Abstract
Social media effects on youth during COVID-19 have been studied in the context of excessive use and mental health. Although some positive effects have been reported including connecting and social support, the COVID-19 research has typically noted negative effects including sedentary behavior, limited social interaction, depression and anxiety. This narrative review of eighteen COVID-19 publications on social media effects on youth includes sections on prevalence, on effects and on mediators/moderators of those effects. The prevalence of social media use by youth during COVID-19 has varied between 5% and 97% across 22 countries as a function of location, quarantine/lockdown, and type of social media, although the overall prevalence has significantly increased by 27% during the pandemic and has averaged 38% across studies. The most popular social media have been Facebook, What’s App, Instagram and Twitter. The prevalence of mental health symptoms has also varied across countries but has averaged 27% for anxiety, 34% for depression and 35% for stress. Mediators for the relationships between excessive social media and mental health symptoms have included rumination, psychological capital, sense of control and active use and moderators have included mindfulness, academic burnout and “flow”. Limitations of this literature are its sampling of self-reports from university students via cross-sectional surveys and confounding variables including pre-existing psychopathology, lockdown conditions, and sedentary behavior. Research is needed on the specific reasons for excessive social media use (e. g. information seeking, social interaction and escape from negative feelings including loneliness and touch deprivation) to inform intervention protocols for reducing this addictive behavior and its negative consequences on mental health symptoms in youth.
Highlights
Social media has been studied in the context of Infomedia, educational and exercise classes on zoom, and mobile apps and messaging to improve physical health and decrease anxiety, stress and depression [1]
Web-based interventions have been effective, research has suggested that excessive social media use has negative effects on mental health [2]
This narrative review of the COVID-19 literature on social media effects on the mental health of youth is based on 18 peerreviewed publications (2019-2021) found on PubMed and PsycINFO
Summary
Social media has been studied in the context of Infomedia (false news, informative and disturbing news), educational and exercise classes on zoom, and mobile apps and messaging to improve physical health and decrease anxiety, stress and depression [1]. In a review of the pre-COVID literature on texting, excessive use was associated with shorter sleep and inferior sleep quality [6], especially texting in bed, which was associated with insomnia and shorter sleep duration as well as anxiety [7] In these cross-sectional studies, the directionality/causality could not be determined. COVID-19 studies have assessed feelings of isolation and loneliness [17], depression [18,19], anxiety [20], sleep disturbances [21,22] and PTSD symptoms [23], the COVID-19 lockdown studies have less frequently referred to social media effects [17]. Anxiety and depression are the most frequently reported effects of social media use on youth during COVID-19. The authors of this study suggested was 27% for anxiety and 34% for depression
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