Sharing – For teens’ mental health, strong friendships matter more than social media use, study finds

If you get most of your information about mental health from mainstream media and politicians, you may be surprised to learn that screen time, social media, and other internet-related trends are not the thing that has the most significant impact on teen mental health:

Teens who report strong, high-quality friendships tend to have better mental health—an influence that appears nearly three times stronger than the link between social media use and mental health challenges.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-teens-mental-health-strong-friendships.html

Social media may be a problem for some teens, but online interaction that leads to friendships would be remarkably good for them. Simple bans aren’t going to have much of an impact, but giving kids opportunities to bond and make friends will. How do we do more of that?