Connected & affected: a systematic review of associations between social media usage and the overall health of young adults

Young adults are engaging with digital technologies more than ever before. Their pervasive presence across various social media platforms has raised growing concerns. This study explores the association between social media usage (SMU) and the overall health by deploying two sequential steps in systematically reviewing and organizing the literature. The first step is the selection of research articles through Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), and the second step employs a structured approach to analyze selected research literature through the theories, context, characteristics and methodology (TCCM) framework. The findings support that mental health remained the focus area of the reviewed studies, and overall health needs more academic attention. There is a need for gender-specific studies for better policy making. It is also found that more focus on variables like posture, kyphosis, neck strain, sleep, and inactivity is needed to understand the impact of digital technologies.