The Role of Neural Sensitivity to Social Evaluation in Understanding “for Whom” Social Media Use May Impact Emotional Health During Adolescence

There is much interest in the role of social media (SM) in the current mental health crisis among teens. In this review, we focus on the question of “for whom” SM experiences have the strongest impact on emotional health, considering neural sensitivity to social evaluation as a potential vulnerability factor that makes youth more susceptible to the effects of SM. We first present behavioral evidence showing that sensitivity to social evaluation moderates the link between SM use and emotional health in youth. Next, we show that the brain’s affective salience network responds to simulated online social threats in ways that predict emotional health. Finally, we show evidence that neural sensitivity to online social evaluation moderates the effects of peer social experiences on emotional health, with implications for social media experiences. We end with recommendations for fully testing the model.