Overview
- A University of Manchester longitudinal study of 25,000 pupils aged 11–14 found no evidence that increases in social media or gaming time caused later anxiety or depression.
- The Manchester team reported that engagement style—active chatting, posting, or passive scrolling—did not reliably predict subsequent internalizing problems.
- Authors emphasized that harmful experiences such as cyberbullying, distressing content, and social pressure can affect wellbeing even if total time online does not.
- A JAMA Pediatrics analysis of nearly 101,000 Australian students identified a nonlinear pattern in which moderate use was linked to the best wellbeing, with both heavy use and no use associated with higher risk.
- Risk patterns varied by age and sex, with heavy use tied to worse outcomes for girls in years 7–9 and nonuse linked to poorer wellbeing among boys in later adolescence.