The risks remain unknown for social media use and adolescent well-being

Social media use is today the dominant form of communication for young people. Observational studies have reported near-zero associations between social media use and adolescent mental health. The research design used in these studies is tabulated and grouped ascross-sectional, longitudinal, between-country and meta studies. Such observational studies, some of which have been highly influential, cannot address the critical question of whether we should regulate social media use. We argue that a potential negative causal effect of social media use on well-beingmay be masked by confounders and model misspecification, so that the observed association does not reflect the causal link. We discuss the social ``cost of missing" out as one such confounder. Large-scale partially controlled experiments are discussed as a promising alternative way forward indeciding whether regulation of young people's social media use is warranted. However, in light of the difficulty of estimating causal connections from data, social media use remains an unknown risk factor for adolescent well-being, warranting caution and regulatory measures.