Young People Want to Talk About Social Media. Are We Listening?
- Ruth Plackett
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
Why better conversations may matter more than blanket restrictions
As a Senior Research Fellow in Digital Health at King's College London, I've spent the past few years speaking with young adults about social media and mental health. As the UK moves towards restrictions on social media use for under-16s, alongside other countries taking a similar approach, public discussion often comes down to a simple question: is social media good or bad for young people's mental health?
To explore this topic, my colleagues and I interviewed 28 young adults aged 18 to 25 from across England who were experiencing anxiety or depression. We used these interviews to explore two related questions. First, we explored how young adults used social media, how their experiences varied with their mood, and how they tried to manage their use. Second, we explored what made it easier or harder for them to seek support from primary care when they felt social media was affecting their mental health.
Their experiences suggested that asking whether social media is simply “good” or “bad” is the wrong question. Their accounts were rarely positive or entirely negative. Social media helped them stay connected, find support and access information, but it could also fuel social comparison, increase anxiety and insecurity, and expose them to upsetting content. Many felt social media affected their wellbeing, yet few discussed it with a healthcare professional, despite wanting support to manage its impact.
Looking Beyond Screen Time
When social media and mental health are discussed, the focus is often on screen time. How many hours are young people spending online? Are they using their phones too much? Should they spend less time scrolling?
These questions are understandable, but they may not tell us much about how social media affects mental health. Researchers increasingly argue that we need to move beyond screen time and pay closer attention to what young people are doing online, why they use social media, and how different people experience it.
In an analysis of our interviews that we are currently preparing for publication, we explored how social media use varied with mood and how young adults tried to manage it. The young adults described social media as woven into everyday life. It was where they stayed in touch with friends, organised plans, found entertainment, followed hobbies and connected with people who had similar experiences. For some, it even helped them better understand their own mental health.
At the same time, participants talked about social comparison, pressure to present a perfect life, distressing content, and the feeling that social media could consume far more time than intended.
Social media was not one single experience. The same platform could provide support and connection one day, while contributing to stress or self-doubt the next. Simply measuring screen time risks missing the bigger picture.
Why Mood Matters
One of the strongest themes in our analysis of everyday social media use was that social media felt very different depending on a person's mood. This mattered especially because the young adults we spoke to were experiencing anxiety or depression, meaning social media was often used when they already felt emotionally vulnerable.
Many participants described turning to social media during low mood. Sometimes they wanted distraction. Sometimes they wanted reassurance. Sometimes they simply wanted to feel less alone.
For some, this helped. Funny videos, messaging friends, or finding content from people with similar experiences could provide comfort and connection, particularly when seeing people face-to-face felt too difficult.
However, low mood could also make social media harder to manage. This was not simply about willpower; algorithms and platform features played an important role. Young adults described becoming trapped in cycles of endless scrolling, encountering upsetting content, or being drawn into comparisons that reinforced feelings of inadequacy. Several spoke about algorithms repeatedly showing them similar content once they had engaged with it, making negative patterns harder to break.
One other study exploring how adolescents experienced algorithmically curated feeds also found that repeated exposure to recommended content could shape mental health and wellbeing. Content that captures attention, whether comforting, upsetting or difficult to look away from, can become part of a cycle that keeps similar material appearing.
In contrast, social media often felt different when participants were in a more positive frame of mind. They tended to use platforms more intentionally, messaging friends, sharing experiences, or seeking content that matched their interests. Some spent less time online because they were busy with work, studies, hobbies or offline social activities.
These experiences highlight an important point. Instead of asking, “How much time are you spending on social media?”, we might learn more by asking, “What are you doing online, what is being shown to you, and how does it make you feel?”
The Missing Conversation in Mental Health Care
Primary care is often the first place young adults seek help for mental health concerns, but little is known about whether they feel able to discuss the impact of social media there, or what support they need.
In our interview study, we also explored young adults' views on discussing social media with primary care and other healthcare professionals. Although many felt social media affected their mental health, only a small minority had raised it with a clinician. Yet many said they would welcome the opportunity.
So why were these conversations not happening?
Some participants worried they would be judged. Others feared being told to spend less time on their phones, when the issue felt much more complex. Several described a generational gap, worrying that older professionals might not fully understand growing up in a digital world.
Many also worried that social media would either be blamed for all their difficulties or dismissed as unimportant. Neither response felt helpful.
Healthcare professionals may also struggle to know what support to offer, partly because there is still limited evidence-based guidance on how to discuss social media in mental health care, or what practical advice is most likely to help.
What participants wanted was practical, non-judgemental support. They wanted help identifying triggers, understanding how social media affected their mood, and finding strategies that worked for them. They wanted professionals to be curious about their experiences rather than assume they already knew the answers.
This matters because restrictions are unlikely to remove social media from young people’s lives entirely. Early evidence from Australia suggests many teenagers continued to use social media after under-16 restrictions came into effect. Age restrictions also do little to address the design of social media platforms, including algorithms and features that encourage prolonged engagement or repeated exposure to distressing content. These features can affect users of all ages, not only those under 16. If social media is to remain part of young people’s worlds, support should focus not only on whether they use it, but on how they can navigate it in more positive ways.
We Need Better Conversations
My research suggests that the conversation needs to move beyond whether social media is simply “good” or “bad”. A more useful question is how we can help young people maximise its benefits while reducing its risks.
For parents, this might mean asking what a young person is seeing online rather than focusing solely on how many hours they spend there.
For healthcare professionals, it may mean creating space for routine, non-judgemental conversations about social media during mental health consultations.
For policymakers, it means recognising that protecting young people's mental health requires more than debates about access alone. It also requires attention to platform design, digital literacy, mental health services, community support, and the wider social environments in which young people live.
Young people are already thinking about the role social media plays in their lives. They're already having these conversations. Perhaps it's time the rest of us started listening.
