Positive Impact of Social Media on Mental Health
Sense Connection and Community
Social media is an excellent platform that can be utilized by children and young adults to keep in touch with their acquaintances, family, and friends. In this essence, such aspects of connection are necessary in the increasingly sophisticated and globalized world (Sunstein, 2018). In this essence, the use of social media helps children stage engaged and in touch with those who are dear to them, thus feeling connected socially (Zhou, Zhang & Wang, 2018). The ability to connect with the geographically distant loved ones can help boost the self-esteem among such children, thus giving them the required confidence to initiate conversations and share their concerns.
Accentuating and Advertising Talents and Achievement
Children and young adults can use a social media platform to their talents and accomplishments. Upon sharing such information to the global village, one may receive support, encouragement, and congratulations. In this regard, such sentiments can help in boosting confidence and building up the self-esteem of a respective young adult (Hamm, Newton, & Hartling, 2015). Even though it is not healthy for one to entirely generate his validation from social media, little digital support for the shared talents or achievements can go all the way for positively influence such a person.
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By engaging and getting involved with the online community, one will be able to engage with the hobbies they love, thus contributing in shaping their sense of identity and cultivating their interest (Kim, Colwell & Georgiades, 2018). Through such engagements, one can also be able to build personal empowerment through the created network of people on various social media platforms.
Even though some platforms do not involve direct communications, they go deeper other than the mindless scrolling (Oberst, Wegmann & Chamarro, 2017). Therefore, this provides a platform for a person to keep up with the evolving life of the people they care. As a result, this will end up promoting better understanding and cultivating a sense of high self-esteem through the created friendship bonds.
Staying Engaged with the World Around
Social media can also be used as a tool for children and young adults to stay engaged with the world around them. In this regard, it young adults can use it to update themselves on various happenings in their surrounding community. Therefore, this can further boost emotional wellbeing through frequent updates that will be facilitated by the respective social media platforms (Dhir, Yossatorn, & Chen, 2018). In the entire approach of engaging with the surrounding world, social media can also be used as a tool for self-improvement, thus contributing to the betterment of one’s self-esteem and confidence regarding a variety of issues in the immediate surrounding environment.
This is attributed to the fact that social media platforms are the primary sources of disseminating positive information (Pantic, 2014). Unlike other news sites, a majority of stuff that is read from social media are usually humorous and uplifting, thus contributing to improved self-esteem at a personal level due to the attained happiness through social media interaction.
Negative Impact of Social Media on Mental Health
Depression and Anxiety
Spending extended time of social media has the capability of negatively affecting the mood of a person. It is for this reason that whenever young adults spend long hours of their free time on social media, they are likely to report signs of poor mental health such as depression and anxiety.
Cyberbullying
Before the introduction of social media, bullying was mostly done on a face-to-face basis. However, the proliferation of social media has subjected a majority of young adults to anonymous online bullying. Even though social media has made it easy to find friends, it has also made it easy for predators of cyberbullying to easily find their victims (Dhir, Yossatorn, Kaur & Chen, 2018). It is for this reason that the anonymity provided by social media has been used by malicious perpetrators to terrorize people upon gaining their trust. Such incidents of cyberbullying have the potential of leaving deep mental scars among young adult victims (Sampasa-Kanyinga & Lewis, 2015). There are cases where some have been affected to the point of committing suicide. Across the board, it is important that cyberbullying arising from the use of social media affects both children and full grown adults.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
The fear of missing out is another significant negative effect of social media use among children and young adults (Lamblin, Murawski & Fornito, 2017). In this case, it is characterized as a form of anxiety that a person gets due to the fear of missing out on a given positive experience that others might be feeling. In most cases, such fear is usually fuelled by the previous social media engagements (Best, Manktelow & Taylor, 2014). It is for this reason that the more a person uses social media, then such a person is likely to perceive that others are having more fun compared to them, thus affecting their self-esteem. Such fear of missing out can contribute to anxiety and even depression among children and young adults.
Unrealistic Expectations
Social media also has the impact of influencing people to form unrealistic expectations regarding friendships and life. It is for this reason that a majority of social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat have been dominated by many young people who lack online authenticity (Berryman, Ferguson & Negy, 2017). In many cases, the lack of online authenticity among the users of such programs is usually driven by their unrealistic expectations and subsequent low self-esteem. As a result, a person by end up living an inauthentic life on social media contrary to the exact situation in their real life.
References
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Best, P., Manktelow, R., & Taylor, B. (2014). Online communication, social media and adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review. Children and Youth Services Review , 41 , 27-36.
Dhir, A., Yossatorn, Y., & Chen, S. (2018). Online social media fatigue and psychological wellbeing—A study of compulsive use, fear of missing out, fatigue, anxiety and depression. International Journal of Information Management , 40 , 141-152.
Hamm, M. P., Newton, A. S., &Hartling, L. (2015). Prevalence and effect of cyberbullying on children and young people: A scoping review of social media studies. JAMA pediatrics , 169 (8), 770-777.
Kim, S., Colwell, S. R., &Georgiades, K. (2018). Cyberbullying victimization and adolescent mental health: Evidence of differential effects by sex and mental health problem type. Journal of youth and adolescence , 47 (3), 661-672.
Lamblin, M., Murawski, C., &Fornito, A. (2017). Social connectedness, mental health and the adolescent brain. Neuroscience &Biobehavioral Reviews , 80 , 57-68.
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Pantic, I. (2014). Online social networking and mental health. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking , 17 (10), 652-657.
Sampasa-Kanyinga, H., & Lewis, R. F. (2015). Frequent use of social networking sites is associated with poor psychological functioning among children and adolescents. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking , 18 (7), 380-385.
Sunstein, C. R. (2018). # Republic: Divided democracy in the age of social media . Princeton University Press.
Zhou, L., Zhang, D., & Wang, Y. (2018). Harnessing social media for health information management. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications , 27 , 139-151.
