In the digital age, adolescents and young adults increasingly form social connections

through online spaces, including social media, gaming and messaging platforms, which serve as venues for identity exploration, peer connection and emotional validation. However, these spaces also create new vulnerabilities, including upward social comparison, exclusion and online harassment that can undermine mental health, including depression and suicidality.

While most research has been focused on adolescents, a new study has found that college students who spend more time online (including social media use, gaming, etc.) and those who experience online harassment, are more likely to report suicidal thoughts. It also showed that these patterns were not the same across gender groups. In particular, cisgender men showed the strongest link between time spent online and suicidal thoughts, while online harassment was linked to higher risk across all gender groups. This is one of the few studies to look at both time online and harmful online experiences together, while paying close attention to gender differences.

 A German analysis explores what underlies shifts in the timing of seasonal surges of respiratory diseases, as well as shifts in surges of heart-related deaths, that occurred after the COVID-19 pandemic began. Michael Sieber and Arne Traulsen of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health on July 15, 2026.