Social Media Use and Well-Being

[Dr. Chia-chen Yang]: One thing we know is that if young people use social media more for social reasons to maintain existing social networks, it’s usually related to positive well-being and development outcomes. But if they use it simply because it’s a habit, they’re not being very planful, it’s a little goal-less, simply because it’s habitual, or because they use it out of FOMO, or as a way to escape from the reality that they’re unhappy with without really resolving those real-life issues. Then in that case, social media use tends to be related to negative outcomes.