantly correlated with each other.

The body of research on the effect of social media on students’ affective and emotional states has led to mixed results. The existing literature shows that there are some positive and some negative affective impacts. Yet, it seems that the latter is pre-dominant. Mathewson (2020) attributed these divergent positive and negative effects to the different theoretical frameworks adopted in different studies and also the different contexts (different countries with whole different educational systems). According to Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions ( Fredrickson, 2001 ), the mental repertoires of learners can be built and broadened by how they feel. For instance, some external stimuli might provoke negative emotions such as anxiety and depression in learners. Having experienced these negative emotions, students might repeatedly check their messages on social media or get addicted to them. As a result, their cognitive repertoire and mental capacity might become limited and they might lose their concentration during their learning process. On the other hand, it should be noted that by feeling positive, learners might take full advantage of the affordances of the social media and; thus, be able to follow their learning goals strategically. This point should be highlighted that the link between the use of social media and affective states is bi-directional. Therefore, strategic use of social media or its addictive use by students can direct them toward either positive experiences like enjoyment or negative ones such as anxiety and depression. Also, these mixed positive and negative effects are similar to the findings of several other relevant studies on general populations’ psychological and emotional health. A number of studies (with general research populations not necessarily students) showed that social networks have facilitated the way of staying in touch with family and friends living far away as well as an increased social support ( Zhang, 2017 ). Given the positive and negative emotional effects of social media, social media can either scaffold the emotional repertoire of students, which can develop positive emotions in learners, or induce negative provokers in them, based on which learners might feel negative emotions such as anxiety and depression. However, admittedly, social media has also generated a domain that encourages the act of comparing lives, and striving for approval; therefore, it establishes and internalizes unrealistic perceptions ( Virden et al., 2014 ; Radovic et al., 2017 ).

It should be mentioned that the susceptibility of affective variables to social media should be interpreted from a dynamic lens. This means that the ecology of the social media can make changes in the emotional experiences of learners. More specifically, students’ affective variables might self-organize into different states under the influence of social media. As for the positive correlation found in many studies between the use of social media and such negative effects as anxiety, depression, and stress, it can be hypothesized that this correlation is induced by the continuous comparison the individual makes and the perception that others are doing better than him/her influenced by the posts that appear on social media. Using social media can play a major role in university students’ psychological well-being than expected. Though most of these studies were correlational, and correlation is not the same as causation, as the studies show that the number of participants experiencing these negative emotions under the influence of social media is significantly high, more extensive research is highly suggested to explore causal effects ( Mathewson, 2020 ).

As the review of exemplary studies showed, some believed that social media increased comparisons that students made between themselves and others. This finding ratifies the relevance of the Interpretation Comparison Model ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ; Stapel, 2007 ) and Festinger’s (1954) Social Comparison Theory. Concerning the negative effects of social media on students’ psychology, it can be argued that individuals may fail to understand that the content presented in social media is usually changed to only represent the attractive aspects of people’s lives, showing an unrealistic image of things. We can add that this argument also supports the relevance of the Social Comparison Theory and the Interpretation Comparison Model ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ; Stapel, 2007 ), because social media sets standards that students think they should compare themselves with. A constant observation of how other students or peers are showing their instances of achievement leads to higher self-evaluation ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ). It is conjectured that the ubiquitous role of social media in student life establishes unrealistic expectations and promotes continuous comparison as also pinpointed in the Interpretation Comparison Model ( Stapel and Koomen, 2000 ; Stapel, 2007 ).

Implications of the study

The use of social media is ever increasing among students, both at school and university, which is partly because of the promises of technological advances in communication services and partly because of the increased use of social networks for educational purposes in recent years after the pandemic. This consistent use of social media is not expected to leave students’ psychological, affective and emotional states untouched. Thus, it is necessary to know how the growing usage of social networks is associated with students’ affective health on different aspects. Therefore, we found it useful to summarize the research findings in recent years in this respect. If those somehow in charge of student affairs in educational settings are aware of the potential positive or negative effects of social media usage on students, they can better understand the complexities of students’ needs and are better capable of meeting them.

Psychological counseling programs can be initiated at schools or universities to check upon the latest state of students’ mental and emotional health influenced by the pervasive use of social media. The counselors can be made aware of the potential adverse effects of social networking and can adapt the content of their inquiries accordingly. Knowledge of the potential reasons for student anxiety, depression, and stress can help school or university counselors to find individualized coping strategies when they diagnose any symptom of distress in students influenced by an excessive use of social networking.

Admittedly, it is neither possible to discard the use of social media in today’s academic life, nor to keep students’ use of social networks fully controlled. Certainly, the educational space in today’s world cannot do without the social media, which has turned into an integral part of everybody’s life. Yet, probably students need to be instructed on how to take advantage of the media and to be the least affected negatively by its occasional superficial and unrepresentative content. Compensatory programs might be needed at schools or universities to encourage students to avoid making unrealistic and impartial comparisons of themselves and the flamboyant images of others displayed on social media. Students can be taught to develop self-appreciation and self-care while continuing to use the media to their benefit.

The teachers’ role as well as the curriculum developers’ role are becoming more important than ever, as they can significantly help to moderate the adverse effects of the pervasive social media use on students’ mental and emotional health. The kind of groupings formed for instructional purposes, for example, in social media can be done with greater care by teachers to make sure that the members of the groups are homogeneous and the tasks and activities shared in the groups are quite relevant and realistic. The teachers cannot always be in a full control of students’ use of social media, and the other fact is that students do not always and only use social media for educational purposes. They spend more time on social media for communicating with friends or strangers or possibly they just passively receive the content produced out of any educational scope just for entertainment. This uncontrolled and unrealistic content may give them a false image of life events and can threaten their mental and emotional health. Thus, teachers can try to make students aware of the potential hazards of investing too much of their time on following pages or people that publish false and misleading information about their personal or social identities. As students, logically expected, spend more time with their teachers than counselors, they may be better and more receptive to the advice given by the former than the latter.

Teachers may not be in full control of their students’ use of social media, but they have always played an active role in motivating or demotivating students to take particular measures in their academic lives. If teachers are informed of the recent research findings about the potential effects of massively using social media on students, they may find ways to reduce students’ distraction or confusion in class due to the excessive or over-reliant use of these networks. Educators may more often be mesmerized by the promises of technology-, computer- and mobile-assisted learning. They may tend to encourage the use of social media hoping to benefit students’ social and interpersonal skills, self-confidence, stress-managing and the like. Yet, they may be unaware of the potential adverse effects on students’ emotional well-being and, thus, may find the review of the recent relevant research findings insightful. Also, teachers can mediate between learners and social media to manipulate the time learners spend on social media. Research has mainly indicated that students’ emotional experiences are mainly dependent on teachers’ pedagogical approach. They should refrain learners from excessive use of, or overreliance on, social media. Raising learners’ awareness of this fact that individuals should develop their own path of development for learning, and not build their development based on unrealistic comparison of their competences with those of others, can help them consider positive values for their activities on social media and, thus, experience positive emotions.

At higher education, students’ needs are more life-like. For example, their employment-seeking spirits might lead them to create accounts in many social networks, hoping for a better future. However, membership in many of these networks may end in the mere waste of the time that could otherwise be spent on actual on-campus cooperative projects. Universities can provide more on-campus resources both for research and work experience purposes from which the students can benefit more than the cyberspace that can be tricky on many occasions. Two main theories underlying some negative emotions like boredom and anxiety are over-stimulation and under-stimulation. Thus, what learners feel out of their involvement in social media might be directed toward negative emotions due to the stimulating environment of social media. This stimulating environment makes learners rely too much, and spend too much time, on social media or use them obsessively. As a result, they might feel anxious or depressed. Given the ubiquity of social media, these negative emotions can be replaced with positive emotions if learners become aware of the psychological effects of social media. Regarding the affordances of social media for learners, they can take advantage of the potential affordances of these media such as improving their literacy, broadening their communication skills, or enhancing their distance learning opportunities.

A review of the research findings on the relationship between social media and students’ affective traits revealed both positive and negative findings. Yet, the instances of the latter were more salient and the negative psychological symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and stress have been far from negligible. These findings were discussed in relation to some more relevant theories such as the social comparison theory, which predicted that most of the potential issues with the young generation’s excessive use of social media were induced by the unfair comparisons they made between their own lives and the unrealistic portrayal of others’ on social media. Teachers, education policymakers, curriculum developers, and all those in charge of the student affairs at schools and universities should be made aware of the psychological effects of the pervasive use of social media on students, and the potential threats.

It should be reminded that the alleged socially supportive and communicative promises of the prevalent use of social networking in student life might not be fully realized in practice. Students may lose self-appreciation and gratitude when they compare their current state of life with the snapshots of others’ or peers’. A depressed or stressed-out mood can follow. Students at schools or universities need to learn self-worth to resist the adverse effects of the superficial support they receive from social media. Along this way, they should be assisted by the family and those in charge at schools or universities, most importantly the teachers. As already suggested, counseling programs might help with raising students’ awareness of the potential psychological threats of social media to their health. Considering the ubiquity of social media in everybody’ life including student life worldwide, it seems that more coping and compensatory strategies should be contrived to moderate the adverse psychological effects of the pervasive use of social media on students. Also, the affective influences of social media should not be generalized but they need to be interpreted from an ecological or contextual perspective. This means that learners might have different emotions at different times or different contexts while being involved in social media. More specifically, given the stative approach to learners’ emotions, what learners emotionally experience in their application of social media can be bound to their intra-personal and interpersonal experiences. This means that the same learner at different time points might go through different emotions Also, learners’ emotional states as a result of their engagement in social media cannot be necessarily generalized to all learners in a class.

As the majority of studies on the psychological effects of social media on student life have been conducted on school students than in higher education, it seems it is too soon to make any conclusive remark on this population exclusively. Probably, in future, further studies of the psychological complexities of students at higher education and a better knowledge of their needs can pave the way for making more insightful conclusions about the effects of social media on their affective states.

Suggestions for further research

The majority of studies on the potential effects of social media usage on students’ psychological well-being are either quantitative or qualitative in type, each with many limitations. Presumably, mixed approaches in near future can better provide a comprehensive assessment of these potential associations. Moreover, most studies on this topic have been cross-sectional in type. There is a significant dearth of longitudinal investigation on the effect of social media on developing positive or negative emotions in students. This seems to be essential as different affective factors such as anxiety, stress, self-esteem, and the like have a developmental nature. Traditional research methods with single-shot designs for data collection fail to capture the nuances of changes in these affective variables. It can be expected that more longitudinal studies in future can show how the continuous use of social media can affect the fluctuations of any of these affective variables during the different academic courses students pass at school or university.

As already raised in some works of research reviewed, the different patterns of impacts of social media on student life depend largely on the educational context. Thus, the same research designs with the same academic grade students and even the same age groups can lead to different findings concerning the effects of social media on student psychology in different countries. In other words, the potential positive and negative effects of popular social media like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, etc., on students’ affective conditions can differ across different educational settings in different host countries. Thus, significantly more research is needed in different contexts and cultures to compare the results.

There is also a need for further research on the higher education students and how their affective conditions are positively and negatively affected by the prevalent use of social media. University students’ psychological needs might be different from other academic grades and, thus, the patterns of changes that the overall use of social networking can create in their emotions can be also different. Their main reasons for using social media might be different from school students as well, which need to be investigated more thoroughly. The sorts of interventions needed to moderate the potential negative effects of social networking on them can be different too, all requiring a new line of research in education domain.

Finally, there are hopes that considering the ever-increasing popularity of social networking in education, the potential psychological effects of social media on teachers be explored as well. Though teacher psychology has only recently been considered for research, the literature has provided profound insights into teachers developing stress, motivation, self-esteem, and many other emotions. In today’s world driven by global communications in the cyberspace, teachers like everyone else are affecting and being affected by social networking. The comparison theory can hold true for teachers too. Thus, similar threats (of social media) to self-esteem and self-worth can be there for teachers too besides students, which are worth investigating qualitatively and quantitatively.

Probably a new line of research can be initiated to explore the co-development of teacher and learner psychological traits under the influence of social media use in longitudinal studies. These will certainly entail sophisticated research methods to be capable of unraveling the nuances of variation in these traits and their mutual effects, for example, stress, motivation, and self-esteem. If these are incorporated within mixed-approach works of research, more comprehensive and better insightful findings can be expected to emerge. Correlational studies need to be followed by causal studies in educational settings. As many conditions of the educational settings do not allow for having control groups or randomization, probably, experimental studies do not help with this. Innovative research methods, case studies or else, can be used to further explore the causal relations among the different features of social media use and the development of different affective variables in teachers or learners. Examples of such innovative research methods can be process tracing, qualitative comparative analysis, and longitudinal latent factor modeling (for a more comprehensive view, see Hiver and Al-Hoorie, 2019 ).

Author contributions

Both authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

This study was sponsored by Wuxi Philosophy and Social Sciences bidding project—“Special Project for Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Workers in the New Form of Employment” (Grant No. WXSK22-GH-13). This study was sponsored by the Key Project of Party Building and Ideological and Political Education Research of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications—“Research on the Guidance and Countermeasures of Network Public Opinion in Colleges and Universities in the Modern Times” (Grant No. XC 2021002).

Conflict of interest

Author XX was employed by China Mobile Group Jiangsu Co., Ltd. The remaining author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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