Teen looks on his phone.

Pexels/Michael Burrows

These days almost everyone goes online to look up health information. Googling medical questions and concerns has become a part of everyday life for many of us as the Internet has become an extremely easy way to search for a doctor of any specialty, book appointments and expand one’s knowledge.

Over the past several years, however, the online landscape has evolved quite dramatically with the advent of social media. In fact, much like Google, social media has also become an increasingly important source of mental health-related information, especially for teenagers and young adults.

We recently polled hundreds of teenagers who presented to the psychiatric emergency room at Northwell Health and found that nearly 65% of them listed TikTok as their primary source for mental health information, even more so than Google. While this can sound frightening, it can also represent an exciting opportunity for mental health clinicians and researchers, like me.

There are definitely pros and cons to obtaining mental health information from social media. On the one hand, it provides an excellent opportunity to meet other individuals with similar life experiences, obtain social and emotional support, and connect with experts nearly instantly who can provide access to high-quality information and resources. But on the other hand, it can be very challenging to know which sources can be trusted to provide the most accurate and helpful information, as there is a lot of incorrect and stigmatizing misinformation online.

When Social Media Prompts One to Seek Mental Health Care

Further, social media has introduced an entirely new dimension of challenges (and potential opportunities) stemming from their use of algorithms to identify interests and tailor digital content. Unlike Google, once you search for information on social media, these algorithms are designed to strategically select and promote images, videos, and posts that might align with one’s interests or online activity. Such content that has the potential to impact us in ways that we are only beginning to appreciate and understand.

We know that information gathered online can impact many aspects of care, including whether to seek care at all. In psychiatry, as in all other areas of medicine, the earlier the better, but many people (especially young people) wait months to years before finally getting the help that they need. Some never do. The decision to access care is not always easy. The Internet and social media can represent pivotal moments that can shape and influence one’s desire or readiness to access mental health help.

Social media-based algorithms may impact and influence help-seeking in ways that were previously impossible and unimaginable (both for the better and for the worse). As a mental health professional working with young people, who are nearly constantly connected to the Internet, my job is often to help them navigate the wealth of information available online to determine what’s good and what’s bad. A critical question for me and many others in this field is how might a person’s social media feed change or evolve as a result of their online activity and if that change can influence important decisions, like the decision to seek mental health care.

Nearly three decades since the first social media platforms were created, the White House has recently released its report on research priorities and has identified the need to better understand the impact (both good and bad) of social media use on adolescent development as a top research priority. At the same time, the U.S. Surgeon General recently released an advisory highlighting concerns associated with social media use on youth mental health.

Social media companies have received a lot of negative attention regarding the impact of their algorithms on mental health outcomes, especially for young people. While they certainly have the potential to deliver negative digital content, they could theoretically also be used for good, and we need to unpack the impact that the tailored flow of digital information can have on the person absorbing it. We need to move fast to get ahead of the curve if we are to understand how to enhance the benefits and minimize the risks associated with social media use. I believe that social media algorithms can be used to ensure that the information young people are receiving is accurate, helpful, and sound rather than misinformation that stigmatizes mental health and, in turn, steers them away from getting help.

Social media is expanding every day, and we have an opportunity to use it to its full potential and ensure that social media could one day truly live up to what it was meant to be – a place to share, learn and grow.