This review has classified research findings in terms of the influence
of socialmedia on adolescentwellbeing.However, itmust be recognised
that technology acts merely as a facilitator of human interaction and is
value-free, neither promoting the good nor the bad. Retrieved within
this review was a wealth of contradictory evidence suggesting both
harmful and beneficial aspects of SMTs. However, one must point to a
lack of evidence exacting the specific direction of the relationship between
SMT andwellbeing. Be that as itmay, a growing body of evidence
is suggesting that SMT and WB experience(s) (either positive or negative)
are premised upon specific online activity rather than variables
such as, the ‘amount of time’ or ‘number of online friends’. This
would suggest that early education of children and adolescents on the
various pitfalls of SMTsmay enable themto avoidmore ‘harmful’ activities
e.g. talking to strangers and thus reduce harmful experience(s).
Of further interest is the ability of SMTs to foster self-disclosure
through increased social network size and composition. This may
prove valuable to health and social care professionals attempting to access
traditionally hard-to-reach populations such as, young males or
those experiencing mental ill-health. Future studies may wish to include
the benefits of both informal and formalmeans of online support.
Little or no associationwas found between the number of online friends
and WB, perhaps suggesting more indirect effect(s) or a current indistinguishable
‘merging’ between online and offline social networks.
Further research would therefore do well to investigate the impact of
online friendships on issues such as online help-seeking, exposure to
harm, cyber-bullying etc.