Are depression and social media use linked? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Looking at social media use and depression among a group of 18 to 25 year olds, most of whom were women, led Johns Hopkins child and adolescent psychiatrist Carol Vidal to conclude that the two are linked, although cause and effect are elusive. 

Vidal: So I think that take away would be for people with a tendency to have depressive symptoms you probably want to be managing their social media use a little bit more, because at the same time there's features of social media that make it more addictive and there's things that people who might be depressed may be doing more on social media. Like for example more social comparisons and things like that, that may also worsen the depression not surprisingly kind of this was associated with depression.   :28

Vidal notes that some of the functionality of social media platforms, with their display of likes and reposts, are just the kind of thing that entice people to remain on the platform longer, and that cyberbullying is also a real possibility, so a cautious approach is needed. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.