Moderate Social Media Use Tied to the Best Well-Being Outcomes in Teens

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 21, 2026 (HealthDay News) — There is a complex and nonlinear association between afterschool social media use and adolescent well-being, with variance seen by age and sex, according to a study published online Jan. 12 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Ben Singh, Ph.D., from the University of South Australia in Adelaide, and colleagues investigated three-year longitudinal associations between afterschool social media use and adolescent well-being. The analysis included 100,991 students in grades 4 through 12 (2019 to 2022).

The researchers found a U-shaped association between afterschool social media use and well-being. Adolescents with the highest use had greater odds of low well-being (grades 7 to 9: odds ratios, 3.13 and 2.25 for girls and boys, respectively) compared with moderate users. Nonusers also had higher odds of low well-being in later adolescence (grades 10 to 12: odds ratios, 1.79 and 3.00 for girls and boys, respectively). These patterns persisted across survey years and remained robust to sensitivity analyses.

“The overall pattern is consistent with the Goldilocks hypothesis, which suggests that moderate digital media is least risky, with very low or very high engagement less favorable,” the authors write. 

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