Special Issue: Social Media and Mental Health

Julia Brailovskaia; Chung-Ying Lin; Servet Üztemur

doi:10.29329/jsomer.89

Authors

Julia Brailovskaia Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany
Chung-Ying Lin Institute of Allied Health Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2129-4242
Servet Üztemur Anadolu University, Türkiye https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1580-9123

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29329/jsomer.89

Keywords:

Social Media, mental health, Problematic Social Media Use, cyber abuse, Fear of missing out

Abstract

Social media is deeply integrated into daily communication, identity work, and information seeking. Meanwhile, clinicians, educators, families, and policymakers are increasingly faced with a practical question: under what conditions does social media use support mental health, and under what conditions does it harm it? Recent evidence indicates that simple exposure metrics, such as total use time, are often insufficient to explain risk. Instead, patterns of use, platform features, psychosocial vulnerabilities, and contextual stressors seem to influence outcomes like depression, anxiety, stress, suicidal thoughts, and overall well-being. This special issue brings together international research that advances measurement, clarifies mechanisms, and identifies opportunities for intervention. Through eight contributions, the issue covers topics such as cyber abuse, professional clinical perspectives, unregulated gambling content, fear of missing out, societal expectations of milestones, culturally validated measurement of envy, and the narrative ecology of short-form video platforms. Together, these studies highlight a contemporary research agenda that is both empirically grounded and clinically meaningful.

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