Smartphones, social media use and youth mental health

We thank Messrs. Darren and Brandon Laur for highlighting a number of studies published since the past year that did not find a significant correlation between social media and smartphone use and mental health difficulties. This is a very rapidly growing field, with hundreds of studies – both negative and positive – published in the last year alone. Thus, any manuscript going through the peer review process will necessarily miss the most recent studies.

Nevertheless, while our paper focuses on the potential challenges from smartphone and social media use, we do describe findings that show no negative impact on mental health, and those showing positive effects. Heterogeneous findings across and within studies are likely the result of multiple factors, in particular those related to context and inter-individual differences. This is a complex area that will continue to evolve, especially as society continues to adapt to the important changes in interpersonal communication in recent years, and there will likely be generational cohort effects.

As to the potential role of social media to increase access to mental health care, this as an important and separate topic that is beyond the scope of our analysis. Nonetheless, as we state in our paper, “for adolescents today, who have not known a world without social media, digital interactions are the norm, and the potential benefits of online access to productive mental health information — including media literacy, creativity, self-expression, sense of belonging and civic engagement — as well as low barriers to resources such as crisis lines and Internet-based talking therapies cannot be discounted.”

Finally, while we believe the evidence supports a likely role of smartphones and social media in mental health struggles among youth, this is unlikely to be the sole explanation. Rather, there are likely other factors, including socioeconomic and cultural, that are interacting and contributing to the recent trends in youth mental distress. It is imperative that such factors be thoroughly investigated and that we respond swiftly and thoughtfully with – as we conclude in our paper – “initiatives aimed at addressing the social, environmental and economic factors that underpin family well-being and nurture youth resilience.”