Introduction
Social media has enhanced the connection and interaction of 3.81 billion people all over the world. It has aided in maintaining a good relationship between people and their families and friends. Social connection makes a person relieved of sadness, stress, and anxiety. However, it can pose negative impacts on its users as well. Currently, technology has become incredibly advanced; many social platforms have been implemented. People spend most of their time on social media, posting their different lifestyles. Some social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are the medium for advertising goods and services available in the markets.
Today, social media users are advertising job vacancies on different social platforms, making it easy for the jobless to access these opportunities. Networking has become an income source for many people. However, concerning most technological interventions, social media has greatly affected most of its users’ mental health, both positively and negatively. This paper will attempt to discuss the consequences of social media on people’s mental health.
Background Information
The first social media site to be recognized was, Six Degrees generated in 1997. It permitted people to make friends and upload profiles. By 1999, the initial blogging sites gained popularity and created a popular social media sensation currently popular. After blogging invention, social media started to detonate in popularity. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook evolved in 2006. As a result, the total number (3.81 billion people) of social media users spent 2 hours, 22 minutes daily on these social platforms (Chen et al.). It is quite clear that social networking has become necessary in the lives of most of its users. Most of them have found enjoyment and positive benefits by being its user. However, social platforms have caused several problems for their users’ mental health. For instance, most of its users are addicted and spend most of their time online, and they end up not having time for other life activities that need their attention. Addiction has been the worst impact social media has posed on its users. All social network users should take precautions to end being depressed.
Literature Review
This report was arrived at through a well-planned exploration of articles from the various databases from 1995 to April 2020. Multiple signs and symptoms of depression are associated with social media usage. However, this issue is still debated in psychiatry investigation (Jasso 183). As per Jasso, many University students are addicted to social media and are at the risk of being depressed. Jasso’s research strengths are that many students have all the time they need to spend on social media platforms. However, his research failed to indicate if these students get depressed or not; he says, “they may” (Jasso 183). There are numerous reasons why social media users may become depressed, such as when their friends post better lifestyles. They will start to envy them, and if they do not withdraw from social networking, they will be depressed.
Moreover, a depressed person may decide to use social networking platforms to relieve their stress. Facebook participation is related negatively to household satisfaction and related positively to symptoms of depression. Pearson relationships assert that higher intensity of Facebook is associated positively with its addiction. The studies were conducted when various social media such as Facebook were not available (Iovu et al. 2111). Love explains how Facebook users can help in relieving a depressed person and how it relates to family satisfaction (p. 2111). Iovu’s claims that Facebook is a depression reliever is a fact, but how it helps in family satisfaction is not valid because Facebook users will spend most of their time on the platform, and they may have no time for their families (p. 2111). In 2004, Facebook was established, and it gained popularity among adolescents and children some years later. Before, the main focus was on exploring the impacts of e-mail checking, internet browsing, and other offline and online behaviors on mental well-being.
Social media introduction has created a remarkable increase in the occasions where children and adolescents spend much time on their computers, resulting in minimized communications, particularly in households and social surroundings. The strength is that there is no denying that social networks have made it possible for a person to connect with several people, but these interactions cannot stand in place of daily face-to-face communication (Kaess 199). According to Kaess, the weakness is that adolescents and children have been addicted to social media, and mostly, they lack time for face-to-face interaction with their friends and families (p. 199). Kaess claims adolescents and children spent much time on social media, which is true (p. 199). Social media is a relatively new phenomenon, and therefore, the potential connection between depression and loneliness and the use of social platforms is yet to be adequately investigated. On the other hand, most social media users are experiencing enjoyable moments and are greatly benefiting from these social platforms, especially in the case of loneliness.
Objective
This research on mental health and social media aims to make individuals understand more about social media and how it has affected social network users’ mental health in different ways, both positively and negatively. It also aspires to conclude whether social networking should be encouraged or discouraged. These conclusions will be arrived at by weighing out the impacts social media has on its users.
Methodology
The research was conducted through: Monitoring Social Media.
Keeping track of the happenings on social media platforms facilitated the gathering of different essential details. Through keen monitoring, it was straightforward to understand what has been happening on these platforms and how people who use social media are being affected mentally, both negatively and positively. To initiate clear, detailed information on the research topic, constant follow-up was needed, and the data was collected, recorded, and preserved. The data gathered on different occasions was compiled, and conclusions and findings were drawn.
Discussion and Findings
There was much necessary information on social media and its effects on mental health gathered through the already mentioned methods. The data collected through each procedure was closely related to each other. A combination of the information from the data sources was made, and various conclusions were drawn (Karim et al. 126). It was clear that social media and social networking immensely affected its user’s mental health in different ways, both positively and negatively.
These effects include:
Positive Social Media Effects on the Mental Health of its Users
Relieves Social Isolation and Loneliness
Social media gives people the chance to interact as well as become connected with friends and families. Indeed, when friends or families do not stay close to each other, social networking and social media have recently become a bridging gap connecting people from different areas or even countries (Hwang et al. 38). People can communicate as if they were just seated beside each other. Moreover, social media relieves an individual of boredom in cases where they are all alone. There is no denying that social networking has dramatically contributed to improving the mental well-being of its users.
Inspires Lifestyles Changes which are Healthy
Some posts on social media are motivational and can aid in attaining healthy lifestyle objectives. Using social network platforms to announce a goal and posting it frequently will promote others’ liability and help them stay focused (Lin et al. 10). Before an individual knows it, social media will dramatically increase their success chances, such as weight loss or soberness for alcoholics or addicts recovering. This clearly shows how social media has done the magic of motivating and making people successful.
Makes Interventions and Social Support Possible
Quite a large number of websites are currently offering assistance via channels of social media. These internet sites frequently give anonymous conventions for people’s connections and share their personal experiences (Rossolato and George 1249). Most sites permit users to enroll in a particular service to receive motivational messages, daily advice, and useful information to promote or seek recovery. By so doing, social media poses positive impacts on the mental health of its users.
Makes Existing Relationships Strong
Social media can enhance the build-up of new relationships through Tweetups. Besides, Twitter can strengthen existing relationships, mainly when people live in different areas or countries, regardless of the geographical barriers (Valenzuela et al. 117). Media sites help maintain relationships, especially for people who cannot freely move due to different reasons such as disability, injury, or even old age. It can offer support and mood modification as provided by Twitter and other social media platforms, thus positively impacting mental health.
It Has Acted as an Outlet for Self-Expression
Social media platforms like Facebook and What App have offered their users outlets to share their ideas and create collaboration opportunities, responses from peers, and interaction. Through these platforms, students can write outside the classroom; they are in a position to share their assignments with a more varied and broader audience (Naslund et al.). With time, they increase their confidence in their ability to write as well as give opinions and ideas.
Negative Ways in Which Social Media Affects the Mental Health of its Users
It is Addictive
Experts have agreed to the reality of internet addiction, besides social media addiction. Even if the platforms are modern, studies show that the time spent on these sites increases rapidly (Andreassen et al. 287). Researchers report daily on this behavioral addiction with phone reviews, the Internet, and video games. This habit is symbolized by being social media pre-occupied (salience) (Coyne et al. 106). An individual will use social media for mood modification; they will gradually use it to acquire the feeling of pleasure (Sayeed et al.). As a result, the person will suffer distress if forbidden from using social media, thereby affecting harmful impacts on other dominant life areas due to internet use. At this stage, the individual may desire or even attempt to control its usage in vain. Consequently, this person will develop a deep depression.
Comparing One’s Life with Others
A comparison factor in Facebook is the primary reason why internet users feel isolated socially. Facebook users will not escape the trap of comparing themselves to others when they scroll through their feeds (Shensa et al. 1). They begin judging by comparing themselves with other people. According to Shensa et al., research shows that whichever comparison kind is connected to symptoms of depression (1). People compare other posts in either downward or upward directions, feeling that they are worse or better than their friends. In real life, the person will feel depressed if they conclude that they are worse than other people.
Brings About Jealousy
A comparison of social media brings about jealousy and probably hatred. People have different lifestyles and different financial statuses. Individuals see others’ posts as more prosperous than theirs, while tropical vacations will induce envy with various healthy families, cars, and children. The individual’s jealousy based on beautiful images shown on Facebook can result in a vicious cycle; it can push a person to make their life appear better and may, in turn, start showing their envy-inducing posts, making it a continuous jealousy-feeling cycle (Chae 370). Developing desire will facilitate depression in Facebook users, and this can be controlled only if the users will stop envying each other.
Having Many Friends on Social Media Is Not an Indication That One is More Social
Some people wrongly believe that being a friend to many on internet platforms determines how social a person is. A study found that a better social life is not determined by the number of friends one has on social media, and there has always been a limitation on the number of friends, which the human brain can manage (Demers et al.). It should be actual social interconnection, not a virtual one (Demers et al.). Therefore, having a feeling that you are social through being on social media is deceitful and does not work.
Loneliness is linked to mental health complications that may lead to death. Individuals should make real friends who can offer social support rather than keeping virtual friends who lack therapeutic effects. It does not mean that social media is not essential; it is crucial since it helps people connect and interact with their families and loved ones. However, being on social media when in need of an emotional lift or killing time is an unpleasant idea.
It Triggers Additional Sadness
A few years of study suggested that Facebook is connected to immense social isolation feeling. Most people use social media sites such as Snapchat, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Google, and many more. A study discovered that prolonged time on these social platforms would increase social isolation perception (Lifang et al.). Social discernment isolation is one of the most harmful effects on an individual’s physical and mental well-being. Ironically, a technology made for bringing people together, devoting too much time to the Internet can make a person feel more isolated and lonely and, in most cases, lead to depression.
Generally, according to the data collected, it is clear there is no potential evidence that the use of social network platforms causes any symptom of depression or depression itself. Instead, it is associated with depression decline. This way, it can be recommended as a reliable source of maintaining and strengthening social ties, especially within friends and families (Parnell). People’s mental health will improve as a result of social support from friends and families.
Conclusion
Currently, social media is gaining much popularity. Therefore, there are many unexpected as well as unexplored helpful responses related to it. Studies show that social media users have experienced harmful impacts on their psychological health, but the depth of harm social media platforms have caused is yet to be ascertained. This review has concluded that social media envy can cause depression and anxiety levels in people.
On the other hand, this review has concluded that social media has positively impacted people’s mental health by strengthening and maintaining social ties between friends and families. It has enhanced success and positive thinking in individuals through motivational posts. These findings will ease the extensive exploration of mental health and social media. Moreover, the information found in this review can be of great help to both researchers of social science and medical professionals. However, all social media users should be alert to avoid extremes in social networking to evade stress, depression, and anxiety.
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