Social media and youth mental health: Simple narratives produce biased interpretations

Many academics and pundits contend that social media use is the primary cause of an international youth mental health crisis. However, these claims often rely on correlational evidence, ignoring the confounding effects of developmental, environmental, social, and psychological factors that influence mental health. This oversimplifies the complex etiology of mental health problems. We call for a more nuanced understanding of the role of social media in youth mental health that avoids oversimplification. Additionally, we urge researchers to move beyond vague, narrative-driven verbal theories and encode them into precise, testable causal models. Using simulation techniques and specification curve analyses, we show how misspecified models that ignore these confounding factors can lead to biased conclusions about social media’s adverse effects. This simplistic focus on social media use diverts attention from the broader factors contributing to youth mental health problems, hindering the development of effective interventions and support.