Social Media and Youth Mental Health | Orlando Counselor

This article summarizes the potential positive and negative impacts of social media on children and adolescents, primary areas for mental health, and well-being concerns. Approximately 95% of youth ages 13-17 reported using some type of social media platform; with approximately more than one-third using it consistently. Nearly 40% of children 8-12 use social media, despite age restrictions. Current evidence supports there is an increased concern amongst experts that social media has more risks than benefits relating to a child’s mental health. The influence is attributed to factors, including, but not limited to, the amount of time spent on platforms, the type of content, the activities and interactions social media affords, and the degree it disrupts healthy activities e.g., sleep and physical exercise.

Brain development is a critical factor to consider when assessing the risk for harm. Adolescents between the age of 10 to 19 are in a sensitive brain development period. During this time period, risk-taking behaviors are at their peak. In the early adolescent years, children are finding that their identity and self-worth are growing. Throughout this time, adolescents are susceptible to social pressures, peer opinions, and peer comparison. The constant use of social media changes brain chemistry by alerting the development of the amygdala (important for emotional learning and behavior) and the prefrontal cortex (important for impulse control, emotional regulation, and moderating social behavior). This can lead to increased sensitivity to social rewards and punishments.

Potential Benefits

Social media can provide a positive community and connection with other individuals who share the same identities, abilities, or interests. This is important for individuals who are often marginalized. Social media has been found to help the mental health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and other adolescents. Seven of ten adolescent minority girls of color were found to have positive encounters or identity-affirming support relating to race. 58% of adolescents reported social media helps them feel accepted. 67% report having support through social media, and 71% report feeling comfortable showing their creative side on social media. 80% feel more connected to what’s going on in their friends’ lives. This is a result of the advancement in technology, children and adolescents can maintain relationships in various geographical locations.

Potential Harm

A longitudinal cohort study of United States adolescents between the ages 12-15 was completed and found that more than three hours per day on social media faced double the risk of experiencing mental health outcomes e.g., depression and anxiety. As of 2021, 8th to 10th graders spend approximately 3.5 hours per day on social media. Current research shows extended periods of social media interactions have negative effects on college-aged individuals.

In a recent study, 359,827 college students were observed following their use of social media. The study concluded there was a 9% increase in depression and 12% in anxiety for this population. A small randomized controlled trial found that college-age individuals who limited their social media activity to 30 minutes a day over a three-week period, experienced significant improvements relating to depression symptoms.

Recent studies have found the relationship between social media and mental health concerning. A cohort of 14-year-old females was studied and found that the greater the use of social media the greater the risk of poor mental health. Especially when it comes to cyber-bullying, depression, body image and distorted eating behaviors, low self-esteem, and poor sleep. Many parents reported worrying about their child’s social media use leading to negative mental health effects relating to depression or anxiety (54%), lower self-esteem (54%), being harassed or bullied (54%), feeling pressured to act a certain way (59%), and exposure to explicit content (71%).

Potential Harm from Content Exposure

Extreme, inappropriate, and harmful content continues to be easily accessible to children and adolescents. There are some cases where childhood deaths have been linked to risk-taking challenges and suicide/self-harm-related content. Some social media platforms show live depictions of self-harm actions e.g., partial asphyxiation, leading to seizures and cutting, leading to significant bleeding, suicide pacts, and normalizing harmful behavior. 46% of adolescents aged 13-17 reported social media increasing negative views about their image. Roughly 64% are exposed to hate-based content relating to gender and/or race. Approximately 75% of adolescents report social media platforms are only doing a fair job of decreasing these problems.

Potential Harm from Excessive and Problematic Use

The excessive use of social media disrupts children’s and adolescents’ healthy behaviors. Social media is designed to maximize the user’s interaction, as a result, this encourages excessive use and behavioral deregulation. Approximately 31% of social media use is attributed to self-control challenges enhanced by habit formation. More than half of adolescents report it would be hard to stop engaging in social media. Attention problems and feelings of exclusion have been linked to excessive social media use. A systematic review of 42 studies found that poor sleep quality, reduced sleep duration, sleeping difficulty, and depression have been linked to excessive social media use. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has been linked to adolescents and social media use.

What Can We Do About It?

Parents and Caregivers

• Create family media plans.
• Create tech-free zones and encourage children to foster in-person friendships.
• Model responsible social media behavior.
• Teach kids about technology and empower them to be responsible online participants at the appropriate age.
• Report cyberbullying, online abuse, and exploitation.
• Work with other parents to help establish shared norms and practices and encourage your community to support programs and policies that aim to promote healthy social media use.

Children and Adolescents

• Reach out for help.
• Create boundaries to help balance online and offline activities.
• Develop protective strategies and healthy practices.
• Be cautious about what you share.
• Protect yourself and others.
• Don’t keep online harassment or abuse a secret.
• Don’t take part in online harassment or abuse.

Policy Makers

• Strengthen protections to ensure greater safety for children interacting with all social media platforms.
• Develop age-appropriate health and safety standards.
• Require a higher standard of data privacy for children.
• Pursue policies that further minimize the risk of harm to social media for all children.
• Ensure technology companies share data relevant to the health impact of their platforms.
• Support the development, implantation, and evaluation of digital and media literacy curricula in schools and within academic standards.
• Support increased funding for future research.
• Engage with international partners.

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