Yurchenko N.I. Review of the Pugno’s article “Does social media harm young people’s well-being? A suggestion from economic research”

This article provides a review of the article by Maurizio Pugno, professor of economics at the University of Cassino (Italy), “Does social media harm young people’s well-being? A suggestion from economic research.”

Many educational institutions and experts are concerned that the use of social networks poses a danger to the mental health of young people and has a negative impact on their life satisfaction. However, according to Maurizio Pugno, existing reviews on this topic do not provide clear answers, since they do not solve the problem of establishing cause-and-effect relationships and differences in the nature of social network use.

The article examines empirical studies that more rigorously analyze causality and use large samples and objective data collected over a long period of time. At the same time, the problem of heterogeneity (differences in the use of social networks) remains unaccounted for. The presented studies use the “natural experiment” method, which allows us to study the availability of social media in different regions. Based on data from the US, UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, the author concludes that social media use has a negative overall impact on the well-being and mental health of young people.

The article also offers a new theoretical interpretation: the harmfulness of social media is that it displaces useful activities aimed at achieving long-term and socially useful goals. This makes young people more vulnerable to social media addiction.

As a result of the study, Pugno emphasizes the need to integrate different methods and disciplines to study this complex and pressing issue in greater depth.

Key words: social media, internet, well-being, causality, addiction, natural experiment

For citation: Yurchenko, N.I. (2025). Review of the Pugno’s article “Does social media harm young people’s well-being? A suggestion from economic research”. New Psychological Research, No. 2, 287–302. DOI: 10.51217/npsyresearch_2025_05_02_13

Acknowledgment

The article was prepared within a state task, project FNRE-2024-0016 “Psychological effects of digitalization of the educational environment: opportunities for cognitive and personal development and socialization risks”.