Social Media and Mental Health

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Braghieri, Luca; Levy, Ro'ee; Makarin, Alexey
• 署名单位: Bocconi University; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; Tel Aviv University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR)
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20211218
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 3660-3693
• 关键词: gender-differences; DEPRESSION; facebook; disorders; association; networking; stress; phq-9

摘要

We provide quasi-experimental estimates of the impact of social media on mental health by leveraging a unique natural experiment: the staggered introduction of Facebook across US colleges. Our analysis couples data on student mental health around the years of Facebook's expansion with a generalized difference-in-differences empirical strategy. We find that the rollout of Facebook at a college had a negative impact on student mental health. It also increased the likelihood with which students reported experiencing impairments to academic performance due to poor mental health. Additional evi-dence on mechanisms suggests the results are due to Facebook fos-tering unfavorable social comparisons. (JEL D91, I12, I23, L82)