Mental health of social media influencers

Abstract

There is a wide body of research on the effects of social media use on mental health, particularly focusing on young people. However, very little is known about the mental health of social media influencers (SMIs), who also tend to be quite young. This is of growing significance as more of our daily lives is conducted online, and in the context of poor population mental health globally, which declined further as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We therefore set out to review the mental health of SMIs and, in the absence of literature on SMIs, drew on other similar but more traditional occupational groups, such as the self-employed, to draw conclusions and identify directions for future research.