Anxiety and depression amongst youth as adverse effects of using social media: A Review

Background: Social media use has become ubiquitous and has transformed human interaction. Concurrently, youth depression and anxiety have risen, raising concerns that social media may compromise mental health. Objectives were to examine whether social media relates to development of depression and anxiety among youth, identify usage patterns that could contribute, and suggest future research. Methods: Following SANRA criteria, a Medline search (all time to 23 December 2022) using terms including social media, problematic social media use, depression, anxiety, suicidality, self-harm, FOMO, cyberchondria, cyberbullying, sexting, and online shopping initially yielded 184,924 articles; 77 relevant articles focused on youth (12–26 years) were included. Results: Social media use is often associated with depression and anxiety. Patterns predicting poorer outcomes include passive use, media multitasking, emotional investment, appearance-based activities, night-time use, problematic social media use, cyberbullying, sexting, and disaster awareness. Conclusion: Specific patterns of social media engagement are associated with poor mental health outcomes in youth. Clinicians should address social media exposure in well visits and parents should communicate openly about it. More rigorous research is needed to determine causality.