Technology has made it possible for Social Media (SM) to become a huge part of everyday life. SM is composed of online communities that share information through electronic forms of communication. There are different types of SM, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. SM usage is defined as the utilization of social sites to enhance interest in their organizations, improve the social networking salience, and to build relationships with the online public. Passive SM usage has, however, been credited to contribute to some extent to depressive symptoms experienced by other people and especially college and school going student. Depression is a debilitating and dynamic network of symptoms causing each other that affects the quality of life of the patient.
The connection amid SM and depression
Facebook and symptoms of depression
Growing adults find that a considerable percentage of their time is spent online on SM platforms. Studies show that increased time spent online mostly works to cultivate negative mental health issues such as anxiety and depression (Rohilla & Kumar, 2015). Facebook is among the most commonly used social platform. Users log in to Facebook t either fulfill their needs for self-presentation or to feel like they belong (Rohilla & Kumar, 2015). Facebook is, therefore, likely to cause young adults to suffer depression, especially when they catch up on their friends and other celebrities who might be doing well than them. They will feel the pressure to be long or compare their lives and might end up suffering depressive moods and symptoms.
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Social networking and self-esteem
Social networking is the usage of dedicated apps and websites to intermingle with new consumers thus discovering others with similar likes. SM causes people to parallel themselves with grander acquaintances, thus yielding feelings of inferiority (Pantic, 2014.). These feelings of inferiority could result in lowering their self-esteem as they feel that they cannot measure up to those that they keep comparing themselves with (Pantic, 2014). However, research also shows that it could contribute to building individual self-esteem. If one is able to effectively curate their life on SM to the extent where many people are pleased with what they see, they will likely get online approval (Aalbers et al., 2018). This will go a long way into boosting their esteem and making them stand out. It also boosts their narcissistic behaviors.
Online social networking addiction
SM has developed over time to become one of the central things to everyday life. Although there have been instances where they are credited for some of the debilitating states for mental health patients, SM still makes a huge chunk of people’s lives and takes up their time as well. Social networking addiction is insufficiently investigated but shows that there is an addictive aspect of social networking (Pantic, 2014). Those found to be addicted to little relation with family and offline friends. They neglect their social functioning aspects that are not online, and when denied, SM portrays symptoms and signs like addicts of drugs and substances abstinence syndrome (Pantic, 2014). Online social networking addiction is a serious, and although it is yet to be classified in the disease manuals, there needs to be more research on it
Impact of SM and young adults
Depression has become a highly prevalent condition in the US. Among other mental disorders, it accounts for the highest percentage of DALYs, and by 2030, it is anticipated to be the principal origin of debility (Lin et al., 2016). Depression often onsets during young adulthood years and could be triggered by several factors. However, SM is increasingly triggering depression and other mental issues in these age bracket. The use of SM has increased among these individuals who are in their critical periods of self-development and are still founding their social norms (Lin et al., 2016; Orben & Dunbar, 2016). Studies show that there are some people whose depression is reduced by being online as they spend time in the online communities while others show that depression increases due to declines in life satisfaction, subjective wellbeing, and real-life community
The effect of SM and loneliness
Loneliness results from depressive symptoms. It has already been recognized that SM contributes to depressive moods experienced by people using SM. Many of the SM sites support interpersonal interaction which are neither directed nor reciprocated thus have the ability to either make one feel lonelier if the intention was to get a response and they do not get it (Orben & Dunbar, 2016). However, when it comes to loneliness, the story gets a bit twisted. People might result in SM when they feel lonely, as a bid to remedy the loneliness. After being exposed to the exceedingly curated existences of their online peers who are seemingly happier and more relevant, they are more likely to end up getting more depressed and lonelier (Aalbers et al., 2018). However, instead of finding a solution to this, longitudinal studies show that these individuals result to the same social sites as loneliness is seen to trigger more SM use (Aalbers et al., 2018).
Conclusion
Looking at the available literature on SM and its impact on mental health, it becomes clear that there is a form of information gap. The needs to be more research on the matter which should not be on small samples to increase reliability. I will conduct a comprehensive study on the impact of SM and depression among young adults in America. I will use a sample size of 500 students and young adults. I will also use the survey method and answering questionnaires to collect data that will be analyzed to find the relation between SM and depression.
References
Aalbers, G., McNally, R. J., Heeren, A., de Wit, S., & Fried, E. I. (2018, December 3). Social Media and Depression Symptoms: A Network Perspective. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
General . Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000528
Lin, L. Y., Sidani, J. E., Shensa, A., Radovic, A., Miller, E., Colditz, J. B., ... & Primack, B. A. (2016). Association between social media use and depression among US young adults. Depression and anxiety , 33 (4), 323-331.
Orben, A. C., & Dunbar, R. I. (2017). Social media and relationship development: The effect of valence and intimacy of posts. Computers in Human Behavior , 73 , 489-498.
Pantic, I. (2014). Online social networking and mental health. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking , 17 (10), 652-657.
Rohilla, P. S., & Kumar, K. (2015). Impact of Social Media on Mental Health.
