#Depression: Findings from a Literature Review of 10 Years of Social Media and Depression Research

The purpose of our literature review was to understand the state of research related to social media and depression within the past 10 years. We were particularly interested in understanding what has been studied in relation to immigrant college students, as they are especially at risk for depression. Searching three databases, ACM Digital Library, PubMed, and IDEALS, we found 881 research articles. Based on our criteria, 78 research papers were included in our analysis. Although social media use is common among college students and depression is an issue for many immigrants and college students, we found few studies that focused specifically on college students, and we identified no studies on immigrant college students or college-aged immigrants. The research articles focused primarily on Twitter and general social media usage (rather than specific social media platforms) and commonly employed qualitative methods. We identify four gaps in the existing literature, why they matter, and how future research (our own included) can begin to address them.