Authored by Danielle Sidman
2024 Summer Teen Advisor at the Digital Wellness Lab
When discussing mental health, social media often emerges as a topic of concern, particularly regarding its negative impacts and the suggestion that reducing exposure could improve youth mental health. However, my research over the summer while serving as a Teen Advisor to the Digital Wellness Lab, focused on the positive aspects of Instagram, and how adolescents can leverage social media to support their wellbeing. I created this poster to illustrate the positive side of social media.
![The Positive Side of Social Media:
• Three Positive Outcomes: Social wellbeing, Positive mental health, Self-rated health → How to Achieve These Outcomes: Being mindful of social media and phone usage allows users to achieve a positive outcome
• The Best Part of Social Media: Positive relationships and social capital, self-concepts, coping, happiness, positivity, and growth
• Curating your feed: 1. Training the algorithm (Apps want to show you things you will interact with) 2. Hiding or blocking negative creators or posts](https://digitalwellnesslab.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Positive-Side-of-Social-Media-724x1024.png)
The author of this article is a young person who has been engaging with the Digital Wellness Lab about topics of young people’s safety and wellbeing within digital environments. Here at the Lab, we welcome different viewpoints and perspectives. However, the opinions and ideas expressed here do not necessarily represent the views, research, or recommendations of the Digital Wellness Lab, Boston Children’s Hospital, or affiliates.