Background: Social media use among young adults has grown substantially, raising concern about its association with mental health outcomes, particularly anxiety and depressive symptoms among university students navigating academic and social pressures.

Objective: This simulated cross-sectional study examines the association between social media use patterns and self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression among university students.

Method: A hypothetical cross-sectional survey was conducted among a simulated sample of 320 university students. Simulated data on daily social media use duration, platform type, nighttime use, social comparison tendency, and validated anxiety/depression screening scores were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression.

Results: In this simulated dataset, students reporting more than 4 hours of daily social media use had significantly higher mean anxiety scores (simulated GAD-7 mean = 11.2 ± 4.1) compared with students using social media for under 2 hours daily (simulated GAD-7 mean = 6.8 ± 3.5, p < 0.001). Multiple regression indicated that daily use duration and nighttime use were independently associated with higher depressive symptom scores (simulated PHQ-9), after adjustment for age, sex, and academic year (β = 0.31, p < 0.001 for use duration).