A new research has found that Snapchat is the only platform that positively impacts the well-being of adolescents. The study, conducted by the University of Amsterdam, found a consistent negative impact on time spent on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube across all three mental health dimensions.
It highlighted that spending time on Snapchat positively affected friendship closeness and well-being, but had no significant impact on self-esteem. “The positive and null effects associated with Snapchat and WhatsApp indicate that we should avoid a blanket condemnation of all social media platforms.”
Moreover, The Future Proofing Study (Australia’s longest longitudinal study into mental health) stated that a higher number of hours on Snapchat was not found to be significantly associated with any of the mental health symptoms examined. It failed to find evidence that poorer mental health was in any way attributed to using social media to facilitate social connections.
However, the study found that frequent use of social media to communicate with people teenagers knew in real life was associated with lower symptoms of depression and anxiety. This highlights that using Snapchat for longer hours does not have negative impacts on mental health.
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