INTRODUCTION

During the past 15 years, the rapid development of social networking sites such as
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on has caused several profound changes in the way people
communicate and interact. Youth mental health is a major public health concern which poses
substantial societal and economic burdens globally. Adolescence is a period of vulnerability for
the development of depression and young people with mental health problems are at higher risk of
poor mental health throughout their lives Therefore, intervening early could have long-term knock
on benefits for population health. Social media use, a relatively recent phenomena, has become the
primary form of communication for young people in the Philippines and elsewhere. Undoubtedly,
using social media can be beneficial including as a source of social support and knowledge
acquisition, however, a mounting body of evidence suggests associations with poor mental health
among young people.
There has been a growing concern over the past couple of decades regarding the link
between social media use and mental health issues. Although research findings identify a
connection between increased social media use in the young adult population and increased mental
health problems in the same population, it is unclear how social media use may be associated with
these changes.
The purpose of this thesis is to explore how social media use is related to the mental health
of young adults. To accomplish this goal, the researcher reviews and synthesizes the existing
literature pertaining to characteristics of social media, general young adult mental health, and the
current social- and individual-level theories that may help explain the relationship between social
media use by young adults and their mental health.