Social media and adolescent mental health

The Impact of YouTube on Loneliness and Mental Health

“…The Displaced Social Behavior Theory describes how sedentary behaviors, such as social media use, detract from face-toface social interaction, which are protective against mental disorders [16][17][18]. Two common frameworks connected to the positive and negative psychological processes of the influence of social media include the affordances approach and an elements-based approach [19]. The affordances approach focuses on the design and the functionality of features on social media platforms, in addition to how users relate to these features in terms of identity, social, cognitive, and emotional affordances.…”

“…The mental health impact of prolonged social media use has primarily focused on outcomes of depression, anxiety, and stress [13], especially in young people [19,[26][27][28]. A correlational study with young adults investigated suicidality, loneliness, and decreased empathy in those who use social media and found that vaguebooking was predictive of suicidal ideation [29].…”

“…YouTube has a different type of primary use (i.e., viewing content rather than creating/uploading it) and may therefore have a negative and/or positive impact on loneliness and mental health. A recent review found various ways in which dispositional, developmental, and social factors contribute to the impact of social media on adolescent mental health, notably depression and anxiety [19]. Whilst YouTube's use for peer-to-peer support has benefits, such as destigmatization and accessibility of information seeking/sharing, concerns are being raised about a lack of anonymity in how this support operates on YouTube [33].…”

“…User-centered computing industry experts have been called upon to lead the codesign of technological, clinical, and family-based solutions to counter the psychological risks of social media use [19]. The problem is that these industry experts and stakeholders are grappling with the human factors of HCI in digital mental health (DMH) whereby promising solutions often fall to the wayside because of implementation teething problems [39].…”