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Just How Harmful Is Social Media? Our Experts Weigh-In.

As social media has proliferated worldwide—Facebook has 2.85 billion users—so too have concerns over how the platforms are affecting individual and collective wellbeing. Social media is criticized for being addictive by design and for its role in the spread of misinformation on critical issues from vaccine safety to election integrity, as well as the rise of right-wing extremism. Social media companies, and many users, defend the platforms as avenues for promoting creativity and community-building. And some research has pushed back against the idea that social media raises the risk for depression in teens. So just how healthy or unhealthy is social media?

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 We Know Social Media Can Destroy Our Mental Health. What Can We Actually Do About It?

Many of us turn to these platforms to mentally escape via cute cat videos or to connect with friends in hilarious group chats. And we’ve all felt the surge of serotonin a simple like can produce. But data suggests some people can experience the opposite effect and end up feeling isolated, detached, and, well, sad. Over the last few years, studies have shown a correlation between the time a person spends using social media and an increased risk of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, body-image issues, self-harm, and suicidal ideation.

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Posting to Social Media Is Ruining Your Mental Health

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Social media bans could deny teenagers mental health help

The greater use of immersive social media — like the never-ending scroll of videos on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram — has been blamed for contributing to the crisis. But a committee of the national academies found that the relationship between social media and youth mental health is complex, with potential benefits as well as harms.

Social media can connect us to a world of opportunities, but what if it’s harming our children?

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The surprising way doomscrolling rewires your brain

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Even experts disagree over whether social media is bad for kids. We examined why

Harms discussed often refer to mental wellbeing, including loneliness, anxiety, depression and envy. But harms also refer to undesirable attitudes such as polarisation and behaviours such as cyberbullying and offline violence. Similarly, benefits are sometimes, but not always, considered.

Excessive social media found to harm teenagers’ mental health – but experts say moderation may be key

Teenagers who used social media between one and three hours per day reported feeling more in control of their lives (61%) compared with low users (59%) and high users (51%). Moderate users were also just as likely to seek help from parents as low users (63%) compared with high users (52%), and reported less difficulty in socialising (26%) than low users (28%).

Here's Why You Can't Log Off Social Media — Even When It Makes You Miserable

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Here’s what happens to your brain when you take a break from social media

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How Did Social Media Get So Vicious?

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How Social Media Is Hurting Your Memory

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I dream of … trending topics? Here's how social media can become the stuff of nightmares

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Is Social Media Making Us the Worst Ever?

The problem with this is that we are actually making each other miserable with all this self-indulgent perfection. A University of Michigan study found that Facebook actually makes us sad and lonely. From the study: "The more people used Facebook at one time point, the worse they felt.... The more they used Facebook over two weeks, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time."

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New Study Says Social Media Is Making Teens Sad

Very few of us can imagine a day without sharing some portion of our lives on at least one of the social media apps that dominate our iPhone screens. We post to show off our cool lives, our chic clothes, our sweet romances, our enviable squads. The resulting one-upmanship mentality is impossible to ignore, and the pressure to stay relevant and worth following can take its toll—especially with a younger, more impressionable set of users.

Social Media Addiction and Mental Health: The Growing Concern for Youth Well-Being

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Social Media and Youth Mental Health: Scoping Review of Platform and Policy Recommendations

High rates of social media use and mental ill-health among young people have drawn significant public, policy, and research concern. Rapid technological advancements and changes in platform design have outpaced our understanding of the health effects of social media and hampered timely evidence-based regulatory responses. While a proliferation of recommendations to social media companies and governments has been published, a comprehensive summary of recommendations for protecting young people’s mental health and digital safety does not yet exist.

Social media drama can hit teens hard at different ages

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Social Media Has Both Positive and Negative Impacts on Children and Adolescents

Social media can provide benefits for some youth by providing positive community and connection with others who share identities, abilities, and interests. It can provide access to important information and create a space for self-expression. The ability to form and maintain friendships online and develop social connections are among the positive effects of social media use for youth

Social Media Hurts Girls More Than Boys

The public and experts alike have blamed social media for a long list of mental health issues, including rising rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal behavior among America’s youth. But research on the subject is conflicting. One study published this spring, for example, found that social media use likely doesn’t have a terribly large impact on teenagers’ life satisfaction, despite all those expert warnings.

Social media is boosting mental health disorders and suicidal thoughts among teens, particularly in girls

Mixed anxiety-depressive disorders (MADD) and suicidal thoughts, online bullying, poorer self-esteem, alcohol, cannabis and psychoactive substance use… social networks exploit young people’s vulnerability and actually help boost certain disorders that they are prone to. This is the conclusion of a large-scale report by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses) which dissects the mechanisms behind digital marketing tools designed to target the specific vulnerabilities and emotional weak spots associated with adolescence.

Social Media Isn’t All Bad for Kids

The research blaming social media for negative mental-health outcomes isn’t airtight. In 2019, psychology professor and tech-skeptic Jonathan Haidt compiled more than 300 scientific studies finding a relationship between social-media use and mental-health issues. But many of those studies were low-quality and plagued by statistical fallacies. The many studies that find a positive correlation between youth well-being and screen time also deserve skepticism. The complexity of this area makes drawing definitive conclusions difficult.

Social media particularly damaging to mental health of Gen Zers, says study

Studies have shown that passive social media use, like endlessly scrolling on TikTok or Instagram, could be linked with declines in wellbeing over time. The negative impact of social media increases substantially for younger ages overall.

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

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‘The Social Dilemma’: Are Facebook and Instagram Really Affecting Our Mental Health?

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