Effects of Social Media on Mental Health

A Project
Presented to the
Faculty of
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MODERN LANGUAGES,
ISLAMABAD

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
BS Media and Communication

by
Ayesha siddiqah taj
Hisham bin sikander
Muhammad usman
Subhan ahmad kiani
 Effects of Social Media on Mental Health
Introduction
The human species is a sociable animal. To prosper in life, we require the company
of others, and the quality of our relationships has a significant bearing on both our
mental health and enjoyment. Social interaction with others has been shown to
reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, improve self-esteem, bring comfort and joy,
avoid loneliness, and even lengthen life. On the other hand, a lack of solid social
ties can seriously jeopardise your mental and emotional wellbeing.
Many people in the globe now use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter,
Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram to communicate with one another. While each
has advantages, it's crucial to keep in mind that social media can never fully
replace face-to-face interaction.
Nowadays, almost every youngster has a social media account on at least one
website. They connect with pals on social media, exchange stories, and promote
themselves to the world. They are, however, controlling an addiction without being
aware of it. While social media may help you connect with people across the
world, find things you're interested in, and find hours of enjoyment, scrolling
endlessly can also have detrimental effects. According to research, young adults
who use social media have a threefold increased risk of developing depression.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Over the past ten years, media has played a much larger part in users' lives. Young
individuals are increasingly using it as a form of recreation. With time, social
media has evolved into many other forms, and the ease of access is concerning.
The present study’s objective is to determine how social media use affects mental
health.
BACKGROUND
Technology is always developing, making a wider range of activities available on
screen-based devices. A lifestyle heavily reliant on screens, though, can have a
price. Problematic social media use, according to our premise, would lead to more
people developing mental health issues.
LITERATURE REVIEW
A social relationship plays a pivotal role in boosting mental health. But the fact is
there is disagreement among investigators relating what components of social
relationships have an impact on mental health. With the amplified social support
from relatives and friends grieved less from mental health problems after a
traumatic life event owed to stress-reduction function of this social support
(Maulik et al,. 2011).
Social media and loneliness Social media usage is growing at a remarkable rate
predominantly among young adults, surprisingly in spite of having greater
interconnectivity, present young generation is lonelier than other groups and even
loneliest ever (Pittman & Reich 2016)
According to Umberson & Montez, (2010), quality and quantity of social
relationships affect health behavior, physical health, mental health and mortality
risk. A number of empirical studies determine that social support can prevent
hopelessness (Johnson et al., 2001) demoralize avoidant coping (Weaver et al.,
2005), suppress loneliness (Schneider et al., 1991), and strengthen positive states
of mind (Gonzalez et al., 2004). On contrary depression are associated with
negative social interactions and social isolation (Schuster et al., 1990; Chou et al.,
2011) and suicide (Holma etal., 2010). Reich et al., (2010) inveterate, that social
support is related with better mental health.
According to an article published by MentalHealth.net, Facebook can cause
depression if the user makes negative comparisons between himself or herself and
others. Facebook use "predicts declines in subjective well-being: how people feel
moment to moment and how satisfied they are with their lives." (Kross. 2013)
METHODOLOGY
we adopted interview strategy to address our hypotheses and research questions.
We recruited 15 research participants in the three departments of NATIONAL
UNIVERSITY OF MODERN LANGUAGES. , the interview targeted young
adults aged 18 to 25. Following are the questions asked by the students.
1. How much time you spend on social media?
2. Which social media platforms you use the most?
3. For what purpose you use the social media most?
4. Do you agree that social media posts could trigger your emotions in negative
way?
5. Seeing the social life of other people on social media makes you feel a bit
uncomfortable when you compare it with your own situation?
6. Lower number of Likes, views, comments on your posts/videos makes you
frustrated?
7. Do you use social media to get an escape from mental anxiety/depression?
8. Use of social media makes you feel more depressed?
9. How much are you curious about the STREAK on Snapchat?
10. When the Streak with your favorite person is broken; it makes you feel
frustrated/anxieted?
11. Do you post the stories (WhatsApp, Instagram, etc) according to your mood?
12. Do you post the stories/posts just for one or few persons to see?
13. What type of content helps you escape from the mental health issues?
FINDINGS
The results shows that female uses social media more as compared to males,
according to our results the time spent by this age group is least 1-2 hours to the
maximum of 8-10 hours,the most used social media platform among youngs these
days are instagram,whatsapp and facebook and 90% of the respondents are using
social media for entertainment purpose while the rest of 10% says they use these
platforms for connectivity purpose.according to the 12 out of 15 respndents social
media trigger there emotions negatively,10 out of 15 feels bad when they get less
views,comments or likes on there posts.100% of them agree with the statement that
using social media makes them feel depressed.
CONCLUSION
The relation between usage of social media and depraved mental health determines
the significance of the topic. Social media usage have dangerous effects for
younger generation because problems related mental health which gets developed
during young period can act as an epidemic for any individual throughout the life.
It is clear that adverse effects of social media usage obligate propounded
consequences for present generation especially for younger ones. Over time social
media has transitioned and diversified over various platforms. The present study
demonstrates that the effects are also far reaching.Although there are benefits in
using social media,one cannot ignore the advancements in technology helping to
increase access to social media and causing a greater number of negative effects.
Limitations and Recommendations
Although every effort was made to address any limitations, this study was not
exempt from shortcomings. The biggest limitation in this study was the relatively
small sample size however, the sample size is considered decent due to the
exploratory nature of the research.
An individual can make their use of social media positive by turning off a
smartphone’s data connectivity at certain times of the day, such as while driving, at
work, or in meetings,turning off data connectivity while spending time with friends
and family.leaving the smartphone out of reach while sleeping.turning off
notifications to make it easier to resist the distracting beeps or vibrations.limiting
social media use to a computer rather than a smartphone.
REFERENCES
Andrews, G., Basu, A., Cuijpers P., Craske, M. G., McEvoy, P., English, C.L., &
Newby, J. M. (2018). Computer therapy for the anxiety and depression
disorders is effective, acceptable and practical health care: an updated
meta-analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 55, 70-78.
Ashford University. (2017, December 14). Causes of social media addiction
illness. Retrieved by https://www.ashford.edu/online-
degrees/studentlifestyle/causes-of-social-media-addiction-illness
Belluomini, E. (2015). Turn up the tech in social work: the internet made me
depressed: emotional contagion through social media. The New Social
Worker, 22(3), 31.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by
nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Ebear, J., Csiernik, R., & Béchard, M. (2008). Applying the generalist model of
social work practice for a Catholic Church parish team. Journal of Religion
& Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 27(1-2), 105-121.
Fairburn, C., Lane, C., Mataix-Cols, D., Tian, J., Grant, J., & Deneen, K. M.
(2019, May 13). Five new mental disorders you could have under DSM-5.
Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/five-new-mental-disordersyou-can-
have-under-dsm-5-14192
Forte, J. A. (2004). Symbolic interactionism and social work: A forgotten legacy,
Part 1. Families in Society, 85(3), 391-400.