Social Media: Friend or Foe to Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents relied on technology for their education and for communication with friends and family (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). With the recency of the pandemic, there has not been an abundance of research on the effects of increased internet and social media use on adolescent mental health. This study examined how the frequency of adolescents’ social media use is associated with depression rates during the pandemic by using a longitudinal design. Participants included 351 adolescents, aged 14-19, residing in Ontario, Canada, who completed two surveys six months apart from each other. The findings indicated that, in line with the hypotheses, females engaged in more social media use and experienced greater depression than males. Regression analyses further revealed that Time 1 social media use significantly predicted Time 2 depression in females only