Reexamining Social Media and Socioemotional Well-Being Among Adolescents Through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Theoretical Review and Directions for Future Research

Social connection

Social media is a primary mode of peer interactions and communication among adolescents (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). The COVID-19 pandemic has further magnified the ubiquity and importance of peer interactions that occur via social media. As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts teens’ typical social experiences, social media may offer invaluable opportunities for social connection (Orben et al., 2020), and emerging research suggests that perceived social connection may be protective against negative mental-health effects of COVID-19 (Magson et al., 2021). Adolescents may connect with peers in a variety of ways using social media, and in some ways, teens may be better equipped to maintain and explore new ways of social connection than other age groups given their status as “digital natives.” Adolescents can stay connected with their peers by video chatting, texting, commenting on posts or “stories,” social gaming, sharing videos, or sending memes for an easy way to stay in touch. Even without direct connection, social media provides teens the opportunity to stay “in the loop” of their social network by browsing peers’ Instagram feeds or passively viewing friends’ recent posts or stories. Although teens often connect on social media with peers in their existing social network, social restrictions and the temporary dissolution of school may present youths the opportunity to expand their networks to peers within their communities and more broadly. However, it also may promote social connection for peers with whom there is already a strong and stable connection (e.g., friends), and it might weaken connections with classmates or more loosely connected or tenuous peer relationships. This may have the unintended effect of further cementing existing social circles or hindering the development of new friendships during a developmental period that is typically characterized by friendship transitions and changes (Poulin & Chan, 2015). As youths navigate social media for their primary form of social connection, this also may broaden how they use social media and connect with peers, as well as potentially strengthen the perceived importance of in-person socializing.

Each option for connection via social media offers a range of potential benefits and drawbacks based partially on their features or affordances (Moreno & Uhls, 2019; Nesi et al., 2018a). For example, passively browsing memes or TikTok videos may relieve boredom and provide entertainment but does not represent an intimate social interaction because of the lack of synchronous interaction and shared interpersonal cues. Meeting up with a friend or romantic partner on a video chat, on the other hand, may more closely resemble an in-person interaction and provide stronger social connection. Some youths, particularly younger adolescents, might feel more comfortable with text-based communication (Anderson & Jiang, 2018) because of existing social norms and the increased time and space to formulate responses. This may offer the benefit of maintaining social connection within a safer context at certain times. Social gaming, to the extent that it does not occur in addictive or problematic ways, may also increase feelings of connection and sense of community (Sublette & Mullan, 2012). Indeed, gaming may provide opportunities to practice cooperation and prosocial skills (Granic et al., 2014), which may be especially important when such in-person opportunities are limited because of COVID-19. This may be especially true among adolescent boys, who are more likely than adolescent girls to play video and online games (Anderson & Jiang, 2018).

Prior research has identified numerous benefits of technology-facilitated social connection for teens (Anderson & Jiang, 2018; Hamilton et al., 2020), and these benefits may be further magnified during the COVID-19 crisis. By interacting with others outside the family context, teens can practice the autonomy and independence that are essential to their development. They can share their feelings about the crisis, receive support, and distract themselves from current stressors and challenges (Cauberghe et al., 2021). Teens can connect to resources in their local communities through social media or feel part of a global community by participating in large-scale social-media “challenges” such as those common on TikTok (Taylor, 2020) or broader social movements.

Finally, social media presents unique challenges and benefits related to adolescents’ romantic and sexual relationships. Although many adults live with romantic partners or have the autonomy to remain physically in contact during the period of physical distancing, adolescents who live with their parents are likely to be separated from their romantic partners during COVID-19. Social media may provide a critical way to stay connected during this time, allowing youths to connect with partners (or to flirt with potential partners) in the ways discussed above. Research suggests that adolescents frequently use social media to communicate with romantic and sexual partners—both general communication (Nesi et al., 2017; Rueda et al., 2015) and sexuality specifically (Widman et al., 2014)—and this communication may be even more frequent during COVID-19. However, the increased reliance on social media for connection and intimacy may add pressures to engage in sexting behaviors, which may lead to decreases in socioemotional well-being (Alonso & Romero, 2019). It is unclear how the displacement of in-person with technology-based communication during COVID-19 may affect adolescent romantic development and intimacy. One study found that early adolescents who communicated with romantic partners primarily through technology were more likely to report poorer romantic relationship competencies 1 year later (Nesi et al., 2017). Given that a key developmental task of adolescence is to explore and develop one’s romantic and sexual identity, questions regarding how social-media use affects relationship development will be critically important, particularly through the lens of COVID-19.

Peer influence and risky behaviors

Most teens use social media to access news and health information (Anderson & Jiang, 2018), but the degree to which this practice may be helpful or harmful for teens depends on a number of factors, including individual adolescents’ susceptibility to media and peer influence and the accuracy and source of the information. In particular, exposure to peers’ content on social media creates a context for peer-influence processes. Teens’ perceptions of other teens’ behaviors can influence both risky (Blakemore, 2018) and prosocial (Choukas-Bradley et al., 2015) behaviors, and this influence has been demonstrated through social media specifically (Sherman et al., 2016). On the one hand, peers sharing information on social media may encourage more prosocial motivations, which may promote health and safety behaviors during COVID-19 (Oosterhoff et al., 2020). Short, steady streams of information are readily available on most social-media sites, which can enhance access to and dissemination of accurate information and may protect teens against internalizing symptoms (Zhou et al., 2020). Indeed, many social-media platforms have adopted strategies for promoting health information, such as the “COVID-19 Information Center” link at the top of the screen on Facebook-owned apps (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp). Some social-media apps also include tips on how to prevent the spread of the disease and answers to common questions. Further, when individuals search or hashtag “covid,” social-media apps feature reputable health organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO). Given the importance of peer influence in adolescence (Brechwald & Prinstein, 2011), youths who share this accurate information or share personal stories with COVID-19 may promote the seriousness of the virus in one’s social network, which is more effective in promoting positive health behaviors than citing statistics (Wickman et al., 2008). Further, peers depicting safe physical-distancing practices may shift the social norms in a peer group (Andrews et al., 2020), thereby making these behaviors more acceptable and reducing social influence toward engaging in risky behaviors.

COVID-19 represents an extreme example of the risks and opportunities of using social media for public-health information with teens. Social media may affect teens’ perceptions of COVID-19, physical distancing, and reopening. Although teens may influence one another to engage in healthy behaviors, images and videos shared by peers who are engaging in risky behaviors (such as not practicing physical distancing) may encourage other teens to do the same. Memes or posts that make light of COVID-19 also may reduce teens’ adherence to the guidelines. This behavior is particularly risky given that many teens report limited to no concern about their own likelihood of becoming infected with COVID-19 (Ellis et al., 2020) and that teens often overestimate their peers’ risky behavior (Prentice & Miller, 1993), which can increase teens’ likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors. Most problematic, however, is that many adolescents may be unaware that they are promoting risky behavior. The COVID-19 pandemic has been subject to an unprecedented spread of misinformation and “fake news” (Kouzy et al., 2020; Zarocostas, 2020), prompting the WHO to recently label it an “infodemic” (United Nations Department of Communications, 2020). Many teens struggle to distinguish between fake news and accurate information (Breakstone et al., 2019), which may be particularly relevant if information is posted and shared by peers. False information can easily infiltrate teens’ social networks as friends share “click-bait” posts, and teens may be more likely to believe news and information if shared by a high-status peer (according to research regarding peer influence from high-status peers; Choukas-Bradley et al., 2015; G. L. Cohen & Prinstein, 2006). This problem may be further exacerbated in contexts with quickly evolving or urgent health and safety recommendations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which may further contribute to teens’ engagement in risky behaviors.

Self-presentation and self-expression

Self-presentational theories describe how individuals engage in impression-management strategies to present themselves in the most positive light (Schlenker & Pontari, 2000). Teens are especially motivated to self-present in favorable ways given the imaginary-audience phenomenon, in which adolescents feel as if others are watching their every move (Zheng et al., 2019). Social media uniquely allows teens to carefully curate their self-presentation. The ability to present oneself on social media provides novel and unique outlets for many aspects of adolescent identity development, including experimentation with self-presentations and expression (Davis & Weinstein, 2017). Although adolescents are not seeing their peers in school during the COVID-19 pandemic, they can still post and experiment with self-presentational photos, videos, and text. Sharing videos and ideas has become even easier with the rise of platforms such as TikTok, on which teens can create and post brief video clips, fostering creativity and new social identities, which may also be involved with bridging and bonding social capital to new peers or strengthening peer relationships in offline spaces (Ahn, 2012).

Social media also can facilitate the development of intellectual ideas and collective action (Middaugh et al., 2017) as teens become increasingly aware of the world and the way in which policies affect them. The social-media audience also can provide adolescents with social rewards for exploring and presenting new socially engaged identities, as well as for participating in movements for social justice (Weinstein, 2014). This is particularly relevant in the context of COVID-19 and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black, Indigenous, and Latinx families in the United States, which sheds light on the systemic racism contributing to these disparities (Webb Hooper et al., 2020). In this way, social media provides readily accessible tools for teens to share developing thoughts and experiment with new social identities, particularly without access to traditional methods (e.g., school, extracurricular activities, in-person social activities). Yet the larger context in which individuals are embedded also matters because experimentation may negatively affect teens who are challenging the sociocultural norms of their peer networks or greater communities. Furthermore, in some cases, efforts to experiment with various forms of self-presentation online can lead adolescents toward participation in destructive movements, such as White-nationalist and supremacy movements and other extremist groups (Frissen, 2021).

Teens are especially attuned to self-presentation related to physical appearance; attractiveness is often central to adolescents’ self-concept and self-worth, especially for girls (Thompson et al., 1999). Social-media sites may exacerbate physical-appearance concerns among adolescents because of the visual nature of these sites, the ability to carefully select and edit visual images, and the presence of an audience of peers who provide reinforcing feedback (Choukas-Bradley et al., 2020). Social-media apps now allow for a broad range of editing techniques, including tools to change one’s body shape on photos and touch up one’s appearance in live videos. Although this may allow teens to experiment with new identities and self-expression, they also can engage in endless upward social comparison with the carefully curated and edited photos of peers, celebrities, and “influencers” (Fardouly et al., 2017). Many studies have demonstrated links between social-media use—especially photo-focused behaviors—and body-image dissatisfaction and disordered eating among adolescents and young adults (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016). However, certain self-presentational tactics, such as sharing “selfies,” likely affect youths differently depending on their motivations and peer feedback. For instance, posting selfies may reflect both positive self-esteem and attempts at social acceptance and reassurance-seeking (McLean et al., 2019; Rosenthal-von der Puetten et al., 2019).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when almost all interpersonal interaction with peers occurs through social media, these self-presentational concerns may be further exacerbated. With teens spending more time on social media in the absence of in-person contact with peers, they also may be spending more time on self-presentational tactics, and the “social-media self” may feel even more central to one’s identity. A lack of structure or activities outside of the home may cause adolescents to find it difficult to disengage from self-presentational tactics because any given moment provides an opportunity for curating one’s social-media presence. Indeed, teens think about the social-media audience even when offline (Choukas-Bradley et al., 2020), which may influence teen behaviors and has implications for mental health during COVID-19. The social-media audience may lead teens, particularly girls, to feel pressured to engage in beauty rituals even when stuck at home with their parents. Some teens may experience anxiety about limits to their typical routines for maintaining physical appearance, such as the inability to exercise or access professional services such as gyms or salons. Likewise, as youths view carefully crafted and edited images and videos of their peers, they may engage in upward social comparisons regarding physical appearance, lifestyles, and material possessions because in-person interactions cannot correct false self-presentations. In turn, youths may feel increased pressure to present a certain image of themselves to live up to those portrayed by others (Yau & Reich, 2019) and to obtain online indicators of social status, such as likes and views (Nesi & Prinstein, 2019). At the same time, however, it is possible that staying home may relieve the social or time pressures of in-person beauty or material standards for some youths, thereby having a positive impact on self-esteem and body image.

Social stressors and mental health

Social media provides a novel context through which adolescents may be prone to encounter social stressors, such as peer conflict, “drama,” cybervictimization, and harassment and discrimination, which are known to negatively affect mental health (Anderson & Jiang, 2018; Fisher et al., 2016; Rose & Tynes, 2015; Tynes et al., 2019; Underwood & Ehrenreich, 2017). Given their heightened sensitivity to peer acceptance and rejection, teens may even consider ambiguous peer responses (or lack of response) potentially threatening (Nesi et al., 2018a). With more time on social media during COVID-19 (Common Sense Media, 2020; Ellis et al., 2020), the ability to escape these stressors or apply typical coping strategies may be further diminished. Given that peers’ online networks may mirror those of their offline environment, teens from disadvantaged neighborhoods may have social problems further amplified on social media (Stevens et al., 2017). Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, new stressors and fears related to social-media use may arise as well. Much of the content adolescents view on social media during this time may be related to the COVID-19 pandemic or the inequities that have been exposed. Content may contain references to the virus itself, photos and videos of others’ physical-distancing practices or illness, updates on recent news, and descriptions of their peers’ experiences with the pandemic. Much of this content may be scary, sad, or overwhelming. As teens spend more time passively scrolling through social media to relieve boredom, they may come across a barrage of upsetting content, perhaps exacerbating anxieties, creating a sense of loneliness and helplessness, and negatively affecting mood. For instance, youths may be more likely to come across inappropriate or distressing content, depicting, for example, peers engaging in risky behaviors (Vannucci et al., 2020), visual displays of individual and systemic racism (Tynes et al., 2019), or even self-injurious behaviors (Marchant et al., 2020), which may contribute to the onset and worsening of mental-health symptoms.

Given that social media provides constant access to a social space during COVID-19, teens may develop an even greater attachment and sensitivity to the status and quality of their peer relationships via social media. For some, this may contribute to a heightened sense of “fear of missing out” (FOMO), which often occurs via social media and is associated with anxiety, loneliness, and depression (Przybylski et al., 2013; Scott & Woods, 2018). Specifically, youths may worry that, at any time, peers are engaged in rewarding social interactions on social media without them, prompting increased time online and pressure to respond to posts and messages (Nesi et al., 2018b). Without in-person interactions to provide reassurance about these relationships, teens may rely more on social media to understand their social status and strength of relationships. FOMO may be even more pronounced as parents vary in adherence and physical-distancing practices, and it may be more challenging for teens whose peers are spending time together in person. Further, youths may feel pressured by peers to reply or be continuously available on social media given that there are limited options for other activities or those outside the home. Thus, although these interactions may help teens feel supported and connected to peers, social media also may become an unanticipated source of chronic and acute stressors (Steele et al., 2020). For some teens, the social threat and reward available on social media might be difficult to disengage from or may contribute to psychological stress, particularly given adolescents’ ongoing cognitive development. Distancing practices also may prevent teens from gaining in-person social support to cope with these emerging anxieties, and teens may have fewer distractions readily available. However, for some youths, physical-distancing practices and increased time at home may reduce anxieties and stressors, such that youths may now have more agency in when and how they participate in social activities.

Youth are not only passive consumers of media, however; they also actively seek and contribute to their social environments (Flynn & Rudolph, 2011), both online and offline (Subrahmanyam et al., 2006). Thus, COVID-19 and its related stressors (e.g., missing typical activities and friends; Rogers et al., 2021) may affect youths and their mental health differently from how it affects adults (Zhou et al., 2020). Specifically, teens’ cognitive and affective states may influence social-media use and teens’ online experiences, which may be exacerbated during COVID-19. For instance, COVID-19 may heighten depressogenic and anxious thoughts and behaviors, which, in turn, may affect how and when teens use social media (Drouin et al., 2020). Indeed, research indicates that teens with depression or depressive symptoms use social media in a way that further exacerbates these problems (Radovic et al., 2017), such as by excessive reassurance-seeking posting behaviors and passively browsing content. Likewise, teens’ anxious thoughts may make them seek out, share, or be more affected by COVID-related news and information (Rogers et al., 2021), contributing to panic or general worries about what might happen or perpetuating misinformation on social media to their peer network. As teens spend more time on social media and experience more negative affective states, they may be more likely to seek out and react negatively to content, which may subsequently lead them to encounter more of that content. Further, the need to rely on video tools for socialization may create new anxieties resulting from a lack of established social rules and comfort with these platforms, particularly for anxious teens, which will be important to explore among individuals across development. Social media may serve as a valuable tool for improving mental health, such that teens may use social media to seek out online support groups or mental-health resources, including psychoeducation, screening tools, and even digital mental-health interventions (Hamilton et al., 2020). This may be particularly pronounced during COVID-19, which may prompt mental-health and related fields to further improve online engagement with teens for mental-health prevention and early intervention (Gruber et al., 2021).

Individual differences and vulnerabilities for teens’ social-media use during COVID-19

The use and effects of social media depend on a number of factors specific to individual teens (e.g., age, gender, race, ethnicity, personalities, and preexisting emotional or mental-health difficulties), as well as the broader sociocultural context of their lives. Growing research has examined gender differences in social-media use and their effects on various domains of well-being and mental health (e.g., McCrae et al., 2017), and emerging research specific to COVID-19 suggests that the effects of COVID-19 on mental health may be particularly pronounced for adolescent girls compared with boys (Magson et al., 2021; Racine et al., 2020). COVID-19 has further highlighted the importance of considering other individual factors in how social media may affect adolescents. Broadly, COVID-19 has intensified considerations involving the greater social and geopolitical context of adolescents’ lives such as families, communities, culture, laws, and policies (e.g., different rates of infection or local policies and enforcement of physical distancing during COVID-19), which may affect social-media use and experiences.

It is important to note that COVID-19 has not affected all adolescents and families equally, which highlights the systemic racism that has contributed to the disproportionate rates and effects of COVID-19 among racial and ethnic minorities in high-income or developed countries (Razai et al., 2021; Sze et al., 2020). Specifically, a meta-analytic review of studies from the United States and United Kingdom found that individuals of Black and Asian ethnicity are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection compared with White individuals (Sze et al., 2020). In the United States, individuals who are Black, Latinx, and Indigenous are two to four times more likely to be hospitalized because of COVID-19 than White individuals (as of December 2020; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). The personal, financial, and emotional costs of COVID-19 are likely exacerbated for adolescents who identify as a racial or ethnic minority (Novacek et al., 2020). In addition to the COVID-related stressors that may affect all teens, social media may have unique effects for youths with marginalized identities during this time. Because youths are using more social media (Common Sense Media, 2020; Ellis et al., 2020), they may be more likely to be exposed to online content or videos that are discriminatory or that highlight violence and systemic racism, which may be a unique form of racial trauma that affects mental health (Saleem et al., 2020; Tynes et al., 2019). At the same time, however, social media may provide a much needed sense of community and action, uniting youths across the world to use their voices and tools to demand change.

Although social media may be beneficial for many teens, particularly during COVID-19, it may be a “lifeline” for those who are isolated or who live in unsafe or unhealthy environments and are in need of social support. For example, teens who are immunocompromised or have preexisting medical conditions may be even more socially isolated and anxious about COVID-19 and reopening practices. Social media may provide these teens with a much needed space to connect with similar peers and provide coping resources and support for teens navigating the complex emotions of fear, grief, loss, and trauma. Further, a large body of work documents that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youths are at heightened risk for mental-health concerns, especially if they are rejected by their families or experience abuse (Choukas-Bradley & Thoma, in press). These concerns may be exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when some LGBTQ teens are living in close quarters with families in high-conflict situations and with no natural escape to school, work, or time with peers. In these challenging times, it is possible that social media offers teens an opportunity to seek social support from online communities. For example, LGBTQ adolescents may use social media to connect with friends and romantic partners or with online-only LGBTQ support networks (Kuper & Mustanski, 2014).

Finally, it is important to note that the potential social, psychological, and financial stressors associated with COVID-19, as well as adolescents’ access to and use of social media during this time, are largely affected by families’ socioeconomic status. Adolescents from economically disadvantaged households are more likely to experience negative effects from social media (George et al., 2020) and to engage in more unstructured and unsupervised screen time (Mascheroni & Ólafsson, 2014), particularly if parents work in essential fields. At the same time, physical-distancing measures may be more burdensome for families with fewer resources and who may live in smaller spaces, unsafe neighborhoods, or crowded conditions. As unemployment rates continue to soar during COVID-19, there also may be new financial hardship and stress experienced by youths during an already uncertain time. Youth may thus rely even more heavily on social media to meet basic needs for social connection and autonomy, or, alternatively, have more limited access to social media as financial constraints affect smartphone and Internet services. Given that the economic fallout of the pandemic disproportionately affects lower-income families, these disparities may be further magnified in the wake of COVID-19 and for years to come. Thus, individual and systemic factors have become exacerbated in the context of COVID-19 and warrant careful examination when examining adolescents’ social-media use and socioemotional well-being.

Who: individual differences in social-media use and its effects

Media-effects scholars have long recognized that media does not affect all youths in the same way and that youths are active contributors in constructing their digital environments (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013). Yet progress in the field of social-media research has often been stymied by a focus on main-effect models that seek to generalize the impact of digital media on all teens. Empirical work investigating the effect of COVID-19 on adolescent social-media use and related well-being outcomes should seek to understand not only how teens are using social media differently in the era of COVID-19 but also which teens are using social media in certain ways. We must examine how social-media use during COVID-19 affects teens differently because some may be especially vulnerable, or resilient, to its effects. In particular, it will be critical to consider factors of identity and context, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, socioeconomic status, health and disability, and family structure that intersect with COVID-19 and related stressors. As a worldwide pandemic, COVID-19 may provide a context in which to evaluate the cross-cultural similarities and differences in adolescent social-media use, including how the sociocultural and geopolitical forces of adolescents’ environments (e.g., messaging from public-health and government officials) shape social-media use and its impact on teens’ well-being. Examining the broader context of these identities and systemic inequities during COVID-19 may shed light on processes that influence how adolescents use and respond to social media. How do these factors influence particular teens’ experiences of social-media use during COVID-19, and what effect does this have on their health? How does this inform the broader risk and resiliency factors and processes that affect adolescents’ social-media use and well-being?

Building on these considerations, progress within the broader field of adolescent social-media use requires a consideration of individual differences as both predictors of social-media use and moderators of its effects. The field must seek to understand which youths are more likely to use social media in ways that can be problematic and productive and how this influences the effects that social media has on them. Adolescents’ particular strengths and needs must be considered in light of individual and broader social-ecological differences, including individual factors (e.g., identity, strengths, vulnerability), surrounding family and peer contexts (e.g., familial rules/structure around social media, peer-group dynamics, parental and peer relationships), and larger societal and cultural influences (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2007; Sanders-Phillips et al., 2009). It is particularly important to identify modifiable factors that moderate or influence social-media use and its effects. For instance, parents’ relationships and attitudes toward social-media use and technology may have direct implications for teens’ use and experiences. An important consideration in the context of COVID-19 will be whether and how parents’ and adults’ own relationships with social media have changed during this time and how these relationships have affected teens’ use and experiences, which may provide a critical path forward for research and public-health guidelines. It is important to recognize, however, that parents’ rules and guidelines for teens’ social-media use may vary depending on individual characteristics of youths, such as demographic factors (e.g., age, gender) and vulnerabilities and strengths (e.g., self-regulation, coping) and that their approach may differ across adolescents in the same household. Further, research is needed to understand how and for whom efforts to change social-media use (i.e., through prevention and intervention) may be most beneficial, which may also provide critical targets for selective and indicated prevention. In an effort to conduct science with its direct applicability to families in mind, we must investigate which evidence-based recommendations for teen social-media use are most appropriate for whom, taking into consideration individual, family, and sociocultural factors.

What: social-media content, tools, functions, and meanings

Social media does not represent a monolithic entity but rather a broad and diverse array of tools that can be used in a multitude of ways. It is essential to understand exactly what teens are doing on social media and why, and this may be especially important in light of new types of social-media content that have arisen in relation to COVID-19 (e.g., rapid transmission of health information and misinformation, peers’ opinions related to the pandemic and associated crises) or uses of social media (e.g., more regular use of video chatting or social gaming). In this sense, COVID-19 has spurred questions relating to how teens’ use and experiences of social media have been affected by the pandemic and its disruptions. This may include how the pandemic has affected the content to which teens are exposed, the content they are sharing, the ways in which they are using social media to interact with one another, how this varies within and across peer networks, and the functions that each of these behaviors serve. Further research must closely examine these social-media experiences, exploring the accuracy of information shared and consumed and the benefits and challenges of media-based social interaction in conjunction with or in lieu of other modes of social interactions. Social media in the broader context of adolescents’ lives and social interactions should also be examined. Each of these lines of research will provide valuable information about the very function and nature of teens’ social-media use and potentially in-person social interactions, which may alter the questions we ask in future research.

Although overall considerations of screen time are important, the field must continue building on these narrower investigations to examine the ways in which teens are using social media and why they may be engaging in specific behaviors. This must go beyond an examination of differences between platforms (e.g., TikTok vs. Instagram) and must take into account what teens are doing, their motivations for doing so, and their subjective experience of these behaviors. Focusing on the affordances provided by the various platforms (Nesi et al., 2018a) also may provide a more generalizable approach for social-media research moving forward because these platforms and functions continue to grow and evolve. Thus, it is important to consider these nuances within social media rather than examining social media as a whole. This may mean, for instance, taking into account both the researcher-defined examination of social media and allowing for variability in what teens themselves consider to be their social media. Understanding the specific types of features and functions that affect different domains of adolescent well-being, particularly using an affordance-based approach, may provide critical information to guide the development of the next wave of social-media applications. The field has made progress in beginning to understand some specific social-media experiences (e.g., cybervictimization, social comparison, passive vs. active use), but significantly more work is needed to advance the field and improve our ability to translate this work into actionable agendas to promote adolescent health and well-being across multiple domains.

When: timing of social-media use and its effects

Understanding when adolescents are using social media and its subsequent effects involves attention to timing at the microlevel (i.e., day to day, hour to hour) and macrolevel (i.e., developmental changes). With regard to COVID-19, it is important to understand not only how much teens are using social media but also when (at what times of day and in what mood states), as well as how this is affected by factors that are COVID-specific (e.g., physical distancing, increasing rates of infection, reopening practices) and more general (e.g., changes in self-regulation, distraction, environment). For instance, the use and impact of social media is likely not a static or uniform experience but rather a time-varying process that fluctuates depending on teens’ internal and external contexts (Jensen et al., 2019). Thus, individual changes within and across COVID-19 may be a microcosm of an individual’s larger experience with social media. It will be important to understand how these patterns of social-media use and their subsequent effects compare to use before and after COVID-19 and how they vary across the months (and potentially years) of COVID-19. For instance, will we see a change in the function and use of social media post-COVID-19 as teens grow tired of certain types of social media and strive for face-to-face interactions? Will teens develop new ways of using social media that further strengthen the closeness and connections that can be enhanced by social media? These are important questions that may shape the future of research in this area. It is also important to consider adolescents’ developmental stage and the ways in which COVID-19 and associated stressors may affect them differently over time depending on their ongoing biological, cognitive, affective development. The degree to which this influences their use of social media and its effects is a critical area for investigation.

Generalizing these considerations to the larger research agenda on adolescent social-media use, understanding timing speaks to the relevance of both within-person and between-person differences. Thus far, most investigations of adolescent social-media use have emphasized between-person differences, testing whether teens who use more social media, including at specific times of day (e.g., nighttime), are affected differently than those who do not. These studies remain important, and we need more research that teases apart the factors (e.g., circadian, social) that influence social-media use within and across days, such as daytime and nighttime, weekends and weekdays, and school and non–school days. We must also examine within-person differences, considering for each adolescent when they are most positively or negatively affected by certain social-media experiences using intensive monitoring designs (Jensen et al., 2019; Stange et al., 2019). For example, studies might examine whether adolescents’ fluctuations in mood affect their patterns of social-media use or whether certain types of social-media use at different points during the day (e.g., before bedtime, during remote instruction) shape the impact of social media on their health and across domains of well-being (e.g., socioemotional, physical health, academics). Understanding the time-varying processes of social-media use and its impact within individuals across multiple domains of well-being and functioning also may provide information to translate research into the design and development of tools for teens to better understand and alter their own use.

How: methods for studying social-media use

Beyond the substantive questions of who, what, and when adolescents are using and affected by social media, the field must take into consideration how it tests these questions. First and foremost, research examining social-media use during COVID-19 and beyond should be grounded in theory to better understand the complexities of adolescent social-media use and well-being. Although the field of adolescent social-media research is beginning to evolve, most studies have relied on cross-sectional methods and self-report measures. This has hindered researchers’ ability to make meaningful conclusions with direct applicability to the public. In regard to COVID-19, the field has not yet had time to rigorously test its effects on adolescent social-media use and related psychosocial outcomes. In this article, we have discussed potential impacts of COVID-19 on social-media use and socioemotional well-being from the lens of processes and mechanisms (e.g., social interactions, developmental tasks) rather than focusing on only maladjustment or a singular outcome (e.g., anxiety, depression). This approach may serve as one example of how research can seek to understand the complex relationships of social media and one critical domain of adolescent well-being. Thus, empirically investigating the theoretical propositions outlined in this article will be an important first step and extend into other areas of well-being (e.g., physical health, academics). This will require a multimethod approach drawing on qualitative and focus-group work, intensive sampling methods (e.g., ecological momentary assessment), and longitudinal work, some of which may draw on existing (i.e., pre-COVID-19) longitudinal cohort designs. It will also require exploring the ways in which social media may act as a tool for recruitment and data collection in a world in which virtual and remote designs are increasingly required.

Broadly, progress in the field of adolescent social-media research requires extending the conversation beyond reductionist characterizations of social media as “all good” or “all bad.” By continuously refocusing efforts on uncovering the nuances of what, when, and for whom social-media use influences different domains of adolescent well-being, research can produce insights with direct relevance to teens, families, and providers. Methodologically, the field must move toward greater diversity of rigorous methods, including qualitative interviews and focus groups, content analyses, and experimental, longitudinal, and intensive monitoring, and aim to incorporate more objective measures of use (e.g., smartphone sensing of social-media usage, direct analysis of adolescents’ social-media content). A bottom-up approach should be used as well and should include adolescents’ voices in the methods and questions we are asking. Further, the field would benefit from supplementing screen-time measures with measures of specific social-media behaviors, affordances, and teens’ subjective experiences. These approaches can be further enhanced by the use of open-science frameworks and repositories that promote accessibility and transparency among research teams to continually and jointly improve the methodological approaches used in the field (e.g., validated study measures for different research designs and questions).

Finally, research designs need to increase the diversity of both investigators and participants, including the perspectives and experiences of individuals from various backgrounds, identities, and nationalities, which has implications for the equitability, generalizability and applicability of the research and ensuing recommendations. Considering the broader sociocultural and systemic contexts that shape teens’ social-media experiences is important, such as the geopolitical news and policies that may directly affect social-media content and teens’ experiences with it. There is also a need for multidisciplinary collaborations in social-media research and for active participation by the industry in these endeavors, given the richness of information to which they already have access. Disciplines (e.g., psychological science, computer engineering, public health, education, medicine), policymakers, and people in the industry have a unique skillset and perspective that can jointly inform this future research agenda and improve the translation of research into direct recommendations and resources for the public.