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Social media is a relatively new concept in our society today. It is basically a platform where people share ideas, information, etc. Social media is a virtual community which allows people to socialize and connect with each other. There are number of platforms in the social world and each platform is known for its own unique quality, for example, Instagram is a photo sharing application, Facebook works like an online news channel, etc. With the advent of social media people are now more self conscious.
They are conscious about what they post and who views them. This is one of the major causes of stress among teenagers. The constant race of getting the maximum number of likes on your pictures leads to nothing else but poor quality of sleep. Every person has an insecurity which he tries to hide, social media, in some cases, further alleviates these insecurities. This makes people miserable about themselves and their lives. Not only this, there are a lot of other factors which have a negative impact on the mental well-being of teenagers.
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Mental health is a phenomenon which has recently been acknowledged by the people of the society. It is the mental stability of a person to deal with the stress and cope with it. Teenagers are the most frequent users of social media. They spend most of the time surfing through these applications. Social media subliminally affects these teenagers; it either makes them addicted to the use or simply has negative effect on their well-being.
The rise of social media has played its part in making the word a global village, yet it has its side effects as well. A person might initially feel satisfied and happy after having used social media, but the effects are subliminal. The anxiety and feeling of unhappiness sets in later and affects the individual in the long run.
Mental health is an important topic of discussion these days. It is an important part of the general well being of an individual. The instability of the mental well-being affects the overall well-being of an individual. Social media is now used asa way to communicate and is a source of entertainment as well. People use it to communicate with others and also to keep themselves updated of what is happening in their friends' lives. They use it as a source of entertainment but ultimately it has negative effects. The study was conducted to identify the impacts of social media on the mental health of teenagers and connection of social media and mental health .The study aims at identifying the role of social media among all the factors which disrupts the mental health of an individual. It will help to analyze the negative aspects of social media and how its excessive use is affecting the lives of teenagers. This study will not only highlight the negative impacts of social media, but will also focus on the overall impact that it has. Social media has a lot of impact and it has dominated the rationality of teenagers. This study will bring all these aspects into limelight.
Mental health is a broad term under which we can study a variety of issues. It is a phenomenon which has not been given a lot of importance in our society. According to WHO, mental health is defined as the ability of a person to think that his well-being is able to cope with stress and that he can prove to be a productive individual of the society. People who are facing issues regarding mental health tend to isolate themselves (Caplan, 2006). This isolation further makes them miserable and lonely. People face different mental health issues due to different reason. The reason and intensity of the issue might vary from person to person. Some people face insomnia due to work related issues while some might face it due to the excess use of internet. The nature of the effect might also vary according to the gender of the individual. A stimulus might affect women more than it affects men. There are a number of factors which affect the mental health of an individual. Nowadays, social media plays an important role in affecting the mental health. Teenagers' mental health is the most affected by social media use.
In early times, internet was considered as a source of entertainment. People used to use internet in the leisure time to relax them; however, now, it has become an important part of lives. People now consider it as an integral part of their lives and there is absolutely no concept of life without internet. Problematic internet use is a common phenomenon in our society. It has strong roots in our society and most of us are unaware of it. Problematic Internet use is the excess or the unnecessary use of internet which leads people to different psychological problems. This is common among are youth more than any age group because our teenagers are the most frequent internet users.
There are a lot of people who face different mental health issues and to get rid of those they increase their use of internet. People sometimes do this to get rid of loneliness and anxiety and for some people the idea might be beneficial, but for others it can turn out to be dangerous. There are a lot of people who start using internet to get rid of their problems but they end up suffering from depression and stress (Shaw & Gant, 2002). Internet is one of the factors which make people feel easy and comfortable. Teenagers not only surf the internet, but also communicate through it. Teenagers who use excessive internet also develop intimate relationships which indirectly also cause them stress and depression as well. Mental health is not the only problem associated with the use of internet. Teenagers get exposed to explicit sexual content, their well-being is affected, they face objectification, etc. A lot of teenagers gets addicted to internet and are unable to live without using social media (Panicker & Sachdev, 2014). The concept of addiction was taken from drugs, but it explains technological addiction vividly. Technological addiction is the non-chemical addiction of human beings to technology. (Bianchi & Phillips, 2005)
Social networking sites are online communities where people interact. These communities help you interact with people you know in person as well as those who you know online. These networking websites involve all the online platforms which help people to online (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011). The most common or the most frequently used online platforms include Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Snapchat. People create their individual profiles on social media and then talk to people through those profile. People keep their friends and followers updated through their profile.
People keep their friends updated by posting pictures, stories, check-ins, etc. Posting check-ins on Facebook is away to share your current location with your followers. Individuals usually do this when they go out to restaurants. People post pictures on Instagram and Snapchat. Posting on social media has a strong impact on the minds of people. A study was conducted by Chau and Chang (2016) in which they in-depth interviewed a number of girls. The girls agreed that they spend a lot of time editing their pictures before posting them. They also said that if they are in sort of a competition with their friends and if they get more likes then their friends, they start feeling prettier. They girls also said that if alleviate their sense of well-being. This shows the effect of social media on the well-being of youth. The girls are in a competition on the basis of likes and comments and if they lose the competition their mental health and well-being is affected negatively.
Internet Addiction is also a term which has importance and relevance in today's world. Excessive use of internet leads people to behavioral addiction (Bianchi & Phillips, 2005). The use of internet leads people to develop strong relationships with their friends. The usage thus becomes an addiction and when one doesn't have excess to the internet he faces mood swings. People who are on drugs face mood swings when they are unable to get them, similarly people who use internet face mood swings when are do not have its access. The intensity may vary in every individual. A lot of teenagers play online video games. (Andreassen et al., 2016) Video games serve their primary function of entertaining teenagers but subliminally they make teenagers addicted and violent as well. These video games decrease the tolerance level of teenagers as well.
The study focuses on the effects of social media use on teenagers' mental health. The literature supports the argument that teenagers who tend to use social media frequently are affected the most. Their mental health is also affected. The studies which were reviewed proved that people suffer through anxiety and depression after their use. Most of the people think that using social media will help them get rid of their worries, they consider it as a way out from their problems; however, they get trapped in all of it over and over again. The well-being of teenagers is affected as well. People who have positive effect on their well being tend to get attracted towards social media more, they get addicted to it and then they are unable to live without it. This leads them to mood swings, less tolerance, stress, and anxiety. Stress and depression leads people to isolate themselves. Isolation and Anxiety makes teenagers to spend more time on social media. They start to avoid in-person interaction. This worked like a cycle where a person who feels he's depressed starts using social media, initially, he feels good and relieved but gradually he starts to experience stress and anxiety. They individual is already so addicted to social media that, even if he wants to, he is unable to quit.
Quantitative method of research will be employed in this particular study. With the help of quantitative method the research hypothesis will be tested. Using quantitative method means that the researcher will gather and analyze the data statistically. Survey method will be used to gather the data and the tool of measurement will be a self constructed questionnaire. The sample of the research is going to be the drawn from within the population. A close ended questionnaire will be constructed and distributed among the selected sample.
Since convenience sampling was used as a technique to collect data, the number of respondents from both the genders was not equal. There were 52% male respondents and 48% were female.People spend a lot of time using social media. Social media now has become the most important part of our lives. People spend most of their time surfing the internet. Out of the 25 respondents 56% said that they use social media 3-5 hours a day. 20% said they use it 2-3 hours daily, while 8% said that use it 10 hours a day.Social media is a part of our lives and most of the people cannot spend a single day without it. Every individual has a different reason to choose social media. Out of the 25 respondents 52% said that they choose it as a source of entertainment, 36% said they use it as a way to kill time, and the rest said that they use it as a source of communication.
Most of the people choose social media as a source of entertainment and later they start enjoying it. Since they enjoy using it so much they are unable to quit it. 68% of the respondents said that they enjoy using social media and the rest gave neutral response.Social media has made people conscious about themselves. Teenagers are conscious about themselves and their lifestyles. They evaluate themselves on the basis of the comments and likes they get the pictures that they post on different social media platforms. 72% of the respondents said that they check the number of likes they get after they post a picture on social media and 20% gave neutral response.Most of the people choose to use social media because they feel lonely. In order to get rid of the loneliness they start using social media. They start viewing social media as their companion. 52% of the respondents agreed that they consider social media as a companion while 42% gave neutral response.Social media is an integral part of the lives of teenagers these days. It is a part of the routine of teenagers. They surf through the internet and scroll different websites before going to sleep. Most of them use it before going to sleep which induces poor quality of sleep. 100% of the respondents agreed that they use social media before going to sleep. 64% strongly agreed.
Social media plays an important role in inducing poor quality of sleep. Most of the people are unaware of it but they unconsciously face the repercussions. 72% of the respondents agreed that they face poor quality of sleep, while 20% disagreed and 8% gave neutral response.People use social media and they post their pictures, stories, and check ins. They post pictures with their friends and family. People who do not have friends get upset and start disliking their lifestyles. 44% of the people agreed that they want to live the life of the people they follow on social media. 44% gave neutral response.
People evaluate themselves on the basis of the number of likes and comments they get on their pictures they post on their social media profiles. People are affected negatively if they do not get enough likes and comments. This makes them upset. 32% of the respondents agreed that they get upset when they do not get the number of likes that they had expected.
Anxiety is one of the major causes of the disruption of mental peace among teenagers. A lot of teenagers face anxiety due to different reasons, but social media is one of the main causes. The intensity may vary from individual to individual but it affects every person. 36% of the respondents agreed that they face anxiety, while 24% gave neutral response.
A lot of people use social media as a way to communicate. They consider it as a way to get rid of the non-mediated form of communication. Most of the people consider it as an easy way out. A lot of teenagers face anxiety when talking face to face so they prefer to use the mediated form of communication. 84% of the respondents agreed that they consider it as an easy option.
People post their personal and professional life on social media. They keep their friends and followers updated. A lot of teenagers achieve a lot during their teen years. The posts usually make other people envious and subliminally sad. 24% of the respondents agreed that they get envious of other people's achievements 28% gave neutral response.
Bibliography
Connection Between Social Media and Mental Health. (2024, Feb 05). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/connection-between-social-media-and-mental-health-essay
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