Mobilizing Transdisciplinarity to Address the Good Versus Bad Dichotomy: Thinking Critically About Current and Future Youth Social Media, Peer Relationships, and Mental Health Research

Abstract

North American rates of adolescent social media use hover between 98 and 100%, with 45% of adolescents reporting being online “almost constantly”. Despite its prevalence, social media use is also controversial. If social media is now woven into the fabric of social interactions, what are the mental health implications for youth growing up in “a digital age”? This paper discusses the potential applications of transdisciplinarity by considering the question in three ways: first, the polarized research is presented, suggesting that social media has the power to either positively or negatively direct youths’ social and psychological trajectories; second, the dichotomy is challenged; and third, transdisciplinary applications are considered. As a complex, novel, and nuanced topic, the study of social media, peer relationships, and mental health demands a paradigm that is able to accommodate complexity, nuance, and novelty in a critical, reflexive and meaningful way. Transdisciplinarity presents scholars an opportunity to tackle this challenge. This paper discusses the prevailing research surrounding social media, peer relationships, and mental health to challenge the good/bad binary and lay the foundation for approaching this topic from a transdisciplinary lens in future research.

Keywords:

• Mental health
• social media
• transdisciplinarity
• youth

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).