The public and experts alike have blamed social media for a long list of mental health issues, including rising rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal behavior among America’s youth. But research on the subject is conflicting.
Social media is associated with mental health issues,

In girls, frequent social-media use seemed to harm health when it led to either cyberbullying and/or inadequate sleep and exercise. 

But these factors did not seem to have the same effect on boys, and the

The message, really, is that it’s not social-media use, per se, that causes harm,” says study co-author Dasha Nicholls, who leads the Child and Adolescent Mental Health research team at Imperial College London. 

“It’s about getting a balance between social-media use and other age-appropria...