SOCIAL MEDIA AND MENTAL HEALTH

Human beings are social creatures that require the companionship of others to make progress in life. Thus, being socially connected with other people can relieve stress, anxiety, and sadness, but lack of social connection can pose serious risks to mental health.

 

Social media

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. Moreover, social media user numbers increased by more than 13 percent over the past year, with nearly half a billion new users taking the global user total to almost 4.2 billion by the start of 2021. A statistic in the Figure below 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

Gender distribution of social media audiences worldwide as of January 2020, sorted by platform.

 

Impact on mental health

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. There is a debate presently going on regarding the benefits and negative impacts of social media on mental health. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

 

Future Prospects

It can be expected that future research regarding the potential effects of online social networking on mental health is going to be faced with numerous difficulties. First, so far, many authors investigating this issue have used a cross-sectional study approach in their methodology, followed by correlation analysis. The existence of a correlation does not necessarily equal causality. For example, Facebook and self-esteem may be related in terms of Facebook usage, causing lower self-esteem, but this may also mean that people with low self-esteem use Facebook more often. In other words, it is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to conclude which variable is the cause and which is the effect.

In conclusion, it is clear that during the past years, online social networking has caused significant changes in the way people communicate and interact. It is unclear, however, whether some of these changes affect normal aspects of human behavior and cause psychiatric disorders. In the future, additional research will be needed to identify and describe the potential relationship between the use of social networking sites and various mental health issues.