Is social media more harmful or helpful?

Social media is both harmful and helpful—the net effect depends heavily on how it's used, by whom, by age group, and in what context. Large-scale evidence shows clear benefits (connection, information, mobilization, economic opportunity) alongside well-documented harms (mental health risks, misinformation, addiction-like patterns, privacy erosion, and societal polarization). For many users—especially adolescents—the downsides currently appear to outweigh the upsides on average, but this is not universal and can be mitigated.