Why public health needs evidence-informed guidelines for social media use

Social media use has become nearly universal among adolescents and increasingly common across all age groups. Recent estimates suggest that adolescents spend several hours per day on social media platforms, often extending into late evening and nighttime hours. Concurrently, growing evidence links excessive or problematic social media use with poor sleep, depressive symptoms, anxiety, body dissatisfaction, cyberbullying, sedentary behaviour, and impaired cognition and academic functioning. Despite these concerns, evidence-informed recommendations for healthy social media use remain largely absent. Unlike tobacco, alcohol, nutrition, sleep, or physical activity, there are no widely accepted population-level guidelines to help individuals, families, schools, clinicians, or policymakers navigate digital exposure in a health-promoting manner.