How Social Media Affects Our Psychology in Dealing with University’s Life

An English final project, with Mr. Edria Sandika as the lecturer

By:
1. Abdullah Hafid Dhikham (2110323004)
2. Elsa Illahi Effendi (2010327003)
3. Ichsan Nur Addenin (2110323018)
4. Julia Sophia Imbir (2110329001)
5. M. Syahbian Anugrah (2110327001)
 6.
A. Introduction on Social Media and Student’s University Life
Social media is basically a tool or media that can help humans interact socially with
their environment. But over time, the term social media now refers to internet-based
technologies that help humans to interact with other people around the world by
sharing their experiences, in the form of photos, videos, sounds, and words.
Meanwhile, the term student refers to those who are active and have a life in the
university world, not only studying, but also organizing, participating in social
activities, and simulating things as adults do in the world of work, only on a smaller
scale. With the close relationship between social media and humans, of course, there
will be effects on humans, especially for students who spend more time with social
media than the other generation. Therefore, this article will try to elaborate on what
things will have an impact on student’s university life caused by social media,
psychologically, both for the good and the bad.

B. Positive Effects of Social Media on Psychology in Dealing with University’s Life

Everything in the world exists for a reason, and so does social media. For example,
social media can help humans in social interactions so they can avoid someone who
has antisocial traits. Then specifically, social media can connect students with other
students so that it can facilitate coordination between them, both in academic and non-
academic matters. This leads to inner peace that can be obtained by students and can
create good mental health. In addition, social media can be a place where students
share experiences in any form and can increase their self-esteem. With good self-
esteem, of course it will also bring good mental health as well. Then, social media, if
used properly, will lead students to follow influencers who have a good routine and
lead them to have a good routine too, which is, a good routine will help students
maintain their mental health. With the mental health of students well maintained, the
student's college life will be good too. This will lead to high productivity and give
satisfaction to students.
C. Negative Effects of Social Media on Psychology in Dealing with University’s Life
Since social media has become more vital to the social life of university students
during the pandemic, students can be affected by the social media addiction
phenomenon, which may be harmful to their mental health. Social media addiction is
a term used to describe a situation where a user spends too much time on social media
(e.g. Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram) such that it negatively affects other aspects of
his or her daily life like school, work or relationship with others (Walker, 2011).
According to articles in International Journal of Mental Health, they found that
excessive social media use likely harms the mental health of university students in
Indonesia, since students with higher social media addiction scores had a greater risk
of experiencing mild depression ( Sujarwoto et all.,2020). Furthermore a social media
addict can be considered as one with an urge to use social media excessively. For
instance, engaging in activities like “frequently checking status updates and posts or
"stalking" the profiles of other users for many hours” and this behaviour or habit
conflicts with his/her everyday responsibilities, such as family, school, work or other
social obligations (Pavlicek 2013).

D. Conclusion
Based on the explanation above, it is clear that social media greatly affects
individuals, especially for a student. As previously explained, this media is like a
double-edged sword, it can lead in a positive direction, or it can have a negative impact
on the social life of students at the university where they study. And not o nly social
media, recently, the term metaverse has emerged as the embryo of the industrial
revolution 4.0. metaverse as the next level form of social media is the next evolution
of connectivity where all these things start to come together in a seamless
doppelganger universe, so a person lives a virtual life in the same way that someone
lives a physical life Of course this technological development can be positive, but it
should also be noted that this is a next-level challenge that will undermine morale and
society. Because considering that social media and online games, let's say, have a
longitudinal impact on someone's character damage, especially with this metaverse
that will cause exponential character damage. And finally, the most important thing
here is how students respond to social media, protect themselves and realize that social
media has brought social media users towards progress that can transform into science
and knowledge and the human generation, especially the younger generation, is
humiliating and destroys the morals of life.
 E. References

Otu, A. A. (2015). Social media addiction among students of the University of Ghana
(Doctoral dissertation, University of
Ghana.http://197.255.68.203/handle/123456789/21223

Sujarwoto, Saputri, R. A., & Yumarni, T. (2021). Social Media Addiction and Mental
Health Among University Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia.
International Jurnal Of Mental Health and Addiction, 1-15.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8247617/#Sec12title

Karim, F., Oyewande A. A, Abdala, L. F., Ehsanullah, R. C., Khan, S. (2020). Social Media
Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic Review. Cureus Journal of
Medical Science, v.(12)6

Investopedia. “Social Media, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media.asp.”

Accessed January 14, 2021.