Effects of Social Media on Mental Health

How Does Social Media Affect Men­tal Health?

In less than a gen­er­a­tion, social media was born and evolved into a sta­ple of mod­ern life. Today, the ​“typ­i­cal” social media user spends two hours and 23 min­utes a day perus­ing social plat­forms. And 1 in 5 teens report being on YouTube or Tik­Tok ​“almost con­stant­ly,” accord­ing to a 2023 sur­vey by Pew Research Center.

Despite social media’s enor­mous pop­u­lar­i­ty, many men­tal health experts urge cau­tion. Mul­ti­ple stud­ies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk of depres­sion, anx­i­ety, lone­li­ness, self-harm and even sui­ci­dal thoughts, accord­ing to the glob­al non­prof­it HelpGuide​.org.

Is Social Media Bad for Men­tal Health?

In 2023, U.S. Sur­geon Gen­er­al Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advi­so­ry call­ing atten­tion to ​“the grow­ing con­cerns about the effects of social media on youth men­tal health.” The advi­so­ry high­lights a num­ber of research find­ings that asso­ciate social media use with men­tal health con­cerns. For exam­ple, it not­ed that U.S. teens, ages 12 to 15, who spent more than three hours a day on social media faced dou­ble the risk of expe­ri­enc­ing poor men­tal health out­comes, includ­ing symp­toms of depres­sion and anxiety.

Read more on social media and teen men­tal health

Social media use has also been linked to FOMO (fear of miss­ing out). View­ing the high­lights of some­one else’s life on social media can cause peo­ple to feel left out, behind in life and inad­e­quate. This rise in FOMO can fuel anx­i­ety, greater social media depen­dence, dis­rupt­ed sleep and reduced con­cen­tra­tion, accord­ing to researchers. Social media expe­ri­ences can and do dif­fer depend­ing on a user’s race, age, gen­der and sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion. For exam­ple, as report­ed in the sur­geon general’s advi­so­ry:

• Near­ly 60% of ado­les­cent girls report­ed feel­ing uncom­fort­able due to an inter­ac­tion with a stranger on social media.
• Among ado­les­cent social media users, 64% report being exposed to hate-based con­tent at least ​“some­times,” while 1 in 3 ado­les­cent girls of col­or say report encoun­ter­ing racist con­tent online.
• For teenage girls, ages 13 to 17, 46% report­ed that social media made them feel worse about their bod­ies. Face­book use was asso­ci­at­ed with depres­sion among peo­ple younger than 35. In the over-35 age group, using Tik­Tok or Snapchat — but not Face­book — was con­nect­ed to symp­toms of depres­sion, accord­ing to a 2022 mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary study on social media use and adult depression.

Ten Neg­a­tive Impacts of Social Media

Why is social media bad for men­tal health? Some neg­a­tive influ­ences and out­comes that researchers asso­ciate with social media use include:

1. wors­en­ing anx­i­ety and depression;
2. addic­tion to technology;
3. expe­ri­ence with cyberbullying;
4. nor­mal­iz­ing high-risk behaviors;
5. wors­en­ing body image;
6. decreased pro­duc­tiv­i­ty;
7. expo­sure to inap­pro­pri­ate con­tent, includ­ing sex­u­al and hate-based content;
8. dis­rupt­ed or reduced lev­els of sleep;
9. reduced phys­i­cal activ­i­ty; and
10. social iso­la­tion.

Pos­i­tive Effects of Social Media on Men­tal Health

Social media isn’t all bad. Many peo­ple use social media for its ben­e­fits — to con­nect with friends, learn some­thing new, facil­i­tate a sense of belong­ing and more. As the Amer­i­can Psy­cho­log­i­cal Asso­ci­a­tion puts it, social media is a com­mu­ni­ca­tion tool that both ​“charms and harms.”

Some of the men­tal health-relat­ed ben­e­fits of social media, as iden­ti­fied by HelpGuide​.org, include:

• facil­i­tat­ing cre­ative expression;
• stay­ing in touch with friends and fam­i­ly who live far away;
• net­work­ing with like-mind­ed peo­ple and groups;
• join­ing and engag­ing in worth­while causes;
• gain­ing or giv­ing emo­tion­al sup­port dur­ing chal­leng­ing times;
• access­ing online sup­port resources and care; and
• learn­ing about new top­ics, prod­ucts and trends.

Men­tal Health in the Age of Social Media

Indi­vid­u­als can prac­tice respon­si­ble and safe social media use while also pro­tect­ing their men­tal health and well-being. Some smart steps to con­sid­er tak­ing include:

• Reduc­ing screen time. Cut­ting social media use to 30 min­utes a day result­ed in young adults expe­ri­enc­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduced lev­els of anx­i­ety, depres­sion, lone­li­ness, sleep prob­lems and FOMO, accord­ing to a 2018 study by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia.
• Build­ing con­nec­tions offline. Set aside time to con­nect direct­ly with fam­i­ly and friends, vol­un­teer for a good cause or join a group of like-mind­ed indi­vid­u­als that meet up on a reg­u­lar basis.
• Mon­i­tor­ing and lim­it­ing children’s use of social media. Parental con­trol apps can help restrict a child’s phone use and safe­guard their pri­va­cy. Par­ents can also estab­lish social media breaks designed to help kids both dis­con­nect and devel­op health­i­er tech­nol­o­gy habits.
• Remem­ber­ing that social media isn’t real life. It’s help­ful to rec­og­nize (and to remind younger social media users) that peo­ple can eas­i­ly manip­u­late, enhance and curate the posts and infor­ma­tion they’re sharing. 
• Under­stand­ing the rela­tion­ship between social media and sleep. Par­ents of young social media users should con­sid­er insti­tut­ing a no-tech­nol­o­gy hour before bed­time to sup­port healthy sleep habits. Adults should con­sid­er leav­ing their devices in anoth­er room to charge overnight.

Read about the effects of social media and tech­nol­o­gy on Gen Alpha

See the rate of chil­dren and teens with anx­i­ety or depres­sion in the Unit­ed States