Social media a mental health resource for 1 in 3 US teens
A higher proportion of girls than boys report negative experiences on social networks, according to a recent US survey. (Envato Elements pic)
From Instagram to TikTok to YouTube, social networks are no longer just for posting selfies or dance videos. For more than a third of American teenagers, they've also become the place to find information about mental health, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.
According to its findings, 34% of young people aged 13-17 say they 'at least sometimes' get information about mental health on these platforms, and 9% do so 'extremely' or 'fairly' often.
Hashtags such as #mentalhealth and #anxiety have racked up billions of views on TikTok. Testimonials, compassionate advice, and pseudo-therapy videos come together in a stream that's as dense as it is disparate.
While mental health-related content is ubiquitous, it meets a real demand: 63% of teenagers say social media is an important way for them to obtain such information.
And even though more teenage girls than boys get this kind of content on social networks (40% versus 28%), most respondents (64% of girls and 60% of boys) agree it's an important way to obtain this information.
Experiences also differ based on ethnic origin: 49% of Black teenagers use social networks to find out about mental health, well ahead of Hispanic (35%) and white (30%) teens. These figures reflect more extensive use of these platforms in communities that face barriers to access to care.
At the same time, one in two teenagers (48%) opines that social networks have a mostly negative effect on people their age. And more are recognising that their own mental health is suffering as a result (14% of respondents in 2024, versus 9% in 2022).
Another warning sign is that the feeling of having a support system through social networks is falling sharply. In 2022, 67% of teenagers said they felt supported through social media – a figure that dropped to 52% last year, reflecting emotional exhaustion and growing exposure to anxiety-inducing content.
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