presentation for nature

Immerse yourself in our collection of 24 nature-themed PowerPoint and Google Slides templates , showcasing serene landscapes, lush greenery, and environmental motifs.

These designs are ideal for presentations related to ecology, sustainability, conservation, and travel. By using our nature templates, you can create an atmosphere of tranquility and connection with the environment, enhancing your message and engaging your audience.

Whether you’re promoting eco-friendly initiatives, sharing research findings, or educating others on environmental issues, our templates provide a visually stunning backdrop for your content.

Clover Woodland Template

Google Slides , POTX

Green Cycle Template

Tea Leaves Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides

Tropical Leaves Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides

Floral Pastel Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides

Ecology Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides

Retro Pop Mountains Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides

Chart Palette Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides

Green Leaves Flat Lay Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides

Birds Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides

Green Rounded Abstract Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides

Pastel Leaves Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides

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Top 35 Nature PowerPoint Templates to Enjoy the Splendid Beauty of Nature!

Deepali Khatri

If you are in your office on a beautiful day and you see the wonderful weather outside, it will be hard for you to focus on what’s going inside. Well, if you can’t take your viewers outside, you can surely bring the outdoors inside by making the use of these predesigned PowerPoint slide designs.

Enjoy the beauty and explore different colors of nature with our creative collection of Top 35 Spring PPT templates. Take the time to unplug and delve into nature’s beauty with the best collection of these predesigned PowerPoint slide design.

Whether you want to advertise organic products or create a presentation on the ways to save mother nature, these PPT slides will serve as the best tool for such purposes. Promote your business and advertise seasonal sports using our beautifully designed Nature PowerPoint templates.

Forest Nature PowerPoint Template-1

Get this readymade Forest Nature PowerPoint Template

Explain the concept of afforestation and deforestation through this visually appealing PowerPoint template. Educate your students about the importance of wildlife for ecological balance and how it helps in maintaining a balance of nature. Familiarize your viewers with the various species existing on this earth and their contribution to each other. Showcase how trees play an important role in saving many lives with the assistance of this forest nature PowerPoint template.

Beach Enjoy Nature PowerPoint Template-2

Click Here to Get this Beautifully Designed Beach Enjoy Nature PowerPoint Template

This slide is perfect to advertise your beach business and for promoting the hotels and restaurants on the beach. Enjoy the season of spring and summer and prepare a list of things you need to carry along with you while planning a trip to a beach. Explore the beauty and different colors of nature. One can also employ this slide to advertise water sports.

Lake Nature PowerPoint Template-3

Download this Lake Nature PowerPoint Slide Design

Create awareness on the benefits of yoga, exercising, walking, and meditation with this professionally designed PowerPoint slide design. Feel the beauty of nature and create outstanding presentations with this lake nature PowerPoint template. Explore the greatest collection of Nature PowerPoint templates at SlideTeam and deliver quality rich presentations in just no time. The slide can also be incorporated by the teachers to educate the students about the importance of the ecosystem.

Eagle Over Davidson Nature PowerPoint Templates And PowerPoint Backgrounds-4

Click Here to Get This Eagle Over Davidson Nature PPT Slide Show

This wonderful slide can be used to showcase the beauty of nature in the winter morning. Display the pleasant beauty of snow and promote your business in hilly areas. Incorporate the slide to advertise your business camping and hiking products. List down the camping and survival equipment using the predesigned PowerPoint layout.

Sunset Nature PowerPoint Template-5

Click Here to Get this Sunset Nature PowerPoint Template

Showcase the beauty of nature using this readily available sunset nature PowerPoint slide design. The above-shown template depicts the beautiful colors from a sunset. The presenter can present the phenomenon called scattering because of which sunset takes place. Depict the fundamental relation between nature and humans using this PPT slide.

Italian Mountain Nature PowerPoint Templates And PowerPoint Backgrounds-6

Click Here to Get this Italian Mountain Nature PowerPoint Template

Explain the worth of nature and its valuable resources using this Italian mountain nature PowerPoint slide show. This slide can also be used for promoting the institutes providing coaching for skiing. Promote the businesses located in the hilly areas. Showcase the benefits one can have from meditation in the hilly areas. Admire the beauty of nature with this mountain nature PowerPoint slide.

Flower Nature PowerPoint Template-7

Click Here to Get this Flower Nature PowerPoint Template

Incorporate this flower nature PowerPoint template and get a better exposure to nature that will make you feel better emotionally. The PPT slide can also be used to explain the contribution nature makes to your physical wellbeing. Inspired by nature, we at SlideTeam have created such templates that will help you enjoy and feel the beauty of nature. Deliver quality rich presentations on nature-related topics using the predesigned flower PowerPoint slide.

Child Observing Nature PowerPoint Template-8

Click Here to Get this Visually Appealing Child Observing Nature PPT Template

Explore different colors of nature and teach children about the existing species. This slide can also be incorporated to guide viewers about the ways of gardening. You can even advertise and promote your organic products. Educate kids on how they can save the environment and create awareness about global warming. Enjoy the beauty of tulips and flora and fauna taking advantage of this wonderful nature PowerPoint slide.

Sunflower Nature PowerPoint Template-9

Click Here to Get This Amazing Sunflower Nature PPT Slide Design

Flowers are a symbol of love, passion, desire, joy, and happiness. Spread love using these professionally curated PPT slide show. Enjoy the season of spring and summer. Sunflowers are known for being happy. The template can also be used for wishing someone. Prepare a beautiful video for your loved ones and write a suitable quote on this wonderful slide.

Sunlight Nature PowerPoint Template-10

Download this Sunlight nature PPT Layout

Showcase the beauty of nature with this sunlight Nature PowerPoint template and mention the ways you can protect nature. The slide can also be employed to educate the students on how to save trees and other natural resources. One can also take advantage of this Nature’s PPT slide to promote their organic products.

Tree Nature PowerPoint Template-11

Grab this Tree Nature PowerPoint slide show

Familiarize people with the concept of afforestation and deforestation. Jot down the ways they can save valuable resources. Elucidate how trees are important for us and how they contribute oxygen to the environment. Display the uses of trees and the importance of planting trees in the schools using this professionally designed tree PowerPoint slide.

Sunlight Nature PowerPoint Template-12

Click Here to Grab this Readymade Sunlight Nature PowerPoint Slide

Make powerful PPTs and describe nature and its beauty through this sunlight nature PowerPoint slide. School teachers can incorporate the slide to and guide the students how by preserving nature, the planets and all its inhabitants are guaranteed a supply of clean water and fresh air. Showcase the health benefits one can have from jogging, walking and running in the morning and its impact on one’s physical and mental health.

Beautiful Ocean Nature PowerPoint Template-13

Download this Predesigned Beautiful Ocean Nature PPT Layout

Create awareness on the benefits of yoga, running, meditation with this amazing beautiful ocean nature PPT slide show. Mention the ways one can save water and other valuable natural resources. Oceans are the lifeblood of Earth providing us with oxygen and absorbing carbon. Make an impactful PPT presentation with this predeveloped beautiful ocean nature PowerPoint layout.

Purple Hosta Nature PowerPoint Template-14

Download this Predesigned Purple Hosta Nature PowerPoint Slide Show

Protect your mother nature and showcase the ways one can save natural resources. Grab the attention of the viewers with this refreshing and surprising beauty of this wonderful purple Hosta nature PowerPoint slide design. A presenter can use this template to explain the features of Hosta flowers and the care tips one must keep in mind while dealing with these flowers.

Gerbera Flower Nature PowerPoint Template-15

Download this Gerbera Flower Nature PPT Template

These flowers are the symbol of innocence and purity. You can incorporate the slide to make beautiful cards for your friends, family and loved ones. Wish them the best using this template and prepare cards for their birthdays and anniversary. Make a wonderful video for your partner by adding pleasant music at the background and incorporating these beautifully designed flower nature PowerPoint graphics.

Leaves Reflection Nature PowerPoint Template-16

Click Here to Grab this Leaves Reflection Nature PPT Slide Design

Save the environment and educate people about the ways they can save the valuable resources of the environment. The slide can be used by those people who want to promote and advertise products related to nature. One can also jot down the ways to enjoy the beauty of nature. Mention the services nature and humans provide to each other.

Fall Forest Nature PowerPoint Template-17

Click Here to Get this Fall Forest Nature PowerPoint Slide Design

Showcase the importance and beauty of the forest with the help of this readily available forest nature PowerPoint template. This professionally designed forest nature PowerPoint slide can be used to advertise the water sports and adventures. Spread awareness to conserve water and plant more trees by taking advantage of this forest nature PowerPoint template.

Happy Flowers Nature PowerPoint Template-18

Click Here to Get this Happy Flowers Nature PowerPoint Slide Design

Flowers never go out of fashion, so give your presentation a flowery touch. Enlist the upcoming events and educate toddlers about the different fruits and flowers that we get from nature. Enjoy the season of spring and summer and spread the love with the assistance of this predeveloped happy flowers nature PowerPoint template.

Pond Beauty Nature PowerPoint Template-19

Download this Pond Beauty Nature PPT Template

Create inspiring presentations about nature and raise awareness. Showcase the contribution nature makes to your physical wellbeing. Display that exposure to nature not only makes you feel better emotionally but it also helps in reducing a lot of health problems. The above-shown slide can also be incorporated to mention the ways one can save nature.

Pink Rose Nature PowerPoint Templates PPT Themes And Graphics-20

Click Here to Get this Pink Rose Nature PowerPoint Template

The above-shown template depicts the beauty of nature. The slide can be used to wish a birthday or anniversary to your loved ones. Prepare a beautiful video by incorporating this professionally designed pink rose nature PowerPoint layout. Add soothing music in the background and post this video on your partner’s timeline.

Save Earth And Water Protection Flat PowerPoint Design-21

Get this Save Earth and Water Protection PowerPoint Slide Show

Prepare impactful PPT presentations on save water and write the quotes and slogans on this predeveloped save earth PowerPoint slide. The PPT slide can be incorporated by the schoolteachers in their sessions to prepare a presentation for the students. List down the ways they can save water for the future generation by downloading this readymade PPT layout.

Garden Nature PowerPoint Templates Pathway Growth PPT Slide-22

Click Here to Grab This Garden Nature PowerPoint Template

Enjoy the beauty of nature and showcase the benefits of jogging, meditation and walking in the early morning. Give a fresh start to your presentation with this green tree garden nature PowerPoint slide show. Grab the attention of your viewers by bringing the outdoors inside while delivering your presentation using this PowerPoint template.

Butterfly Background Nature PowerPoint Templates and PowerPoint Backgrounds-23

Download this Creative Butterfly Background Nature PowerPoint Slide Show

Enlighten your audience with the importance of flora and fauna. Showcase the scenic beauty of various places. List down the places you want to visit. Take your audience for a nature tour taking advantage of this readily available PowerPoint template. You can not take your audience out while delivering any presentation but you can bring nature inside by making impactful presentations using this slide.

Pink Tulip Nature PowerPoint Templates And PowerPoint Backgrounds-24

Download this Amazingly Curated Pink Tulip Nature PPT Slide Show

This slide can be used for natural, decorative, artistic and love presentation. Enjoy the beauty of tulips and make powerful PowerPoint presentations. The template can also be employed for showcasing the ways one can protect the mother nature. Enjoy and feel the beauty of nature with this professionally curated PowerPoint layout.

Bumble Bee Nature PowerPoint Templates And PowerPoint Backgrounds-25

Click Here to Grab this Beautifully Designed Bumble Bee Nature PowerPoint Layout

Give your presentation a flowery touch with this bumblebee nature PowerPoint layout. Present your business in new ways. Create an interesting PPT template presentation by downloading this slide. Add as many slides to this PowerPoint theme as you want. Prepare a beautiful video for your loved ones using this PPT template.

Butterfly Nature PowerPoint Templates And PowerPoint Backgrounds-26

Click Here to Grab This Butterfly Nature PowerPoint Slide Design

This PPT slide can be used to create decorations and crafts for children. Educate people on how they can save the environment and the natural resources like butterflies, plants, and trees. Showcase the importance of nature for the survival of human beings and the things provided by nature.

Autumn Park Nature PowerPoint Templates And PowerPoint Backgrounds-27

Download this Readily Available Autumn Park Nature PPT Guide

Teach toddlers about the various season of nature. Feel the pleasure of the beautiful red, yellow and orange color in the season of autumn. Get a perfect sense of relaxation and warmth using this template. One can use this PPT slide for all the nature-related presentations.

Morning on The Farm Nature PowerPoint Template-28

Download this Morning on the Farm Nature PowerPoint Template

The presenter can use the PPT slide to make the audience familiar with farming and agriculture. Advertise organic farming and the different techniques of farming. Explore the different colors of nature with this creatively designed morning on the farm PowerPoint slide show.

Dew Drops Nature PowerPoint Template-29

Click Here to Grab This Readymade Dew Drops Nature PowerPoint Slide Show

If you can’t take your audience outside while giving a PPT presentation, you can use this template to bring the outdoors inside. Use this slide in your next presentation and talk about the beauty of nature. The above shown template depicts beautiful dewdrops in the winter morning. Spread awareness for preserving nature and natural resources using the slide show.

Vineyard Nature PowerPoint Background and Template-30

Download this Predesigned Vineyard Nature PowerPoint Graphic

Feel the warmth of the sun and enjoy the pleasant beauty using this beautifully designed PowerPoint template. Create awareness on the benefits of yoga, meditation, exercising. This slide is a PowerPoint theme for giving a consistent, professional look to all the slides and can be downloaded in JPG and PDF file formats. Describe the beauty of a sunset and explain the scientific phenomenon behind the sunrise and sunset.

River Nature PowerPoint Backgrounds and Templates-31

Grab this Professionally Designed River Nature PowerPoint Template

Showcase the importance and the role played by rivers in the ecology of the rainforest. Also, rivers provide a habitat for wildlife which can be easily displayed using this beautifully designed river PowerPoint slide show. Showcase the various rivers of the world and let the students be aware of the various features of each river.

Green Earth Nature PowerPoint Background And Template-32

Get this Customizable Green Earth Nature PowerPoint Slide Design

Spread awareness and mention the ways one can save the planet Earth. Explain the concept of global warming and the ways one can deal with it. The slide can also be incorporated to familiarize the audience with the 3R’s i.e. recycle, reuse and reduce. Talk about the measures to control environmental pollution with the help of this predesigned PowerPoint template.

Water Fall Nature PowerPoint Templates And PowerPoint Backgrounds-33

Click Here to Download this Amazing WaterFall Nature PPT Slide Show

Make a powerful PowerPoint presentation on the wonders of nature. Talk about the famous Niagara Falls and its beauty. The safety measure one should take at the place can also be displayed taking the assistance of this readymade PPT template. Showcase the scenic beauty of your country taking the assistance of this readily available PowerPoint template.

Tropical Sunset Nature PowerPoint Templates And PowerPoint Backgrounds-34

Click Here to Download this Tropical Sunset Nature PowerPoint Design

The slide is the best tool to advertise adventure and water spots. Reflect the beauty of nature at the sunset using this PPT template. Create inspiring PowerPoint Presentation and showcase the beautiful colors caused by sunset in the atmosphere. Prepare a list of places you want to travel with this readily available PowerPoint slide design.

Bamboo Nature PowerPoint Templates and PowerPoint Backgrounds-35

Get this Readily Available Bamboo Nature PowerPoint Slide Show

Explain the benefits of bamboo and educate children about the bamboo species. Incorporate the template to depict the uses of bamboo and how these help in making roads and medicines, food, fuel, paper, and other similar things.  Share the facts related to a bamboo tree with this predesigned PowerPoint slide show.

Choose the best among the available templates and create an impactful presentation in no time.

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Nature PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themes

Free slides and backgrounds for presentations about nature, clean energy, the environment, renewable energies, recycling, ecology or sustainable economy.

Download these presentation templates ang go green!

Unleash the wild fun in your classroom with this FREE PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme. Liven up your classroom with a touch of the jungle!  This free downloadable theme features adorable monkeys swinging through lush green backgrounds and bright banana trees.   It’s more than just cute though – this theme is […]

Cute Monkeys, mini theme and subtraction drag and drop activity.

Flowers and Ladybugs free Spring Season template for google slides and PowerPoint. This free template for Google Slides and PowerPoint is the perfect way to add a touch of springtime cheer to your lessons. It features adorable graphics of flowers, bees, and ladybugs – a charming combination that’s sure to […]

Spring has sprung and it’s time to bring some floral fun to your classroom!

Elevate Your Presentations with Earthy Elegance and Sophistication with this free PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme. Beth is a stunning free template for Google Slides and PowerPoint, featuring a soothing palette of earthy tones, organic shapes, and leaves. The template is designed to exude a sense of natural elegance […]

Beth, elegant and versatile free template.

Elegant and classy with flowers and leaves backgrounds free PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme Amelia is a free PowerPoint and Google Slides template with elegant and classy floral backgrounds. It is perfect for a wedding slideshow or a poetry presentation. The template features a variety of flowers and leaves […]

Amelia free PowerPoint and Google Slides template with floral backgrounds.

Africa landscapes and animals free PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme Africa Viva is perfect to talk about Africa, the savannah or the animal kingdom. It has beautiful sunset colors and papercut style landscapes made with different layers. I’ve included two different title slides, one with the African continent and […]

Africa Viva, free presentation template.

Autumn Stickers free Fall PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme This new autumn theme features fall leaves, acorns and mushrooms presented as digital stickers. Perfect for back to school or to present different outdoor activities to experience during fall. I’ve included a morning meeting / daily agenda slide and a […]

Autumn stickers, a fall theme for Google slides and ppt.

Free autumn theme with pumpkins and fall leaves for PowerPoint and Google Slides. Countryside fall template is a cute autumn theme with warm colors that features a little pickup truck with pumpkins, and a tree with falling red, yellow and brown leaves. This template is perfect to celebrate fall or […]

Countryside Fall free slides template.

Neutral watercolors organic shapes free PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme This template features neutral watercolor organic shapes and it can be used for presentations about topics such as: Nature: For example, you could use the template to discuss the different types of trees, flowers, or animals in a particular […]

Watercolor Organic Shapes Presentation Template.

Crumpled Paper Texture Background with Cute Succulents, Cacti and Flowers Stickers free PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme This free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme features a crumpled paper texture background with cute succulents, cacti and flowers stickers. It’s the perfect way to add a touch of cuteness and […]

Cute Succulents, Cacti and Flowers Stickers free template.

Apple Picking Season FREE PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme Celebrate apple picking season with this free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme! This template features a beautiful and warm color scheme and illustrations of apples, making it the perfect way to create presentations about the delicious fruit. The template […]

Apple Season free slides theme.

World Oceans Day Free PowerPoint Template and Google Slides Theme Celebrate World Oceans Day with this free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme! This template features a beautiful blue color scheme and ocean-themed images, making it the perfect way to create presentations about the importance of our oceans. The template […]

World Oceans Day free PowerPoint template.

Free Earth Day animated template for Google Slides and PowerPoint. You can use this PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme to raise awareness of environmental issues. It features beautiful visuals and resources of planet Earth, which you can customize freely to make the presentation your own. Earth Day is an […]

Earth Day free ppt and Google Slides template.

Free interactive choice board and mini theme + morning meeting / daily agenda slide for Google Slides and PowerPoint. This free interactive choice board and mini theme with morning meeting / daily agenda slide is perfect for the little ones. Let’s learn about the importance of bees with this black […]

Bees are awesome. Interactive choice board and mini theme.

Free spring template with flowers and ladybugs for Google Slides and PowerPoint. Flowery slides to celebrate spring or if you just are in the mood for flowers and ladybugs. Colorful template that uses theme colors for almost all objects (all the colors are customizable thru the edit theme option, except […]

Flowers and Ladybugs free slides template.

Cute sunflowers Template for PowerPoint and Google Slides Cute illustrated PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme with sunflowers. You can use it to talk about wellness, for example. It includes a morning meeting layout in case you want to use it in your classroom! DOWNLOAD POWERPOINT OPEN IN GOOGLE SLIDES

Cute sunflowers, Google Slides and ppt template.

Free Nature PowerPoint Templates

Nature epitomizes beauty and wonder. Drawing inspiration from its myriad elements, we have meticulously crafted an exceptional collection of Nature-themed PowerPoint templates and PPT slide templates. Elevate your next presentation with these 100% free slide designs that seamlessly integrate the sky, wind, earth, fire, flora, mountains, and more. Our complimentary Nature PPT templates for PowerPoint & Google Slides are curated with precision, ensuring you captivate your audience with the essence and splendor of the natural world.

Free Climate Change PowerPoint Template

Free Green Leaf PPT Template

Free Green Field PowerPoint Template

Free Eyes PowerPoint Template

Free Hurricane Storm PowerPoint Template

Free Bonsai PowerPoint Template

Free Island Presentation Template

Free Green Leaf PowerPoint Template

Free Mountaineering PowerPoint Template

It’s a good idea to use the nature PowerPoint templates and elements in your presentation because sometimes presentations are delivered in the office or in a classroom and people who is attending the conference may forget for some minutes that we live around Nature. For example, check out this Water PowerPoint template.

What is a Nature Background for PowerPoint?

Nature backgrounds and nature PowerPoint templates are designs created for presentations featuring background stock images in HD, nature illustrations and vectors.

How Nature Backgrounds can be used in PowerPoint presentations?

The nature backgrounds can be used in many different ways. A presenter or presentation designer might choose to include nature backgrounds as part of their presentation design when he/she wants to depict a sense of natural style.

What are different types of Nature backgrounds for presentations?

The nature backgrounds category includes different types of natural backgrounds. There are several types of natural backgrounds that can be used in presentations, for example you may download free water & sea backgrounds, realistic photo backgrounds, green backgrounds, backgrounds with forests and trees, backgrounds with flowers.

In this section, you can find creative natural backgrounds and presentation templates.

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Nature Powerpoint templates and Google Slides themes

Discover the best Nature PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themes that you can use in your presentations.

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Nature PowerPoint Presentation And Google Slides Templates

Nature Presentation Slides

Nature encompasses the vast and diverse world of the natural environment, including all living and non-living things found on Earth. It comprises ecosystems, landscapes, flora, and fauna, showcasing the beauty and harmony of the natural world. From majestic mountains and serene forests to vibrant coral reefs and teeming rainforests, nature offers endless wonders to explore and appreciate. It provides essential resources, such as clean air, water, and fertile soil, while also offering opportunities for recreation, inspiration, and solace. With this customizable template, you can capture the essence of nature's splendor and raise awareness about the importance of preserving and protecting our precious natural heritage.

Features of the templates:

• 100 % customizable slides and easy to download.
• Slides available in different nodes & colors.
• Slide contained in 16:9 and 4:3 format.
• Easy to change the slide colors quickly.
• Well-crafted template with instant download facility.
• Beautiful template with an attractive layout helps to make a catchy presentation.
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Enjoying Nature May Reduce Inflammation

Research increasingly shows that contact with nature can have positive effects on mental and physical health, such as increasing positive emotions, or reducing obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. However, few studies have linked nature engagement to specific biological processes that might explain these health benefits. Additionally, much of the research about nature connection has been done outside the US, raising questions of whether results apply in the American cultural context. To address these issues, this study looked at nature engagement in a nationally representative sample of over 1200 US adults from MIDUS 2, to see how it affects inflammation, which is associated with numerous aging-related diseases.

Nature engagement was measured by how often in the last month (never, 1-6, or 7+ times) participants reported that they:

• appreciated nature
• breathed clean air
• saw beautiful scenery.

Unlike other studies, researchers also assessed the quality of the nature experience, with participants indicating if it was:

• neutral or unpleasant
• somewhat pleasant
• very pleasant.

Blood samples were taken to measure inflammation via levels of IL-6, CRP, and fibrinogen. High levels of these proteins indicate the presence of the systemic inflammation that is associated with chronic diseases such as cancer, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s.

Results showed that:

• People who reported more frequent pleasant encounters with nature had lower levels of inflammation.
• Further analysis showed that this association was only significant for CRP.

These results align with theories indicating that contact with nature can reduce stress and promote positive emotions, and that these positive psychological states can lower inflammation. They suggest that future interventions or public policies that encourage taking the time to enjoy nature may significantly improve health. More research is needed to confirm these findings and to investigate factors that promote or inhibit connections with nature.

Source: Ong, A. D., Cintron, D. W., & Fuligni, G. L. (2024). Engagement with nature and proinflammatory biology. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity , 119 , 51-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2024.03.043

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• Review Article
• Published: 07 May 2024

Mechanisms linking social media use to adolescent mental health vulnerability

• Amy Orben   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2937-4183 1 ,
• Adrian Meier   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8191-2962 2 ,
• Tim Dalgleish   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7304-2231 1 &
• Sarah-Jayne Blakemore 3 , 4  

Nature Reviews Psychology ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Psychiatric disorders
• Science, technology and society

Research linking social media use and adolescent mental health has produced mixed and inconsistent findings and little translational evidence, despite pressure to deliver concrete recommendations for families, schools and policymakers. At the same time, it is widely recognized that developmental changes in behaviour, cognition and neurobiology predispose adolescents to developing socio-emotional disorders. In this Review, we argue that such developmental changes would be a fruitful focus for social media research. Specifically, we review mechanisms by which social media could amplify the developmental changes that increase adolescents’ mental health vulnerability. These mechanisms include changes to behaviour, such as sharing risky content and self-presentation, and changes to cognition, such as modifications in self-concept, social comparison, responsiveness to social feedback and experiences of social exclusion. We also consider neurobiological mechanisms that heighten stress sensitivity and modify reward processing. By focusing on mechanisms by which social media might interact with developmental changes to increase mental health risks, our Review equips researchers with a toolkit of key digital affordances that enables theorizing and studying technology effects despite an ever-changing social media landscape.

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Introduction.

Adolescence is a period marked by profound neurobiological, behavioural and environmental changes that facilitate the transition from familial dependence to independent membership in society 1 , 2 . This critical developmental stage is also characterized by diminished well-being and increased vulnerability to the onset of mental health conditions 3 , 4 , 5 , particularly socio-emotional disorders such as depression, and eating disorders 4 , 6 (Fig. 1 ). Notable symptoms of socio-emotional disorders include heightened negative affect, mood dysregulation and an increased focus on distress or challenges concerning interpersonal relationships, including heightened sensitivity to peers or perceptions of others 6 . Although some risk factors for socio-emotional disorders do not necessarily occur in adolescence (including genetic predispositions, adverse childhood experiences and poverty 7 , 8 , 9 ), the unique developmental characteristics of this period of life can interact with pre-existing vulnerabilities, increasing the risk of disorder onset 10 .

Meta-analytic proportion of age of onset of anxiety (red), obsessive-compulsive disorder (purple), eating disorders (orange), personality disorders (green), schizophrenia (grey) and mood disorders (blue). The peak age of onset (dotted lines) is 5.5 and 15.5 years for anxiety, 14.5 years for obsessive-compulsive disorder, 15.5 years for eating disorders and 20.5 years for personality disorders, schizophrenia and mood disorders. Adapted from ref. 258 , CC BY 4.0 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).

Over the past decade, declines in adolescent mental health have become a great concern 11 , 12 . The prevalence of socio-emotional disorders has increased in the adolescent age range (10–24 years 2 ) 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , leading to mounting pressures on child and adolescent mental health services 16 , 21 , 22 . This increase has not been as pronounced among other age groups when compared with adolescents 20 , 22 , 23 (measured in ref.  20 , ref.  22 and ref.  23 as age 12–25 years, 12–20 years and 18–25 years, respectively), even if some studies have found increases across the entire lifespan 24 , 25 . Although these trends might not be generalizable across the world 26 or to subclinical indicators of distress 15 , similar trends have been found in a range of countries 27 . Declines in adolescent mental health, especially socio-emotional problems, are consistent across datasets and researchers have argued that they are not solely driven by changes in social attitudes, stigma or reporting of distress 28 , 29 .

Concurrently, adolescents’ lives have become increasingly digital, with most young people using social media platforms throughout the day 30 . Ninety-five per cent of UK adolescents aged 15 years use social media 31 , and 50% of US adolescents aged 13–17 years report being almost constantly online 32 . The social media environment impacts adolescent and adult life across many domains (for example, by enabling social communication or changing the way news is accessed) and influences individuals, dyads and larger social systems 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 . Because social media is inherently social and relational 37 , it potentially overlaps and interacts with the developmental changes that make adolescents vulnerable to the onset of mental health problems 38 , 39 (Fig. 2 ). Thus, it has been intensely debated whether the increase in social media use during the past decade has a causal role in the decline of adolescent mental health 40 . Indeed, rapid changes to the environment experienced before and during adolescence might be a fruitful area to explore when examining current mental health trends 41 .

During adolescence, the interaction between genetic programming (yellow), social determinants (red) and environmental factors (blue), as well as the developmental changes discussed in this Review, increases the risk for onset of mental health conditions. Digital environments, mediated behaviours and experiences, and the impact that this technology has on society and economy more generally, are one aspect of the complex forces that might lead to the declines in adolescent mental health observed in the last decade. Adapted from ref. 259 , Springer Nature Limited.

Although there are many environmental changes that could be relevant, a substantial body of research has emerged to investigate the potential link between social media use and declines in adolescent mental health 42 , 43 using various research approaches, including cross-sectional studies 44 , longitudinal observational data analyses 45 , 46 , 47 and experimental studies 48 , 49 . However, the scientific results have been mixed and inconclusive (for reviews, see refs. 43 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ), which has made it difficult to establish evidence-based recommendations, regulations and interventions aimed at ensuring that social media use is not harmful to adolescents 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 .

Many researchers attribute the mixed results to insufficient study specificity. For instance, the relationship between social media use and mental health varies notably across individuals 45 , 58 and developmental time windows 59 . Yet studies often examine adolescents without differentiating them based on age or developmental stage 60 , which prevents systematic accounts of individual and subgroup differences. Additionally, most studies only rely on self-reported measures of time spent on social media 61 , 62 , and overlook more nuanced aspects of social media use such as the nature of the activities 63 and the content or features that users engage with 52 . These factors need to be considered to unpack any broader relationships 35 , 64 , 65 , 66 . Furthermore, the measurement of mental health often conflates positive and negative mental health outcomes as well as various mental health conditions, which could all be differentially related to social media use 52 , 67 .

This research space presents substantial complexity 68 . There is an ever-increasing range of potential combinations of social media predictors, well-being and mental health outcomes and participant groups of varying backgrounds and demographics that can become the target of scientific investigation. However, the pressure to deliver policy and public-facing recommendations and interventions leaves little time to investigate comprehensively each of these combinations. Researchers need to be able to pinpoint quickly the research programmes with the maximum potential to create translational and real-world impact for adolescent mental health.

In this Review, we aim to delineate potential avenues for future research that could lead to concrete interventions to improve adolescent mental health by considering mechanisms at the nexus between pre-existing processes known to increase adolescent mental health vulnerability and digital affordances introduced by social media. First, we describe the affordance approach to understanding the effects of social media. We then draw upon research on adolescent development, mental health and social media to describe behavioural, cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms by which social media use might amplify changes during adolescent development to increase mental health vulnerability during this period of life. The specific mechanisms within each category were chosen because they have a strong evidence base showing that they undergo substantive changes during adolescent development, are implicated in mental health risk and can be modulated by social media affordances. Although the ways in which social media can also improve mental health resilience are not the focus of our Review and therefore are not reviewed fully here, they are briefly discussed in relation to each mechanism. Finally, we discuss future research focused on how to systematically test the intersection between social media and adolescent mental health.

Social media affordances

To study the impact of social media on adolescent mental health, its diverse design elements and highly individualized uses must be conceptualized. Initial research predominately related access to or time spent on social media to mental health outcomes 46 , 69 , 70 . However, social media is not similar to a toxin or nutrient for which each exposure dose has a defined link to a health-related outcome (dose–response relationship) 56 . Social media is a diverse environment that cannot be summarized by the amount of time one spends interacting with it 71 , 72 , and individual experiences are highly varied 45 .

Previous psychological reviews often focused on social media ‘features’ 73 and ‘affordances’ 74 interchangeably. However, these terms have distinct definitions in communication science and information systems research. Social media features are components of the technology intentionally designed to enable users to perform specific actions, such as liking, reposting or uploading a story 75 , 76 . By contrast, affordances describe the perceptions of action possibilities users have when engaging with social media and its features, such as anonymity (the difficulty with which social media users can identify the source of a message) and quantifiability (how countable information is).

The term ‘affordance’ came from ecological psychology and visuomotor research, and was described as mainly determined by human perception 77 . ‘Affordance’ was later adopted for design and human–computer interaction contexts to refer to the action possibilities that are suggested to the user by the technology design 78 . Communication research synthesizes both views. Affordances are now typically understood as the perceived — and therefore flexible — action possibilities of digital environments, which are jointly shaped by the technology’s features and users’ idiosyncratic perceptions of those features 79 .

Latent action possibilities can vary across different users, uses and technologies 79 . For example, ‘stories’ are a feature of Instagram designed to share content between users. Stories can also be described in terms of affordances when users perceive them as a way to determine how long their content remains available on the platform (persistence) or who can see that content (visibility) 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 . Low persistence (also termed ephemerality) and comparatively low visibility can be achieved through a technology feature (Instagram stories), but are not an outcome of technology use itself; they are instead perceived action possibilities that can vary across different technologies, users and designs 79 .

The affordances approach is particularly valuable for theorizing at a level above individual social media apps or specific features, which makes this approach more resilient to technological changes or shifts in platform popularity 79 , 85 . However, the affordances approach can also be related back to specific types of social media by assessing the extent to which certain affordances are ‘built into’ a particular platform through feature design 35 . Furthermore, because affordances depend on individuals’ perceptions and actions, they are more aligned than features with a neurocognitive and behavioural perspective to social media use. Affordances, similar to neurocognitive and behavioural research, emphasize the role of the user (how the technology is perceived, interpreted and used) rather than technology design per se. In this sense, the affordances approach is essential to overcome technological determinism of mental health outcomes, which overly emphasizes the role of technology as the driver of outcomes but overlooks the agency and impact of the people in question 86 . This flexibility and alignment with psychological theory has contributed to the increasing popularity of the affordance approach 35 , 73 , 74 , 85 , 87 and previous reviews have explored relevant social media affordances in the context of interpersonal communication among adults and adolescents 35 , 88 , 89 , adolescent body image concerns 73 and work contexts 33 . Here, we focus on the affordances of social media that are relevant for adolescent development and its intersection with mental health (Table  1 ).

Behavioural mechanisms

Adolescents often use social media differently to adults, engaging with different platforms and features and, potentially, perceiving or making use of affordances in distinctive ways 35 . These usage differences might interact with developmental characteristics and changes to amplify mental health vulnerability (Fig.  3 ). We examine two behavioural mechanisms that might govern the impact of social media use on mental health: risky posting behaviours and self-presentation.

Social media affordances can amplify the impact that common adolescent developmental mechanisms (behavioural, cognitive and neurobiological) have on mental health. At the behavioural level (top), affordances such as permanence and publicness lead to an increased impact of risk-taking behaviour on mental health compared with similar behaviours in non-mediated environments. At the cognitive level (middle), high quantifiability influences the effects of social comparison. At the neurobiological level (bottom), low synchronicity can amplify the effects of stress on the developing brain.

Risky posting behaviour

Sensation-seeking peaks in adolescence and self-regulation abilities are still not fully developed in this period of life 90 . Thus, adolescents often engage in more risky behaviours than other age groups 91 . Adolescents are more likely to take risks in situations involving peers 92 , 93 , perhaps because they are motivated to avoid social exclusion 94 , 95 . Whether adolescent risk-taking behaviour is inherently adaptive or maladaptive is debated. Although some risk-taking behaviours can be adaptive and part of typical development, others can increase mental health vulnerability. For example, data from a prospective UK panel study of more than 5,500 young people showed that engaging in more risky behaviours (including social and health risks) at age 16 years increases the odds of a range of adverse outcomes at age 18 years, such as depression, anxiety and substance abuse 96 .

Social media can increase adolescents’ engagement in risky behaviours both in non-mediated and mediated environments (environments in which the behaviour is executed in or through a technology, such as a mobile phone and social media). First, affordances such as quantifiability in conjunction with visibility and association (the degree with which links between people, between people and content or between a presenter and their audience can be articulated) can promote more risky behaviours in non-mediated environments and in-person social interactions. For example, posts from university students containing references to alcohol gain more likes than posts not referencing alcohol and liking such posts predicts an individual’s subsequent drinking habits 97 . Users expecting likes from their audience are incentivized to engage in riskier posting behaviour (such as more frequent or more extreme posts containing references to alcohol). The relationship between risky online behaviour and offline behaviour is supported by meta-analyses that found a positive correlation between adolescents’ social media use and their engagement in behaviours that might expose them to harm or risk of injury (for example, substance use or risky sexual behaviours) 98 . Further, affordances such as persistence and visibility can mean that risky behaviours in mediated and non-mediated environments remain public for long periods of time, potentially influencing how an adolescent is perceived by peers over the longer term 39 , 99 .

Adolescence can also be a time of more risky social media use. For most forms of semi-public and public social media use, users typically do not know who exactly will be able to see their posts. Thus, adolescents need to self-present to an ‘imagined audience’ 100 and avoid posting the wrong kind of content as the boundaries between different social spheres collapse (context collapse 101 ). However, young people can underestimate the risks of disclosing revealing information in a social media environment 102 . Affordances such as visibility, replicability (social media posts remain in the system and can be screenshotted and shared even if they are later deleted 39 ), association and persistence could heighten the risk of experiencing cyberbullying, victimization and online harassment 103 . For example, adolescents can forward privately received sexual images to larger friendship groups, increasing the risk of online harassment over the subject of the sexual images 104 . Further, low bandwidth (a relative lack of socio-emotional cues) and high anonymity have the potential to disinhibit interactions between users and make behaviours and reactions more extreme 105 , 106 . For example, anonymity was associated with more trolling behaviours during an online group discussion in an experiment with 242 undergraduate students 107 .

Thus, social media might drive more risky behaviours in both mediated and non-mediated contexts, increasing mental health vulnerability. However, the evidence is still not clear cut and often discounts adolescent agency and understanding. For example, mixed-methods research has shown that young people often understand the risks of posting private or sexual content and use social media apps that ensure that posts are deleted and inaccessible after short periods of time to counteract them 39 (even though posts can still be captured in the meantime). Future work will therefore need to investigate how adolescents understand and balance such risks and how such processes relate to social media’s impact on mental health.

Self-presentation and identity

The adolescent period is characterized by an abundance of self-presentation activities on social media 74 , where the drive to present oneself becomes a fundamental motivation for engagement 108 . These activities include disclosing, concealing and modifying one’s true self, and might involve deception, to convey a desired impression to an audience 109 . Compared with adults, adolescents more frequently take part in self-presentation 102 , which can encompass both realistic and idealized portrayals of themselves 110 . In adults, authentic self-presentation has been associated with increased well-being, and inauthentic presentation (such as when a person describes themselves in ways not aligned with their true self) has been associated with decreased well-being 111 , 112 , 113 .

Several social media affordances shape the self-presentation behaviours of adolescents. For example, the editability of social media profiles enables users to curate their online identity 84 , 114 . Editability is further enhanced by highly visible (public) self-presentations. Additionally, the constant availability of social media platforms enables adolescents to access and engage with their profiles at any time, and provides them with rapid quantitative feedback about their popularity among peers 89 , 115 . People receive more direct and public feedback on their self-presentation on social media than in other types of environment 116 , 117 . The affordances associated with self-presentation can have a particular impact during adolescence, a period characterized by identity development and exploration.

Social media environments might provide more opportunities than offline environments for shaping one’s identity. Indeed, public self-presentation has been found to invoke more prominent identity shifts (substantial changes in identity) compared with private self-presentation 118 , 119 . Concerns have been raised that higher Internet use is associated with decreased self-concept clarity. Only one study of 101 adolescents as well as adults reviewed in a 2021 meta-analysis 120 showed that the intensity of Facebook use (measured by the Facebook Intensity Scale) predicted a longitudinal decline in self-concept clarity 3 months later, but the converse was not the case and changes in self-concept clarity did not predict Facebook use 121 . This result is still not enough to show a causal relationship 121 . Further, the affordances of persistence and replicability could also curtail adolescents’ ability to explore their identity freely 122 .

By contrast, qualitative research has highlighted that social media enables adolescents to broaden their horizons, explore their identity and identify and reaffirm their values 123 . Social media can help self-presentation by enabling adolescents to elaborate on various aspects of their identity, such as ethnicity and race 124 or sexuality 125 . Social media affordances such as editability and visibility can also facilitate this process. Adolescents can modify and curate self-presentations online, try out new identities or express previously undisclosed aspects of their identity 126 , 127 . They can leverage social media affordances to present different facets of themselves to various social groups by using different profiles, platforms and self-censorship and curation of posts 128 , 129 . Presenting and exploring different aspects of one’s identity can have mental health implications for minority teens. Emerging research shows a positive correlation between well-being and problematic Internet use in transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse adolescents (age 13–18 years), and positive sentiment has been associated with online identity disclosures in transgender individuals with supportive networks (both adolescent and adult) 130 , 131 .

Cognitive mechanisms

Adolescents and adults might experience different socio-cognitive impacts from the same social media activity. In this section, we review four cognitive mechanisms via which social media and its affordances might influence the link between adolescent development and mental health vulnerabilities (Fig.  3 ). These mechanisms (self-concept development, social comparison, social feedback and exclusion) roughly align with a previous review that examined self-esteem and social media use 115 .

Self-concept development

Self-concept refers to a person’s beliefs and evaluations about their own qualities and traits 132 , which first develops and becomes more complex throughout childhood and then accelerates its development during adolescence 133 , 134 , 135 . Self-concept is shaped by socio-emotional processes such as self-appraisal and social feedback 134 . A negative and unstable self-concept has been associated with negative mental health outcomes 136 , 137 .

Perspective-taking abilities also develop during adolescence 133 , 138 , 139 , as does the processing of self-relevant stimuli (measured by self-referential memory tasks, which assess memory for self-referential trait adjectives 140 , 141 ). During adolescence, direct self-evaluations and reflected self-evaluations (how someone thinks others evaluate them) become more similar. Further, self-evaluations have a distinct positive bias during childhood, but this positivity bias decreases in adolescence as evaluations of the self are integrated with judgements of other people’s perspectives 142 . Indeed, negative self-evaluations peak in late adolescence (around age 19 years) 140 .

The impact of social media on the development of self-concept could be heightened during adolescence because of affordances such as personalization of content 143 (the degree to which content can be tailored to fit the identity, preferences or expectations of the receiver), which adapts the information young people are exposed to. Other affordances with similar impacts are quantifiability, availability (the accessibility of the technology as well as the user’s accessibility through the technology) and public visibility of interactions 89 , which render the evaluations of others more prominent and omnipresent. The prominence of social evaluation can pose long-term risks to mental health under certain conditions and for some users 144 , 145 . For example, receiving negative evaluations from others or being exposed to cyberbullying behaviours 146 , 147 can, potentially, have heightened impact at times of self-concept development.

A pioneering cross-sectional study of 150 adolescents showed that direct self-evaluations are more similar to reflected self-evaluations, and self-evaluations are more negative, in adolescents aged 11–21 years who estimate spending more time on social media 148 . Further, longitudinal data have shown bidirectional negative links between social media use and satisfaction with domains of the self (such as satisfaction with family, friends or schoolwork) 47 .

Although large-scale evidence is still unavailable, these findings raise the interesting prospect that social media might have a negative influence on perspective-taking and self-concept. There is less evidence for the potential positive influence of social media on these aspects of adolescent development, demonstrating an important research gap. Some researchers hypothesize that social media enables self-concept unification because it provides ample opportunity to find validation 89 . Research has also discussed how algorithmic curation of personalized social media feeds (for example, TikTok algorithms tailoring videos viewed to the user’s interests) enables users to reflect on their self-concept by being exposed to others’ experiences and perspectives 143 , an area where future research can provide important insights.

Social comparison

Social comparison (thinking about information about other people in relation to the self 149 ) also influences self-concept development and becomes particularly important during adolescence 133 , 150 . There are a range of social media affordances that can amplify the impact of social comparison on mental health. For example, quantifiability enables like or follower counts to be easily compared with others as a sign of status, which facilitates social ranking 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 . Studies of older adolescents and adults aged, on average, 20 years have also found that the number of likes or reactions received predict, in part, how successful users judge their self-presentation posts on Facebook 155 . Furthermore, personalization enables the content that users see on social media to be curated so as to be highly relevant and interesting for them, which should intensify comparisons. For example, an adolescent interested in sports and fitness content will receive personalized recommendations fitting those interests, which should increase the likelihood of comparisons with people portrayed in this content. In turn, the affordance of association can help adolescents surround themselves with similar peers and public personae online, enhancing social comparison effects 63 , 156 . Being able to edit posts (via the affordance of editability) has been argued to contribute to the positivity bias on social media: what is portrayed online is often more positive than the offline experience. Thus, upward comparisons are more likely to happen in online spaces than downward or lateral comparisons 157 . Lastly, the verifiability of others’ idealized self-presentations is often low, meaning that users have insufficient cues to gauge their authenticity 158 .

Engaging in comparisons on social media has been associated with depression in correlational studies 159 . Furthermore, qualitative research has shown that not receiving as many positive evaluations as expected (or if positive evaluations are not provided quickly enough) increases negative emotions in children and adolescents aged between age 9 and 19 years 39 . This result aligns with a reinforcement learning modelling study of Instagram data, which found that the likes a user receives on their own posts become less valuable and less predictive of future posting behaviour if others in their network receive more likes on their posts 160 . Although this study did not measure mood or mental health, it shows that the value of the likes are not static but inherently social; their impact depends on how many are typically received by other people in the same network.

Among the different types of social comparison that adolescents engage in (comparing one’s achievements, social status or lifestyle), the most substantial concerns have been raised about body-related comparisons. One review suggested that social media affordances create a ‘perfect storm’ for body image concerns that can contribute to both socio-emotional and eating disorders 73 . Social media affordances might increase young people’s focus on other people’s appearances as well as on their own appearance by showing idealized, highly edited images, providing quantified feedback and making the ability to associate and compare oneself with peers constantly available 161 , 162 . The latter puts adolescents who are less popular or receive less social support at particular risk of low self-image and social distress 35 .

Affordances enable more prominent and explicit social comparisons in social media environments relative to offline environments 158 , 159 , 163 , 164 , 165 . However, this association could have a positive impact on mental health 164 , 166 . Initial evidence suggests beneficial outcomes of upward comparisons on social media, which can motivate behaviour change and yield positive downstream effects on mental health 164 , 166 . Positive motivational effects (inspiration) have been observed among young adults for topics such as travelling and exploring nature, as well as fitness and other health behaviours, which can all improve mental health 167 . Importantly, inspiration experiences are not a niche phenomenon on social media: an experience sampling study of 353 Dutch adolescents (mean age 13–15 years) found that participants reported some level of social media-induced inspiration in 33% of the times they were asked to report on this over the course of 3 weeks 168 . Several experimental and longitudinal studies show that inspiration is linked to upward comparison on social media 157 , 164 , 166 . However, the positive, motivating side of social comparison on social media has only been examined in a few studies and requires additional investigation.

Social feedback

Adolescence is also a period of social reorientation, when peers tend to become more important than family 169 , peer acceptance becomes increasingly relevant 170 , 171 , 172 and young people spend increasing amounts of time with peers 173 . In parallel, there is a heightened sensitivity to negative socio-emotional or self-referential cues 140 , 174 , higher expectation of being rejected by others 175 and internalization of such rejection 142 , 176 compared with other phases in life development. A meta-analysis of both adolescents and adults found that oversensitivity to social rejection is moderately associated with both depression and anxiety 177 .

Social media affordances might amplify the potential impact of social feedback on mental health. Wanting to be accepted by peers and increased susceptibility to social rewards could be a motivator for using social media in the first place 178 . Indeed, receiving likes as social reward activated areas of the brain (such as the nucleus accumbens) that are also activated by monetary reward 179 . Quantifiability amplifies peer acceptance and rejection (via like counts), and social rejection has been linked to adverse mental health outcomes 170 , 180 , 181 , 182 . Social media can also increase feelings of being evaluated, the risk of social rejection and rumination about potential rejection due to affordances such as quantifiability, synchronicity (the degree to which an interaction happens in real time) and variability of social rewards (the degree to which social interaction and feedback occur on variable time schedules). For example, one study of undergraduate students found that active communication such as messaging was associated with feeling better after Facebook use; however, this was not the case if the communication led to negative feelings such as rumination (for example, after no responses to the messages) 183 .

In a study assessing threatened social evaluation online 184 , participants were asked to record a statement about themselves and were told their statements would be rated by others. To increase the authenticity of the threat, participants were asked to rate other people’s recordings. Threatened social evaluation online in this study decreased mood, most prominently in people with high sensitivity to social rejection. Adolescents who are more sensitive to social rejection report more severe depressive symptoms and maladaptive ruminative brooding in both mediated and non-mediated social environments, and this association is most prominent in early adolescence 185 . Not receiving as much online social approval as peers led to more severe depressive symptoms in a study of American ninth-grade adolescents (between age 14 and 15 years), especially those who were already experiencing peer victimization 153 . Furthermore, individuals with lower self-esteem post more negative and less positive content than individuals with higher self-esteem. Posted negative content receives less social reward and recognition from others than positive content, possibly creating a vicious cycle 186 . Negative experiences pertaining to social exclusion and status are also risk factors for socio-emotional disorders 180 .

The impact of social media experiences on self-esteem can be very heterogeneous, varying substantially across individuals. As a benefit, positive social feedback obtained via social media can increase users’ self-esteem 115 , an association also found among adolescents 187 . For instance, receiving likes on one’s profile or posted photographs can bolster self-esteem in the short term 144 , 188 . A study linking behavioural data and self-reports from Facebook users found that receiving quick responses on public posts increased a sense of social support and decreased loneliness 189 . Furthermore, a review of reviews consistently documented that users who report more social media use also perceive themselves to have more social resources and support online 52 , although this association has mostly been studied among young adults using social network sites such as Facebook. Whether such social feedback benefits extend to adolescents’ use of platforms centred on content consumption (such as TikTok or Instagram) is an open question.

Social inclusion and exclusion

Adolescents are more sensitive to the negative emotional impacts of being excluded than are adults 170 , 190 . It has been proposed that, as the importance of social affiliation increases during this period of life 134 , 191 , 192 , adolescents are more sensitive to a range of social stimuli, regardless of valence 193 . These include social feedback (such as compliments or likes) 95 , 194 , negative socio-emotional cues (such as negative facial expressions or social exclusion) 174 and social rejection 172 , 185 . By contrast, social inclusion (via friendships in adolescence) is protective against emotional disorders 195 and more social support is related to higher adolescent well-being 196 .

Experiencing ostracism and exclusion online decreases self-esteem and positive emotion 197 . This association has been found in vignette experiments where participants received no, only a few or a lot of likes 198 , or experiments that used mock-ups of social media sites where others received more likes than participants 153 . Being ostracized (not receiving attention or feedback) or rejected through social media features (receiving dislikes and no likes) is also associated with a reduced sense of belonging, meaningfulness, self-esteem and control 199 . Similar results were found when ostracism was experienced over messaging apps, such as not receiving a reply via WhatsApp 200 .

Evidence on whether social media also enables adolescents to experience positive social inclusion is mostly indirect and mixed. Some longitudinal surveys have found that prosocial feedback received on social media during major life events (such as university admissions) helps to buffer against stress 201 . Adult participants of a longitudinal study reported that social media offered more informational support than offline contexts, but offline contexts more often offered emotional or instrumental support 202 . Higher social network site use is, on average, associated with a perception of having more social resources and support in adults (for an overview of meta-analyses, see ref. 52 ). However, most of these studies have not investigated social support among adolescents, and it is unclear whether early findings (for example, on Facebook or Twitter) generalize to a social media landscape more strongly characterized by content consumption than social interaction (such as Instagram or TikTok).

Still, a review of social media use and offline interpersonal outcomes among adolescents documents both positive (sense of belonging and social capital) and negative (alienation from peers and perceived isolation) correlates 203 . Experience sampling research on emotional support among young adults has further shown that online social support is received and perceived as effective, and its perceived effectiveness is similar to in-person social support 204 . Social media use also has complex associations with friendship closeness among adolescents. For example, one experience sampling study found that greater use of WhatsApp or Instagram is associated with higher friendship closeness among adolescents; however, within-person examinations over time showed small negative associations 205 .

Neurobiological mechanisms

The long-term impact of environmental changes such as social media use on mental health might be amplified because adolescence is a period of considerable neurobiological development 95 (Fig.  3 ). During adolescence, overall cortical grey matter declines and white matter increases 206 , 207 . Development is particularly protracted in brain regions associated with social cognition and executive functions such as planning, decision-making and inhibiting prepotent responses. The changes in grey and white matter are thought to reflect axonal growth, myelination and synaptic reorganization, which are mechanisms of neuroplasticity influenced by the environment 208 . For example, research in rodents has demonstrated that adolescence is a sensitive period for social input, and that social isolation in adolescence has unique and more deleterious consequences for neural, behavioural and mental health development than social isolation before puberty or in adulthood 206 , 209 . There is evidence that brain regions involved in motivation and reward show greater activation to rewarding and motivational stimuli (such as appetitive stimuli and the presence of peers) in early and/or mid adolescence compared with other age groups 210 , 211 , 212 , 213 , 214 .

Little is known about the potential links between social media and neurodevelopment due to the paucity of research investigating these associations. Furthermore, causal chains (for example, social media increasing stress, which in turn influences the brain) have not yet been accurately delineated. However, it would be amiss not to recognize that brain development during adolescence forms part of the biological basis of mental health vulnerability and should therefore be considered. Indeed, the brain is proposed to be particularly plastic in adolescence and susceptible to environmental stimuli, both positive and negative 208 . Thus, even if adults and adolescents experienced the same affective consequences from social media use (such as increases in peer comparison or stress), these consequences might have a greater impact in adolescence.

A cross-sectional study (with some longitudinal elements) suggested that habitual checking of social media (for example, checking for rewards such as likes) might exacerbate reward sensitivity processes, leading to long-term hypersensitization of the reward system 215 . Specifically, frequently checking social media was associated with reduced activation in brain regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the amygdala in response to anticipated social feedback in young people. Brain activation during the same social feedback task was measured over subsequent years. Upon follow-up, anticipating feedback was associated with increased activation of the same brain regions among the individuals who checked social media frequently initially 215 . Although longitudinal brain imaging measurements enabled trajectories of brain development to be specified, the measures of social media use were only acquired once in the first wave of data collection. The study therefore cannot account for confounds such as personality traits, which might influence both social media checking behaviours and brain development. Other studies of digital screen use and brain development have found no impact on adolescent functional brain organization 216 .

Brain development and heightened neuroplasticity 208 render adolescence a particularly sensitive period with potentially long-term impacts into adulthood. It is possible that social media affordances that underpin increased checking and reward-seeking behaviours (such as quantifiability, variability of social rewards and permanent availability of peers) might have long-term consequences on reward processing when experienced during adolescence. However, this suggestion is still speculative and not backed up by evidence 217 .

Stress is another example of the potential amplifying effect of social media on adolescent mental health vulnerability due to neural development. Adolescents show higher stress reactivity because of maturational changes to, and increased reactivity in, the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis 218 , 219 . Compared with children and adults, adolescents experience an increase in self-consciousness and associated emotional states such as self-reported embarrassment and related physiological measures of arousal (such as skin conductance), and heightened neural response patterns compared with adults, when being evaluated or observed by peers 220 . Similarly, adolescents (age 13–17 years) show higher stress responses (higher levels of cortisol or blood pressure) compared with children (age 7–12 years) when they perform in front of others or experience social rejection 221 .

Such changes in adolescence might confer heightened risk for the onset of mental health conditions, especially socio-emotional disorders 6 . Both adolescent rodents and humans show prolonged hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal activation after experiencing stress compared with conspecifics of different ages 218 , 219 . In animal models, stress during adolescence has been shown to result in increased anxiety levels in adulthood 222 and alterations in emotional and cognitive development 223 . Furthermore, human studies have linked stress in adolescence to a higher risk of mental health disorder onset 218 and reviews of cross-species work have illustrated a range of brain changes due to adolescent stress 224 , 225 .

There is still little conclusive neurobiological evidence about social media use and stress, and a lack of understanding about which affordances might be involved (although there has been a range of work studying digital stress; Box  1 ). Studies of changes in cortisol levels or hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal functioning and their relation to social media use have been mixed and inconclusive 226 , 227 . These results could be due to the challenge of studying stress responses in adolescents, particularly as cortisol fluctuates across the day and one-point readings can be unreliable. However, the increased stress sensitivity during the adolescent developmental period might mean that social media use can have a long-term influence on mental health due to neurobiological mechanisms. These processes are therefore important to understand in future research.

Box 1 Digital stress

Digital stress is not a unified construct. Thematic content analyses have categorized digital stress into type I stressors (for example, mean attacks, cyberbullying or shaming) and type II stressors (for example, interpersonal stress due to pressure to stay available) 260 . Other reviews have noted its complexity, and categorized digital stress into availability stress (stress that results from having to be constantly available), approval anxiety (anxiety regarding others’ reaction to their own profile, posts or activities online), fear of missing out (stress about being absent from or not experiencing others’ rewarding experiences) and communication overload (stress due to the scale, intensity and frequency of online communication) 261 .

Digital stress has been systematically linked to negative mental health outcomes. Higher digital stress was longitudinally associated with higher depressive symptoms in a questionnaire study 262 . Higher social media stress was also longitudinally related to poorer sleep outcomes in girls (but not boys) 263 . Studies and reviews have linked cyberbullying victimization (a highly stressful experience) to decreased mental health outcomes such as depression, and psychosocial outcomes such as self-esteem 103 , 146 , 147 , 264 , 265 . A systematic review of both adolescents and adults found a medium association ( r  = 0.26–0.34) between different components of digital stress and psychological distress outcomes such as anxiety, depression or loneliness, which was not moderated by age or sex (except for connection overload) 266 . However, the causal structure giving rise to such results is still far from clear. For example, surveys have linked higher stress levels to more problematic social media use and fear of missing out 267 , 268 .

Thus, the impact of digital stress on mental health is probably complex and influenced by the type of digital stressor and various affordances. For example, visibility and availability increase fear of negative public evaluation 269 and high availability and a social norm of responding quickly to messages drive constant monitoring in adolescents due to a persistent fear of upsetting friends 270 .

A range of relevant evidence from qualitative and quantitative studies documents that adolescents often ruminate about online interactions and messages. For example, online salience (constantly thinking about communication, content or events happening online) was positively associated with stress on both between-person and within-person levels in a cross-sectional quota sample of adults and three diary studies of young adults 271 , 272 . Online salience has also been associated with lower well-being in a pre-registered study of momentary self-reports from young adults with logged online behaviours. However, this study also noted that positive thoughts were related to higher well-being 273 . Furthermore, although some studies found no associations between the amount of communication and digital stress 272 , a cross-sectional study found that younger users’ (age 14–34 years and 35–49 years) perception of social pressure to be constantly available was related to communication load (measured by questions about the amount of use, as well as the urge to check email and social media) and Internet multitasking, whereas this was not the case for older users aged 50–85 years 274 . By contrast, communication load and perceived stress were associated only among older users.

Summary and future directions

To help to understand the potential role of social media in the decline of adolescent mental health over the past decade, researchers should study the mechanisms linking social media, adolescent development and mental health. Specifically, social media environments might amplify the socio-cognitive processes that render adolescents more vulnerable to mental health conditions in the first place. We outline various mechanisms at three levels of adolescent development — behavioural, cognitive and neurobiological — that could be involved in the decline of adolescent mental health as a function of social media engagement. To do so, we delineate specific social media affordances, such as quantification of social feedback or anonymity, which can also have positive impacts on mental health.

Our Review sets out clear recommendations for future research on the intersection of social media and adolescent mental health. The foundation of this research lies in the existing literature investigating the underlying processes that heighten adolescents’ risk of developing socio-emotional disorders. Zooming in on the potential mechanistic targets impacted by social media uses and affordances will produce specific research questions to facilitate controlled and systematic scientific inquiry relevant for intervention and translation. This approach encourages researchers to pinpoint the mechanisms and levels of explanation they want to include and will enable them to identify what factors to additionally consider, such as participants’ age 60 , the specific mental health outcomes being measured, the types of social media being examined and the populations under study 52 , 228 . Targeted and effective research should prioritize the most promising areas of study and acknowledge that all research approaches have inherent limitations 229 . Researchers must embrace methodological diversity, which in turn will facilitate triangulation. Surveys, experience sampling designs in conjunction with digital trace data, as well as experimental or neuroimaging paradigms and computational modelling (such as reinforcement learning) can all be used to address research questions comprehensively 230 . Employing such a multi-method approach enables the convergence of evidence and strengthens the reliability of findings 231 .

Mental health and developmental research can also become more applicable to the study of social media by considering how studies might already be exploring features of the digital environment, such as its design features and perceived affordances. Many cognitive neuroscience studies that investigate social processes and mental health during adolescence necessarily design tasks that can be completed in controlled experimental or brain scanning environments. Consequently, they tend to focus on digitally mediated interactions. However, researchers conceptualize and generalize their results to face-to-face interactions. For example, it is common across the discipline to not explicitly describe the interactions under study as being about social processes in digital environments (such as studies that assess social feedback based on the number of ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ received in social media 232 ). Considering whether cognitive neuroscience studies include key affordances of mediated (or non-mediated) environments, and discussing these in published papers, will make studies searchable within the field of social media research, enabling researchers to broaden the impact of their work and systematically specify generalizations to offline environments 233 .

To bridge the gap between knowledge about mediated and non-mediated social environments, it is essential to directly compare the two 233 . It is often assumed that negative experiences online have a detrimental impact on mental health. However, it remains unclear whether this mechanism is present in both mediated and non-mediated spaces or whether it is specific to the mediated context. For instance, our Review highlights that the quantification of social feedback through likes is an important affordance of social media 160 . Feedback on social media platforms might therefore elicit a greater sense of certainty because it is quantified compared with the more subjective and open-to-interpretation feedback received face to face 151 . Conducting experiments in which participants receive feedback that is more or less quantified and uncertain, specifically designed to compare mediated and non-mediated environments, would provide valuable insights. Such research efforts could also establish connections with computational neuroscience studies demonstrating that people tend to learn faster from stimuli that are less uncertain 234 .

We have chosen not to make recommendations concerning interventions targeting social media use to improve adolescent mental health for several reasons. First, we did not fully consider the bidirectional interactions between environment and development 35 , 235 , or the factors modulating adolescents’ differential susceptibility to the effects of social media 45 , 58 . For example, mental health status also influences how social media is used 47 , 58 , 59 , 236 , 237 (Box  2 ). These bidirectional interactions could be addressed using network or complexity science approaches 238 . Second, we do not yet know how the potential mechanisms by which social media might increase mental health vulnerability compare in magnitude, importance, scale and ease and/or cost of intervention with other factors and mechanisms that are already well known to influence mental health, such as poverty or loneliness. Last, social media use will probably interact with these predictors in ways that have not been delineated and can also support mental health resilience (for example, through social support or online self-help programmes). These complexities should be considered in future research, which will need to pinpoint not just the existence of mechanisms but their relative importance, to identify policy and intervention priorities.

Our Review has used a broad definition of mental health. Focusing on specific diagnostic or transdiagnostic symptomatology might reveal different mechanisms of interest. Furthermore, our Review is limited to mechanisms related to behaviour and neurocognitive development, disregarding other levels of explanation (such as genetics and culture) 34 , and also studying predominately Western-centric samples 239 . Mechanisms do not operate solely in linear pathways but exist within networks of interacting risk and resilience factors, characterized by non-linear and complex dynamics across diverse timescales 9 . Mechanisms and predisposing factors can interact and combine, amplifying mental health vulnerability. Mental health can be considered a dynamic system in which gradual changes to external conditions can have substantial downstream consequences due to system properties such as feedback loops 240 , 241 , 242 . These consequences are especially prominent in times of change and pre-existing vulnerability, such as adolescence 10 .

Indeed, if social media is a contributing factor to the current decline in adolescent mental health, as is commonly assumed, then it is important to identify and investigate mechanisms that are specifically tailored to the adolescent age range and make the case for why they matter. Without a thorough examination of these mechanisms and policy analysis to indicate whether they should be a priority to address, there is insufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that social media is the primary — or even just an influential and important — driver of mental health declines. Researchers need to stop studying social media as monolithic and uniform, and instead study its features, affordances and outcomes by leveraging a range of methods including experiments, questionnaires, qualitative research and industry data. Ultimately, this comprehensive approach will enhance researchers’ ability to address the potential challenges that the digital era poses on adolescent mental health.

Box 2 Effects of mental health on social media use

Although a lot of scientific discussion has focused on the impact of social media use on mental health, cross-sectional studies cannot differentiate between whether social media use is influencing mental health or mental health is influencing social media use, or a third factor is influencing both 51 . It is likely that mental health status influences social media use creating reinforcing cycles of behaviour, something that has been considered in the communication sciences literature under the term ‘transactional media effects’ 58 , 236 , 237 . According to communication science models, media use and its consequences are components of reciprocal processes 275 .

There are similar models in mental health research. For example, people’s moods influence their judgements of events, which can lead to self-perpetuating cycles of negativity (or positivity); a mechanism called ‘mood congruency’ 276 . Behavioural studies have also shown that people experiencing poor mental health behave in ways that decrease their opportunity to experience environmental reward such as social activities, maintaining poor mental health 277 , 278 . Although for many people these behaviours are a form of coping (for example, by avoiding stressful circumstances), they often worsen symptoms of mental health conditions 279 .

Some longitudinal studies found that a decrease in adolescent well-being predicted an increase in social media use 1 year later 47 , 59 . However, other studies have found no relationships between well-being and social media use over long-term or daily time windows 45 , 46 . One reason behind the heterogeneity of the results could be that how mental health impacts social media use is highly individual 45 , 280 .

Knowledge on the impact of mental health on social media use is still in its infancy and studies struggle to reach coherent conclusions. However, findings from the mental health literature can be used to generate hypotheses about how aspects of mental health might impact social media use. For example, it has been repeatedly found that young people with anxiety or eating disorders engage in more social comparisons than individuals without these disorders 281 , 282 , and adolescents with depression report more unfavourable social comparisons on social media than adolescents without depression 283 . Similar results have been found for social feedback seeking (for example, reassurance), including in social media environments 159 . Specifically, depressive symptoms were more associated with social comparison and feedback seeking, and these associations were stronger in women and in adolescents who were less popular. Individuals from the general population with lower self-esteem post more negative and less positive content than individuals with higher self-esteem, which in turn is associated with receiving less positive feedback from others 185 . There are therefore a wide range of possible ways in which diverse aspects of mental health might influence specific facets of how social media is used — and, in turn, how it ends up impacting the user.

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Acknowledgements

A.O. and T.D. were funded by the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00030/13). A.O. was funded by the Jacobs Foundation and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/X034925/1). S.-J.B. is funded by Wellcome (grant numbers WT107496/Z/15/Z and WT227882/Z/23/Z), the MRC, the Jacobs Foundation, the Wellspring Foundation and the University of Cambridge.

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Adrian Meier

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A.O. conceptualized the manuscript; A.O and A.M wrote the original draft; A.O., A.M., T.D. and S.-J.B. reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors contributed substantially to discussion of the content, and reviewed and/or edited the manuscript before submission.

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Orben, A., Meier, A., Dalgleish, T. et al. Mechanisms linking social media use to adolescent mental health vulnerability. Nat Rev Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00307-y

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Published : 07 May 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00307-y

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