The Irish Health Survey includes questions about the amount of time spent on social media each day and if it had an impact on your mental health.
Younger adults spent the most time on social media with seven in 10 (71.1%) of those aged 15 to 24 years saying they spent more than two hours per day on it. This compares with five in ten (48.2%) of those aged 25 to 34 years and three in ten (31.7%) for those aged 35 to 44 years.
Social media users were asked if spending time on it had a positive or negative impact on their mental health. They could also say if it had no impact or if they didn’t know.
Among the younger age groups, females were more likely to report that using social media had a negative impact on their mental health. One third (32.5%) of females aged 15 to 24 years who used social media reported that it had a negative impact on their mental health compared with a quarter (24.9%) of males the same age.
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