The consumption of social media has grown ingrained in the lives of today's youth. However, previous studiesignored the independent role of emotional perspective, self-esteem, and social media gratification with respect to social media usage and mental health. The purpose of the study is to explore the combination of crucial factors responsible for mental health. The current study has integrated the uses and gratification theory (U&G), stimuli-organism-response (S-O-R), and sociometer theory in its earnest attempt to create a theoretical framework for the impact of social media usage on mental health through motives of social media usage (MSMU), emotional investment and self-esteem. A model has been proposed toexamine the relationship using a structured equation modeling methodon data received from 660 Indian participants. The results revealed that total time spent on social media (TTSSM),and passive and active non-social usage (ANSU) werethe most critical factors influencing mental health. Furthermore, it was also found that some combination of MSMU, emotional investment,and self-esteem mediated the relationship between TTSSM,ANSU and mental health.The present study's findings are strong enough to encourage parents, educators, and health professionals to counsel young people about their emotional involvement, building self-esteem and use of social media.