Does Social Media Cause Anxiety? What the Newest Research Actually Shows

A study published this month tracked over a thousand young adults for years and found that heavier social media use predicted anxiety, and in some cases suicidal thoughts. So does social media cause anxiety?

As a counsellor, I hear the question weekly, and the honest answer is more complicated than the headlines suggest.

The arrow might point both ways

The new study, led by Jeff Temple and published in Pediatrics Open Science, followed 1,066 young adults from age 12 into their twenties (Temple et al., 2026). Heavier social media use was linked to higher anxiety and suicidal ideation, especially in young women. But the researchers flagged something important: the arrow might point both ways, since people already struggling with anxiety may reach for their phones as an escape, not just get anxious because of them.

Sleep is doing more damage than the scrolling

A separate study from Imperial College London tracked 2,350 London schoolchildren from age 11 into their teens (Shen et al., 2026). Those using social media more than three hours a day were around 40 to 70 percent more likely to develop clinically significant depression and anxiety two years later. The key finding: much of that effect ran through sleep, since heavy evening use ate into sleep time, and poor sleep did the real damage. Less about the scrolling itself, more about what it replaces.

The causation might run in the opposite direction

Then there's the study that complicates all of it. Researchers at the University of Manchester followed over 25,000 pupils in Greater Manchester for three years and found no evidence that social media or gaming time itself worsened anxiety or low mood (Cheng et al., 2026). If anything, the causation looked more likely to run the other way, since pupils already feeling anxious used their phones more, not the reverse. The honest takeaway: how you're doing before you open the app may matter more than how long you're on it.

Your own pattern matters more than your screen time

So does social media cause anxiety? The research doesn't agree, and that's the honest answer. What it does agree on is sleep, and knowing your own pattern, whether you scroll to escape or scroll and end up worse. If that pattern feels bigger than you can shift alone, a counsellor at Therapy in London can help you work through it.