Opinion: Social media - how to protect your mental health

Dr Ruth Plackett - Writing in The Conversation, Dr Ruth Plackett (UCL Epidemiology & Health) synthesises the results of research looking into how to best protect one's mental health while navigating the volatile social media landscape. The recent inquest into the death of British teenager Molly Russell in 2017 has concluded that the 14-year-old "died from an act of self harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content". For some people, this ruling will be confirmation of what they have long suspected or indeed experienced: that being on social media can be detrimental to your mental health. Of course it isn't always. Over 50 million people in the UK are active on at least one platform. That's over 80% of the population, a clear indication of quite how integral to our daily lives social media has become. Young adults are more likely than older adults to have a social media profile and to have more of them, on more sites and more apps.