The rise of the Internet and the more recent upcoming of social media have been the key developments of the last two decades respectively. The popularity of these two developments among their users has been paired with a critical view from society on their impact, for example, pertaining to the possible negative effects of social media use among youngsters in particular.

In a growing field of research on the detrimental impact of social media use, less focus has been given to the potential of social media in instigating positive effects when used as a setting for endorsement and interventions on health and media literacy. Here, the accessibility of information and the possibility of interaction between people should also be considered. Their wide popularity and frequent use make social media and the Internet interesting domains for research into the two-sided influence on human well-being. Being easy to use and always available, social media can provide us with solutions for the big challenges regarding youngsters’ well-being we are facing at the moment.

Take a look at some examples of our projects in this domain:

• Social media use among women with eating disorder symptoms
• The Internet and social media use among youngsters
• Dutch participant recruitment platform for SSH research
• Do dating apps affect the composition of couples?