How Three Studies by Vuorre and Przybylski May Have Obscured the Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health

The relationship between adolescent social media use and mental health is a topic of ongoing debate, with substantial diversity in the conclusions reached by researchers. This commentary examines three papers by Matti Vuorre and Andrew Przybylski, often cited as evidence that social media is not harmful to adolescents. We identify one conceptual issue (blending together groups and technologies) and three methodological issues (such as Meta’s involvement in research design of one study) which reduce their relevance to questions about social media’s effect on adolescent mental health. Suggestions for better approaches to studying social media effects on mental health are provided.