Cross-sectional analysis reveals social media affects academic achievement and psychological wellbeing in young adults, suggesting a need for new guidelines.
Computer technology, internet connectivity, and social media use permeate the fabric of contemporary society. For many years, scholars have studied the impact of TV viewing on young people’s academic achievement, health, and other individual well-being measures. Today, young people’s use of social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc.) and participation in other internet activities are at least as time-consuming as TV was in the past. This paper builds on this research by using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data to study how social media use and different types of social media postings by young people affect their academic achievement, adult earnings, psychological, emotional, and social wellbeing, and general health, while controlling for their background characteristics, parents’ education, self-esteem, mental and physical health. The results will provide information to educators, parents/caregivers, and policymakers which will help them generate appropriate guidelines for the time use of young people to promote their long-term welfare and quality of life.
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Dong et al. (2025) studied this question.
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