Social media use is linked with increased suicide rate across countries worldwide

Research on the link between social media use and wellbeing has focused primarily on countries of the Global North. Therefore, the link between social media use and wellbeing remains unknown on a global scale. Using various linear regression models, the paper investigates this by assessing the relationship between social media use and suicide rate (a variable reflecting a dimension of wellbeing) across the different countries of the world. The analyses reveal that countries where social media are more widespread also report increased suicide rate. This relationship remains significant even when controlling for various potential confounds including human development, median age, population size, gross domestic product, income inequality, and even when controlling for the country’s suicide rate at the eve of the social media revolution. The analyses reveal that the association between higher social media use and enhanced suicide rate is present among young, but not old, people, and among males, but not among females. Moreover, this link appears to be stronger in countries that are economically equal, potentially because social media promote a competitive culture in those countries. Altogether, these findings offer a first worldwide appraisal of the link between social media use and wellbeing, showing that, on balance, this link appears to be negative – since higher social media use predicts enhanced suicide rate. More broadly, our findings highlight the valuable contribution that comparative research with a global scope can have to understand the social media phenomenon.