Zuckerberg is right: There is insufficient scientific evidence that social media harms mental health

Last week, the US senate had a hearing on the dangers of social media in preparation of a legislation to improve child safety online. In this hearing, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that it has not been scientifically proved that social media causes mental health problems in adolescents.

This upset a lot of people who think that the link is obvious. But I am afraid Zuckerberg is right. Let’s have a look.

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#science #sciencenews #mentalhealth

[ExecutionSommaire]

To be fair, I've always felt that overusing social media and the Internet in general, in my case, is more of a symptom than it is a cause. Like overeating. That being said, the link is obvious when social media allow school bullying to get to another level, ending with suicides. Also, the infinite scroll is an attention span killer, dunno if that counts as mental health, I personally would count that in.

[antonleimbach]

The word “crisis” is so overused that it hardly means anything anymore. How many crises are we living in right now?

[connied]

I wish there was a study separating social media from aggressive marketing. Promoting fear and aggression is counterproductive to mental health.

[Draxis]

I think it has become quite obvious that social media shouldn't be used by kids and teenagers. Yet nothing is made.

[alvaroballon]

As someone who worked with teenagers as a high school teacher, the amount of online bullying in social media is grotesque and hard to mitigate. That in itself causes mental health issues. I know this is anecdotal, but it’s honestly obvious to anyone who works with this age group.

[Naomi_Boyd]

The internet is an excellent resource for spreading knowledge...
and stupidity.

[YUanonymous]

The problem with social media studies is that everyone is affected by social media, even if they don't personally use it.

[raybod]

Social media really saved me the last few years when I had a long term illness, I’m 66 years old.

[olibertosoto]

My guess is that studies on this subject will continue to be inconclusive.

[fburton]

Is it even possible to do a study of social media use vs no social media use when everyone in that age group uses social media?

[daviddowsett]

I'm not young at 51 from the UK, I'm an IT application specialist so were early adopter into SM, I've had my own dark dogs, but for me SM made me miserable and defo effect my mental health, I have now give up all SM for around 10 years and feel much better for it. I still have a mobile phone, but only use i as a life tool.

[AzCowboyOne]

Anecdotally, every center of attention for adolescents has been brought up as a general health concern as far as I can remember. Automobiles, then radio/music, then movies, then TV, then video games, then computers, then internet, and the latest, social media. I make no statement as to the validity of the health concerns one way or another. Just an observation.

[MartinMaat]

This is likely to be another case of "correlation is not causation". Troubled kids are more attracted to hiding in their phones.

In the 1980s we had a similar hype about the supposed link between suicides and heavy metal (lyrics). It faded away. So will this.

[arctic_haze]

I wonder if any of the studies were funded by the social media

[MichaelMassie]

I worked with kids for years prior to the advent of ubiquitous social media and smart phone use, and I enjoyed that work. Took a ten year break to raise my own kid and when I returned, I noticed a marked difference in focus, attention span, impulse control, and emotional self-regulation in the majority of my students when compared to earlier generations. Certainly this could be due to several factors, but not much else changed societally in that decade besides technology and its availability to children. Jean Twenge has a lot to say about the correlation, and I think her work is worth checking out.

[arssve]

Perhaps instead there is a link between the social media use of parents and their kid's mental health?

[CC-ggoj]

I'm teaching at a high school, and we have banned mobiles during school time as of this year. We have seen an increase in attention toward class work and a reduction in cyber-bulling among peers. It remains to be seen if this 'loss' of access to social platforms will transform to noticeable upturn in some of our students well being. As to per Sabine, "I'll keep you posted." Cheers.

[Itssmial_Ova]

The most frustrating thing is how inept the senators are with their questioning. They clearly don't understand social media themselves.

This is the issue with having a ruling class that is completely out of touch, say disconnected with reality.

[theWiggster]

social media being blamed is shirking responsibility from well rounded parenting

[bastisonnenkind]

This feels a bit like the "killer games are bad for the youth" discussion where everyone (in Germany) "knew" that those are harmful to minors for many years. In the end this turned out to be false.