A new review analysing 20+ years of international research into how social media may affect mental health has reported that, despite most research being “focused on the potential negative aspects”, the results “remain inconclusive”.
While a major 2019 US study involving 6,595 teenagers (reported in JAMA Psychiatry) concluded those who spent more than 3 hours per day on social media may have a higher risk of mental health problems, the “degree to which social media actually harms mental health is debatable” reported medicalnewstoday.com.
For example:
- A 2022 Dutch/German review (published in Current Opinion in Psychology) found most studies investigating the link between social media and mental health demonstrate “weak” or “inconsistent” associations.
- Another 2020 German review (published on journals.sagepub.com) found that while there may be a small negative association between social media use and mental health, the “link is complex and depends on exactly how researchers define mental health and social media use”.
- A December 2021 UK study from Kings’ College London suggests social media “may even benefit mental health, especially for people belonging to LGBTQIA+ communities and those living with mental health conditions”.
These conflicting findings “make it challenging to navigate the research investigating the effects of social media on mental health” summed up medicalnewstoday.com.
Dr John Naslund from US Harvard Medical School noted: “One promising area of research is the role of online peer networks, where it appears that connecting online with others who share similar mental health challenges can offer important benefits for feeling less alone, learning coping skills and being abler to offer/receive emotional or informational support from others.”
Dr Niklas Johannes from UK Oxford University added: “There’s a lot of research that suggests social media are a useful tool to stay connected to others. However all this comes with a huge caveat: We simply don’t know about cause and effect.
“It’s just as plausible that heavy social media users make more friends or that those with a lot of friends use more social media.”
Other research suggests “how” a person uses social media, rather than “how much”, may have a stronger association with mental health outcomes – with Mental Health for Romania’s Dr Dan-Mircea Mirea noting: “There is evidence routine social media use in the general population is positively associate with mental health and social well-being, as long as one is not ‘emotionally invested in the media, in which case the outcomes are negative.”
Similarly Dutch Professor Gonneke Stevens at Utrecht University agreed “emotional investment” in social media use – addiction-like symptoms such as feeling bad when social media use is restricted, loss of control over preoccupation with social media, and conflicts with others because of social media use – “may be more indicative of mental health outcomes” than how much a person uses it.
University of California’s Dr Kya Barounis said that, for children and teens, the most compelling evidence is the 2019 UK study (published in The Lancet) regarding cyberbullying on social media, which is “associated with symptoms of depression and suicidality” and “may be a particular problem for youth who identify as sexual or gender minorities”.
However she also noted social media use could displace other behaviours, such as sleep and exercise, which are important for maintaining good mental health.
Beyond the risk of cyberbullying and exposure to hate content, researchers said it was important to interpret with caution any studies related to more generalised social media use because they are often based on unreliable date.
Dr Mirea summed Up: “There are multiple observational studies that find social media use is negatively associated with mental health. But there are also studies looking at similar datasets, or sometimes the same dataset with different methods, that find no effect.
“It seems the conclusions are very much affected by how researchers analyse their data.”
