Unraveling the adverse effects of social media on teenagers: current and future research directions

Increasing concerns have been raised in academic literature regarding the impact of social media on teenagers’ well-being. While online social media has become an integral part of our daily life, it has also been linked to a rise in mental health issues among adolescents. This study addresses this concern by systematically reviewing the literature from 2005 to 2023 using the Scopus database. This study employed bibliometric and content analyses to map the existing literature to shed light on new areas of origin, trends, and future research directions. It also addresses critical gaps in the literature by proposing directions for future research. Notably, the analysis revealed that several key themes have dominated the research landscape on social media’s impact on teenagers. These include suicide, education, school children, quality of life, attitude toward health, social media, anxiety, teenagers’ behavior, risk assessment, online social networking, deep learning, and emotions.

This article was been corrected on Jun 09, 2025 Corrigendum to “Unraveling the Adverse Effects of Social Media on Teenagers: Current and Future Research Directions” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10949968251331019