Social Support at Your Fingertips: A Meta-Analysis of Students’ Social Media Usage and Social Support

Since the pandemic, social media usage and concerns about the deterioration of students’ mental health have risen sharply. Despite policy makers’ rapid moves to regulate or even ban social media for students, we still lack strong scientific knowledge about the tradeoffs of social media use for this population. This meta-analysis (Nstudents = 49,449, Nstudies = 72, N Effect Sizes = 296) reveals a significant, positive overall partial correlation (r =.12, p < .001) between students’ (Mean age = 17.21, Range Mean Age = 11.83 ~ 40.19) social media usage and social support. Moderator analyses showed higher correlations for studies using simple regression without covariates; and for students from individualistic (versus collectivistic) cultures seeking online support. Our results signal that social media is not unilaterally negative—an impression one could easily glean from the popular press. Policymakers might explore strategic ways to help students benefit from social media while minimizing its potential harm.