Social media use in Australia is high, with some people addicted to their phones and other devices, spending hours upon hours scrolling on social media. There is growing concern that social media use, particularly at a young age, could have a negative impact on mental health and wellbeing. While this is a contentious area of study with evidence showing both positive and negative impacts of social media use (as shown here) and it is not understood if this relationship is causal or not.
Almost all young people (98%) regularly use at least one social media platform.
Young people were most likely to use multiple different social media platforms. Just over a quarter of young people (27%) used four different social media platforms.
20% of young people use 1 or 2 social media platforms, 54% use 3 or 4 platforms, 18% use 5 or 6 platforms and 56% use 7 or 8 platforms.
Almost one in five (18%) young people are active users of social media posting or sharing at least daily. 16% share or post almost everyday/ a few times a week; 45% a few times a month or less; and 21% never share or post on social media.
On a scale of completely dissatisfied (0) to completely satisfied (10) the mean life satisfaction score was 6.21 meaning that young people are slightly more satisfied with their lives than not.
Males had the highest levels of life satisfaction. Males had an average score of 6.54; with 6.10 for females and 5.19 for young people who identified as non-binary/other gender.
The most popular social media platform used by young people was Instagram (86%) followed by Snapchat (76%) and TikTok (72%). More males used Reddit and Twitch, while more females used Instagram and TikTok; and more young people who identify as non-binary/other gender used Discord.
Males and young people who identified as non-binary/other gender were more likely to use a variety of social media platforms, with 9% of males and 8% of non-binary/other gender reported using 7 or 8 platforms, while only 2% of females used 7 or 8 platforms.
- 22% of males use 1 or 2 platforms; 45 % use 3 or 4 platforms; and 21% use 5 or 6 platforms.
- 18% of females use 1 or 2 platforms; 63% use 3 or 4 platforms; and 15% use 5 or 6 platforms.
- 28% of non-binary/other gender use 1 or 3 platforms; 26% use 3 or 4 platforms; and 36% use 5 or 6 platforms.
Of the young people who have at least one social media account most are not highly active posters. Males were more likely to be passive users of social media with just over a quarter (27%) of males never posting or sharing, while 16% of females and 11% of those who identified as non-binary/other gender reported never posting or sharing.
- 21% of young people reported never posting or sharing;
- 45% reported they were posting or sharing less than once a month;
- 16% post a few times a week; and
- 18% are posting at least everyday.
The figures above show differences in life satisfaction by the use of each social media platform by gender. There were no significant variation in life satisfaction by Instagram and Snapchat use, most likely as there was a high proportion of young people using these platforms.
Discord use was associated with the poorest life satisfaction for males. While for females, TikTok use was associated with the poorest life satisfaction.
While use of many platforms was associated with poorer life satisfaction, Twitter/X users had greater life satisfaction for young people who identified as non-binary/other gender.
However for those who identified as male, Twitter/X users had lower life satisfaction (mean life satisfaction 6.41 for Twitter/X users vs 6.56 for non-Twitter/X users); while in contrast young people who identified as non-binary/other gender who used Twitter/X had greater life satisfaction than those who were not using this platform ( mean life satisfaction 5.65 for Twitter/X users vs 4.71 for non-Twitter/X user).
Facebook users had higher life satisfaction compared to non-users for all genders .
Males who used Facebook had an average life satisfaction of 6.66 compared to non-users of 6.44 for non-Facebook users. Females who used Facebook also had higher life satisfaction than non-users (mean life satisfaction 6.25 vs 6.00) as did those who identified as non-binary/other gender (mean life satisfaction 5.88 for Facebook users vs 4.76 for non-Facebook users).
TikTok, Reddit and Twitch users who identified as male or female all had lower life satisfaction than those who did not use these platforms.
Discord users had lower life satisfaction scores than non-users for non-binary/other gender, females and males.