• Posted January 15, 2026

Can Teens Use Social Media Too Little For Their Own Good? Maybe, Study Says

There appears to be a “Goldilocks zone” when it comes to social media use among teenagers.

Too much social media use can negatively affect a teenager’s well-being, a new study finds, dovetailing with results of previous research.

But too little social media use also can have a bad impact on well-being, researchers reported Jan. 12 in JAMA Pediatrics.

“Social media’s association with adolescent well-being is complex and nonlinear, suggesting that both abstinence and excessive use can be problematic,” wrote the research team led by Ben Singh, a research fellow at the University of South Australia.

“Adolescents reporting moderate use generally demonstrated the most favorable well-being profiles, whereas both nonusers and those with the highest levels of use were at elevated risk for low well-being,” the study concluded.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 101,000 Australian children tracked from grades 4 through 12.

The kids reported their social media use and responded to annual surveys assessing their well-being — their happiness, life satisfaction, emotional regulation and such.

Results showed that those who used social media the most — more than two hours every day after school — were more likely to have lower well-being than moderate users.

In grades 7 to 9, girls with heavy social media use were three times more likely to have low well-being, and boys were twice as likely, the study says.

But no use at all also proved problematic.

In grades 10 to 12, boys who never used social media were three times more likely to have low well-being, and girls had 79% higher odds.

Dr. Victor Fornari, vice chair of child and adolescent psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital, Northwell Health in Queens, N.Y., reviewed the findings.

"The study may be the first of its kind to indicate that, at least for the current generation growing up with social media, not having any social media could present a risk, where up until now we've often been concerned about the risk of social media," he said in a news release.

"Here they suggested that there might be a dose-related response where too much wouldn't be good, none at all might also be bad, and that just the right amount would be helpful,” Fornari added.

Avoiding social media might really be a “proxy for social isolation and social withdrawal,” he said.

“Those youth that now are identified with no social media exposure might be like those youth who, at 15 to 16, have social isolation and social withdrawal with poor peer relations,” Fornari said. “Now, of course, this is only a speculation because we don't know, but it may be that social isolation for adolescents is a sign of less well-being, and in this case, social isolation is on social media."

More information

The Child Mind Institute has more on how social media affects teenagers.

SOURCES: JAMA Pediatrics, Jan. 12, 2026; Northwell Health, news release, Jan. 12, 2026