Youth mental health and social media 

In this blog post, we’re reflecting on the Youth Voices on Social Media webinar, hosted on September 19 2024 for Youth Mental Health Day. The event brought together young people and researchers to explore how social media affects mental health—both the positives and the challenges.

Featuring insights from the Youth Advisory Group (YAG) and researchers from the Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health, the webinar provided an open platform for discussing these important topics.

We’ll also be answering some of the questions we didn’t have time for during the live session and sharing reflections from our YAG members, Mo and Alexandra, who made the event so special.

Taking part in the webinar

Mo: The webinar was one of my first experiences of getting involved with an aspect of the Centre outside of our monthly sessions, however I wish I had taken that leap earlier! Being honest I was really nervous about speaking to people I didn’t know and it going out live, but I shouldn’t have worried as it was really close to the layout of our normal monthly sessions. My favourite part of the webinar was to have the space to explore such a wide topic, and that everyone interacted with a particular section of it which interested them and/or related to a personal experience of theirs.

I am so glad I got involved as I felt that as a group, we came together to provide a wide range of opinions and perspectives on youth mental health and social media, the ultimate aim of the webinar. On a personal note, participating in the webinar allowed me to bring greater awareness to youth mental health day and highlight the steps we have taken to move forward but also the potential next steps to continue helping young people.

Learning new skills

Alexandra: Like anything involving the Wolfson Centre I had a great time discussing a wide range of views with researchers and other young people. I am grateful for the opportunity to improve my employability by gaining experience in conducting webinars and writing blogs. Thank you to everyone who came along and submitted such interesting questions.

It’s fantastic to see that our YAG members enjoyed the webinar and found the experience so rewarding. Their involvement not only helped shape the event but also highlighted the value of young people’s voices in discussions around mental health. We’re excited about the potential for more collaborations like this in the future and look forward to the many more opportunities where we can work together to create meaningful change.

Answering your questions

Now, as we dive into some of the questions we didn’t get time to answer during the webinar, Mo and Alexandra share their thoughts and insights on these important topics.

How can social media platforms be used to promote mental health awareness and support?

Mo: I think the main way social media can promote mental health awareness is through striving for authentic content. Social media functions on the desire for authentic connection and to feel seen. Too much of the content we see is unrepresentative of reality but we are so surrounded by it that sometimes we can’t see truths from untruths.

Therefore by coming from the starting point of creating representative and authentic wholesome content, I think young people will feel more fulfilled and seen part of this authenticity must include giving visibility to lived experiences.

Even though we are all unique and every young person’s mental health journey is very personal I know from my experience that content which reflects reality and is created by those in a similar situation makes me feel seen and heard.

Given that social media exposes you to different people from all over the world and their cultures, ways of thinking and customs, do you think social media increases your level of global awareness? Do you think this is positive or negative? 

Mo: I think the question of social media contributing to global awareness can depend on how you use social media. For me as a foreign languages student, I often get content in another language or based upon an aspect of foreign or global politics and culture. In this sense it can be an education tool and increase levels of global awareness.

Social media’s visual format lends itself very naturally to being a window into other ways of life facilitating an exchange of cultures and understanding. In many ways it can be positive especially when we are living in the world that is becoming increasingly introspective.

Negatively however I think it’s fair to say it can contribute to stereotypes about countries and communities because often, the content we encounter is shortened and sweetened and is therefore not always a true or full representation of reality.

Ultimately, I think it is all about how you approach it: it can be a motivator to find out or research more, but it must be approached with an open mind. 

Alexandra: A positive of social media is the fact people can be exposed to others and other cultures who they might not meet and interact with daily, helping to decrease ‘othering’.

But social media also gives a 24/7 real time view into global current events, often with great detail, which can be very distressing combined with the fact it’s not a discrete exposure like the evening news or a newspaper article. It becomes very hard to switch off, both due to the inherent nature of social media and type of events people are seeing.

While this can be a negative, especially for young people, it does give a decentralised, more democratised look into current affairs without the added bias from traditional media (again there is still the risk of bias due to content coming directly from people and therefore being shaped by their lived experience, as well as the algorithm).

What role do you think social media plays in shaping young people’s self-esteem and body image?

Mo: As the foundation of social media is to connect others, feel seen and represented out in the world, it is no wonder that over time, we feel compelled to model ourselves on the content we interact with.

Generally, I think there has been a recognition in the last few years about how there are many untruthful aspects to what we see online with influencers and creators becoming more aware of the fact that many young people especially try to model themselves on what they see.

However, there is still much to do in relation to this both in trying to protect young people who are not able to fully comprehend the untrue from aspects of social media, but also in listening to older people who have a had wider experiences of social media whilst being a young person, and learning from them.

Alexandra: I think social media has gotten better over recent years in terms of explicitly disordered body image, eating and self-harm. That comes from greater awareness of the potential harm, as well as social media companies limiting certain hashtags and the like.

However, young people constantly seeing photos with clever angles, poses, filters and editing often without disclosure can and does do harm to body image (e.g. wondering why your waist doesn’t look like that). In addition, there are toxic comments and trolls targeting the poster, which young people may internalise, especially if they’re targeting a feature that young person also has.

This doesn’t take away from work that members of social media are doing to normalise human bodies, their variation and any conditions, but likewise there are trolls in the comments of these posts.

I run a youth mental health forum in Berkshire. We have talked about teaching ‘learning how to train your algorithm’ in social media. So you have more control over what type of posts you are seeing. What are the young people’s thoughts on this?

Alexandra: A greater awareness of how algorithms work will always be a good thing, along with the knowledge of how to increase the things you want to see and decrease things you don’t want to see (for whatever reason). One thing to be mindful of is how different social media platforms work and the fact that things like algorithm structure is very changeable, but giving young people the tools to have more agency and control of the media they consume is a net positive. And a main caution is the fact that this may make it easier to further intensify the ‘echo chamber’ present on social media.

More conversations to come

The Youth Voices on Social Media webinar was a huge success and sparked some really important conversations about the role social media plays in young people’s mental health.

From sharing personal stories to offering practical advice, everyone who joined in helped paint a picture of both the challenges and opportunities social media brings. We learned that, when used thoughtfully, social media can be a tool for raising mental health awareness and creating a sense of community.

But it’s also clear that we need to keep talking about the pressures it can put on young people, especially around issues like body image and self-esteem.

Events like this are just the beginning, and we’re excited to continue the conversation in future webinars, hoping to inspire more open discussions and create a space for young people’s voices to be heard.

A big thank you to Mo and Alexandra for their contributions to this blog.

Did you miss out on this one? You can watch the recording on our YouTube.

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