Youth-Led Book on Social Media and Mental Health Highlights a Complex Mix of Harms and Supports

A new book titled SocialsVoice shines a light on the relationship between social media content and mental health from the perspective of Latino youth—a group that engages with social media across multiple languages and cultural perspectives. Through concrete examples, the book presents a complex portrait of their experiences online, including both the mental health risks posed by certain content and the presence of supportive, anti-stigmatizing voices.

The book project was led by Melissa DuPont-Reyes, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology and sociomedical sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, working in partnership with research collaborators and participants. The book draws on findings from a research study focused on 41 participating Latino youths ages 13 to 24, and 28 of their parents, all recruited from community-based organizations across the United States. Unlike previous research that relied on surveys or app data, the book is based on participatory research. Youth didn’t just answer survey questions; they also shared social media clips they encountered and analyzed how those clips helped or harmed their mental health. (Download a copy of the book here.)

Through dozens of richly illustrated examples and reflections throughout the book, youth identify rampant stigmatizing content, including posts claiming mental illness isn’t “real,” minimizing depression, reinforcing stereotypes, and promoting toxic masculinity. At the same time, they point to evidence of a powerful, youth-led anti-stigma movement, featuring mental health education, symptom management, suicide awareness, and self-care strategies. The book also shows how Latino youth use social media to discuss stigma and social issues occurring in real life, like racism, immigration, vaccine hesitancy, school shootings, poverty, sexual assault, and LGBTQIA+ support.

“We hope that this book helps elevate youth voices to inform policies, practices, and programs concerning social media. Too often, youth voices are misunderstood or ignored altogether. The SocialsVoice project also exemplifies how participatory research approaches are a powerful, community-generated response to concerns about the safety and utility of social media,” says DuPont-Reyes.

Example of a Negative Social Media Post

A 22-year-old female study participant reacts to a video clip featuring a man speaking to the camera about depression who says, “That’s some made-up sh*it.”:
“In this clip, he states that depression isn’t real. It is self-preservation, but only being able to self-preserve and survive day after day instead of living makes a depressed person.”

Example of a Positive Social Media Post

A 17-year-old male participant reacts to a TikTok video of a woman speaking about how she gives herself time to process and act on her feelings:

“This clip can educate others on how important it is to allow ourselves time to deal with our problems and not just set them to the side or ignore them.”

“Mindfulness Behind the Screen”

The book also highlights how young people are learning to set boundaries, curate positive content, and use “mindfulness behind the screen.” In the words of one 16-year-old female participant: “Social media is both good and bad, because you could be randomly using it and a bad video pops up, and then it makes your mental health worse, and then it keeps happening. However, you could also use social media to look for better videos and be like ‘Oh, okay, it’s actually not as toxic as initially shown’ because then you’re actively making changes to your algorithm and making sure that it’s better for your mental health.”

About the SocialsVoice Study

SocialsVoice began with youth participants defining what they considered to be positive and negative mental health content. Then, the youth were randomly assigned to groups of either the positive or negative mental health–themed content and invited to share social media clips depicting their assigned theme. Throughout seven video-chat sessions, the youth discussed their thematic social media clips in their groups. The study concluded with youth co-creating their own videos about their research findings that their peers and parents would find relevant and useful. Youth and parent participants were invited to watch the co-created videos together during a virtual film screening event. Links to the videos are available in the book.

Co-Authors, Funding, and Disclosures

Additional book co-authors include Victoria Mello, Columbia Mailman School; Alice P. Villatoro, Santa Clara University Department of Public Health; and Lu Tang, Texas A&M University Department of Communication and Journalism. Illustrations and layout are by Lauren West.

Research support was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (MH135489) and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (79700). Additional support was provided by the Columbia University Social Psychiatry Innovation in Research, Implementation, and Training

(SPIRIT) Initiative Pilot Award; the Columbia University Irving Medical Center Intervention and Implementation Science Award; and the Columbia Mailman School Calderone Award. Crucial bridge- funding support was also provided by the Research Response Fund, generously supported by Columbia Mailman School donors, alumni, and friends.