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Abstract

Importance: Some studies suggest that social media use is associated with risk for depression, particularly among children and young adults. Objective: To characterize the association between self-reported use of individual social media platforms and worsening of depressive symptoms among adults. Conclusions and Relevance: Among survey respondents who did not report depressive symptoms initially, social media use was associated with greater likelihood of subsequent increase in depressive symptoms after adjustment for sociodemographic features and news sources. These data cannot elucidate the nature of this association, but suggest the need for further study to understand how social media use may factor into depression among adults.

Citation

Perlis, Roy H., Jon Green, Matthew Simonson, Katherine Ognyanova, Mauricio Santillana, Jennifer Lin, Alexi Quintana, Hanyu Chwe, James Druckman, David Lazer, Matthew A. Baum and John Della Volpe. "Association Between Social Media Use and Self-reported Symptoms of Depression in US Adults." JAMA Network Open 4.11 (November 2021).