Balancing the benefits and risks of social media on adolescent mental health in a post-pandemic world.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic intensified adolescents reliance on social media for connection, education, and entertainment, presenting both opportunities and risks for mental health. This viewpoint explores the dual nature of social media as a lifeline offering peer support and access to resources, especially for marginalized teens and a stressor, linked to anxiety, depression, and cyberbullying. Drawing on global evidence, including WHO and UNICEF data, it shows disparities in impact across socioeconomic, cultural, and gender contexts, with low-resource settings facing unique challenges like digital poverty amidst persistent post-pandemic effects. A multi-stakeholder framework is proposed to balance these dynamics, emphasizing parental and educator empowerment through digital literacy, tech industry accountability via adolescent-specific safeguards, clinical integration of social media screening in healthcare, and robust policy regulation for online safety. The urgency of action is underscored, with specific calls to governments, tech companies, clinicians, and researchers to collaborate on protecting adolescent well-being. This viewpoint argues that transforming social media into a safe space for mental health is a moral imperative, essential to prevent a generational crisis and ensure equity in the digital age.