UFS "Education for the Future": The impact of social media on mental health: the role of usage types, user characteristics and platform features

Social media have become deeply embedded in everyday life within today’s digital society. At the same time, growing public concern suggests that their use may adversely affect mental health, prompting policy debates about potential restrictions or bans. This presentation begins with a critical review of empirical evidence on the association between time spent on social media and mental health outcomes. It then examines recent research demonstrating that the effects of social media use are not uniform, but depend on patterns of use, individual user characteristics, platform features, and the underlying psychological mechanisms activated by social media engagement. The presentation concludes by outlining key implications of these findings for future research and for the development of evidence-based social media policies.

Philippe Verduyn is an Associate Professor in psychology at Maastricht University. He studies emotional wellbeing in today’s digital society.

Register at: umfragenup.uni-potsdam.de/educationforthefuture_webinar/
The Zoom link will be sent to all registered participants the day before the event.

There will be more webinar sessions of the UFS "Education for the Future" with interesting guest speakers in the upcoming months.