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Hopelab & Well Being Trust 54 The relationship between social media use and depression among young people has been a topic of increasing discussion, in books, research studies, and the popular press. The reported increase in rates of depression and suicide among teens is a tremendous cause for concern, and researchers, psychologists, and public commentators are increasingly investigating the rise in use of mobile digital devices and social media and the implications for mental health, particularly among young people. 22 One of the goals for this survey is to contribute to the growing body of knowledge in this area through a combination of quantitative and qualitative data on how teens and young adults describe and perceive their social media use, using a large, nationally-representative, probabil- ity-based sample that may serve as a resource for those wishing to further explore elements of these important questions. Because this is a cross-sectional survey, we can report on correlations between depressive status and various types and amounts of social media use, but we cannot and do not infer causality. We wanted to highlight youth voices, so we asked young people themselves about their motives for using social media, specific actions they do or don't take on social media, their reactions to social media, and how they perceive that it does or doesn't affect their mental well-being. We recognize that cross-sectional data present only a snapshot and that self-reported observations are not always reliable, but we also believe that these young people's insights about their own experiences with social media and well-being provide an important additional input to our growing understanding of this issue. The first section of this report was about the purposeful use of digital resources for health information and tools – young people's descrip- tions of pro-active and intentional use of online health information, searches for peer health connections, and use of mobile health apps. This section of the report is about how young people's reported use of social media – as a normal part of their daily lives – does or does not relate to their mental well-being. Here we explore a variety of aspects of mental well-being, including depression, feelings of being left out, social comparison issues, and feelings of stress and anxiety, among other issues. 22 For example, see Twenge, op cit. Social Media Use and Mental Well-Being

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