What Is the Link Between Social Media Use and Youth Mental Health?

Source: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels The utilization of social media such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook has increased dramatically in recent years. This has become especially intense among adolescents, teens, and young adults. Indeed, a recent study indicates that 80 percent of young people use social media on a daily basis, with almost 50 percent using it for over two hours per day. What is the impact of such heavy social media usage on the mental health of young people? This is a pressing question for psychiatric researchers, who have conducted rigorous studies on the topic. These studies produce consistent findings: Heavy utilization of social media is associated with poorer mental health. For example, a large-scale research study of young adults indicated that heavy social media users are almost three times more likely to be depressed than occasional users. Another study of young adults showed that recent Facebook use worsens “how people feel moment to moment and how satisfied they are with their lives.” In Canada, researchers analyzed data from over 10,000 adolescents, finding that young people who use social media more than two hours per day are much more likely to rate their mental health as “fair” or “poor” compared…
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