People have long debated the roles the Internet and social media play in our lives and the lives of our youngest, attributing without fact many pitfalls and positives to the common use of online tools.
Depression among adolescents has increased, and many are quick to blame to social media for the rise; however, there hasn’t been enough research to determine how teens and young adults (those 14- to 22-years old) view and operate online, until now. A new survey, supported by Hopelab and Well Being Trust, finds an incredibly complex relationship between social media use and well-being.
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On the one hand, many young people say social media helps them find connection, support, and inspiration during times of depression, stress, or anxiety. Yet on the other hand, the survey raises important concerns regarding respondents’ mixed experiences online.
Perhaps most important and possibly disturbing is the breakdown among subgroups.
Three out of four LGBTQ youth have looked online for information about depression, compared to 32 percent of straight youth. Teenage girls and young women are more likely than males their age to go online for information about anxiety or depression.
While the survey may not have provided the clear answer people are looking for, it demonstrates that social media is an integral part of young people’s lives and that large numbers of teens and young adults experiencing moderate to severe symptoms of depression turn to the Internet for help.
We know now definitively that teens and young adults readily seek support online to deal with mental health issues. We must meet them where they are and figure out how to provide appropriate care, in whatever shape or form. Our communities, clinicians, and policymakers must identify and support resources, both digital and in-person, that can be most effective in promoting good mental health and well-being. We must have targeted solutions, and, as always, a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work.
Further, telling young people who have symptoms of depression to stay off the Internet may not always be wise. While avoiding social media may be beneficial for some, for others it may cut off a critical lifeline, a connection to advice, information, inspiration, and support. In other words, when we feel depressed we often isolate – and online social engagement may be one of the only ways we connect.
And while these issues are most outstanding for our young people as they mature in a culture where social media and Internet access is a part of daily life, we need to also think about their families and other people in their sphere of relational influence. To comprehensively address some of the mental health problems our country is facing, we are going to need to approach the issues through a systematic way and view many of the underlying problems and solutions as intergenerational.
Perhaps by beginning to see digital tools and online information as other inputs into how we understand interfamilial dynamics and interactions, we can better approach problems and create novel solutions that are intergenerational in nature.
In seeing the individual in the context of family and community, both online and in person, the public health community is required to expand our thinking about how best to improve health and well-being and support those who influence health and well-being.
This is a new and rapidly changing culture – it will persist beyond this moment and impact generations, positively or negatively.
Let’s leverage our understanding of online tools and resources to create a legacy for the next generation while helping the current generation best know how to make sense of it all.
Benjamin F. Miller, Psy.D. (@miller7) is the chief strategy officer at Well Being Trust. He previously worked at the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he was the founding director of the Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center and currently remains a senior advisor.
