“ The Role of Social Media among College Students in Shaping Social Attitudes

toward Mental Well-Being”

Objective of the Study:

Many college students utilize social media platforms to seek social support for
a variety of needs. Social media sites have become ubiquitous in college populations,
so this study examines whether and how these sites may help college students
address their mental health concerns.

 To determine the role of social in shaping societal attitudes toward mental

well-being.
 The impact of social media on one's life in order for them to understand
how important it is in their daily lives.
 Increase awareness and understanding of mental health conditions. The
public can be made aware of the warning signs and symptoms of prevalent
mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) by using social media. In order to humanize and normalize the
experience, it can also be used to share first-person accounts of living with
mental illness.
 Reduce stigma surrounding mental illness. Negative stigmas and
misunderstandings about mental illness can be dispelled using social media.
Additionally, it can be used to spread encouraging words about mental health,
like the value of getting help and taking care of oneself.
 Promote mental health literacy. Social media can be used to spread
knowledge about available resources and treatments for mental illness.
Additionally, it can be used to encourage practices that improve mental health,
like stress reduction, exercise, and good sleep habits.
 Build supportive communities. People can connect with others who are
experiencing mental illness or who are interested in promoting mental health
using social media. People who are struggling with mental health issues may
find that the sense of community and understanding that online support groups
and communities can offer is crucial.

Related Literature:

I. Local Study

Based on the researchers, depression is one of the world's most serious mental
health issues, particularly among young adults. More than 264 million people suffer
from depression, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Depression
can cause infected people to suffer tremendously in their daily lives, primarily
affecting their daily routine tasks such as studying, working, and home duties,
whereas severe depression can lead to suicide. Over 800,000 individuals commit
suicide every year, and suicide is the second-highest cause of death among young
people aged 15–29 years (WHO, 2020). Furthermore, depression is a mood
condition characterized by melancholy, lack of interest or pleasure, feelings of
guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or food, exhaustion, and impaired
concentration (WHO, 2017). On the other side, evidence suggests that utilizing
social media might harm the mental health of its users, particularly the younger
generation (Glazzard & Stones, 2016). Other researchers have found that excessive
social media use among young adults is associated with mental health issues such
as depression, anxiety, tension, and low self-esteem (see Seabrook et al., 2016).
Social media, defined as "websites that allow profile building and display of
relationships between users" (Boyd & Ellison, 2008; as referenced in Sims et al.,
2017), has become one of its users' favorite pastimes. Almost half of the world's
population (49 percent; 3.80 billion) now actively uses social media, increasing
the figure continuously (Kemp, 2020). We utilize social media for various
purposes, including relationship maintenance, access to information, and enjoyment
(Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Lin & Lu, 2011), which has made social media an inseparable
part of many people's everyday lives. Although, as previously said, social media
provides various benefits and opportunities, concerns have been voiced around the
world concerning its excessive use (Baccarella et al., 2018). Meanwhile, excessive
or addictive social media use is defined as a "behavioral addiction characterized by
being overly concerned about social media, motivated by an uncontrolled want to log
on to or use social media, and investing so much time and effort to social media that
impairs other vital life areas" (Hilliard, 2019). Through research over the last decade
focused mainly on the opportunities afforded by internet-social media, scholars'
emphasis has recently shifted to the adverse effects of the internet and social media
on their users (Baccarella et al., 2018). Previous research have investigated the
association between social media usage and mental health problems (e.g.,
depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, and self-esteem) among people of all ages
in industrialized nations (Glazzard & Stones, 2016; Hou et al., 2019; Savci, 2016;
Shensa et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2018; Waqas et al., 2018). This study will
contribute by studying the relationship between excessive social media use and
mental health problems in this context. The primary goal of this study is to look at the
relationship between social media addiction and depression among Filipino senior
high school students.

II. Foreign Study

“Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic Review”

According to the researchers, social media has recently become part of people's
daily activities; many of them spend hours each day on Messenger, Instagram,
Facebook, and other popular social media. Thus, many researchers and scholars
study the impact of social media and applications on various aspects of people’s lives
[2]. Moreover, the number of social media users worldwide in 2019 is 3.484 billion, up
9% year-on-year [3-5]. A statistic in Figure 1 shows the gender distribution of social
media audiences worldwide as of January 2020, sorted by platform. It was found that
only 38% of Twitter users were male but 61% were using Snapchat. In contrast,
females were more likely to use LinkedIn and Facebook. There is no denying that
social media has now become an important part of many people's lives. Social media
has many positive and enjoyable benefits, but it can also lead to mental health
problems. Previous research found that age did not have an effect but gender did;
females were much more likely to experience mental health than males. Mental
health is defined as a state of well-being in which people understand their abilities,
solve everyday life problems, work well, and make a significant contribution to the
lives of their communities [8]. There is debated presently going on regarding the
benefits and negative impacts of social media on mental health [9,10]. Social
networking is a crucial element in protecting our mental health. Both the quantity and
quality of social relationships affect mental health, health behavior, physical health,
and mortality risk [9]. The Displaced Behavior Theory may help explain why social
media shows a connection with mental health. According to the theory, people who
spend more time in sedentary behaviors such as social media use have less time for
face-to-face social interaction, both of which have been proven to be protective
against mental disorders [11,12]. On the other hand, social theories found how social
media use affects mental health by influencing how people view, maintain, and
interact with their social network [13]. A number of studies have been conducted on
the impacts of social media, and it has been indicated that the prolonged use of
social media platforms such as Facebook may be related to negative signs and
symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress [10-15]. Furthermore, social media can
create a lot of pressure to create the stereotype that others want to see and also
being as popular as others.

The need for a systematic review

Systematic studies can quantitatively and qualitatively identify, aggregate, and

evaluate all accessible data to generate a warm and accurate response to the
research questions involved [4]. In addition, many existing systematic studies related
to mental health studies have been conducted worldwide. However, only a limited
number of studies are integrated with social media and conducted in the context of
social science because the available literature heavily focused on medical science [6].
Because social media is a relatively new phenomenon, the potential links between
their use and mental health have not been widely investigated.

This paper attempt to systematically review all the relevant literature with the aim of
filling the gap by examining social media impact on mental health, which is sedentary
behavior, which, if in excess, raises the risk of health problems [7,9,12]. This study is
important because it provides information on the extent of the focus of peer review
literature, which can assist the researchers in delivering a prospect with the aim of
understanding the future attention related to climate change strategies that require
scholarly attention. This study is very useful because it provides information on the
extent to which peer review literature can assist researchers in presenting prospects
with a view to understanding future concerns related to mental health strategies that
require scientific attention.

References of the studies:

Social media use and its connection to mental health: A systematic review. (n.d.). PubMed Central
(PMC). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7364393/

Bekalu MA, McCloud RF, Viswanath K. Association of Social Media Use With Social Well-Being,
Positive Mental Health, and Self-Rated Health: Disentangling Routine Use From Emotional Connection
to Use. Health Education & Behavior. 2019;46(2_suppl):69S-80S. doi:10.1177/1090198119863768