Time Spent on Social Media and Associations with Mental Health in Young Adults: Examining TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat, and Reddit.

Abstract

Time spent on social media has been an inconsistent predictor of mental health outcomes in young people. However, most studies have assessed social media use globally, with few investigations of the relative influence of specific social media platforms, which may partially account for mixed findings. Furthermore, studies often focus on a single mental health outcome, limiting understanding of how social media relates to psychological well-being. The purpose of the current study was to examine associations between time spent on multiple popular social media platforms and a variety of mental health-related outcomes in a sample of young adults. Participants included 575 young adults who completed an online survey assessing self-reported time spent on Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Snapchat, and Facebook as well as depression, anxiety, PTSD, loneliness, friend support, and self-esteem. Path analyses showed that in the overall sample, greater use of Tiktok and YouTube were consistently associated with more mental health issues, whereas greater use of Snapchat was associated with fewer mental health issues. Models examining results for men and women separately suggested that use of Tiktok was more relevant in women's mental health, whereas use of Reddit was more relevant in men's mental health. Findings highlight that associations are not uniform across social media platforms. More research is needed that compares individual platforms and their relationship to psychological well-being as well as future studies examining how gender impacts findings.