In recent years, social media has been expanding rapidly as a popular networking application amongst people worldwide, allowing users to create and share content and interact with others through various social media platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. With the development of social media features and the emerging number of people going online these days, not only does social media make it easier for people to communicate virtually, but it has also enabled a considerable amount of people to make money from it, say, by becoming a content creator or an entrepreneur. On that note, social media has become an integral part of society at large.
Despite it benefitting many areas of life, previous research shows that social media also plays a huge role in triggering mental health issues. Mental health itself implies a state of well-being that enables someone to live normally, cope with everyday-life problems, be aware of their capacity and contribute to their surroundings. In maintaining mental health, people need what is called socialisation with other people to reduce sadness or loneliness as well as improve confidence and self-worth. In today's era, where most of us "socialise" through social media, we find ourselves staring down at our phone for far too long to check on notifications, reply to comments on Instagram, count how many likes we've got, etc, which sadly is not the kind of interaction human beings need to boost positive mental health, instead spending an exaggerated amount of time on social media will trigger a sense of loneliness and anxiety, which eventually could lead to depression.
According to The Displaced Behaviour Theory, the link between social media and mental health is based on the lack of face-to-face interaction in real life since social media use usually requires people to be in sedentary behaviour mode. Due to this reason, in the long run, social media can affect people's well-being and daily life with the most risk for young group audiences since these groups of people are more prone to be influenced by their peers and are still in the developing ages to find themselves, so much so that validity from others is deemed really important. Having said that, older audiences are not excluded from having mental health issues caused by the excessive use of social networking platforms.
One of the effects of social media on mental health is a decrease in self-esteem since, generally, all social media users, for instance, Instagram, tend to post something fun on their account, making others feel like they have nothing similar to that or that their life is less exciting. A study found that 70% of a group of active social media users said to have depression symptoms due to social media only showing the good things happening in someone's life while forgetting that people also have their own struggles and difficulties in real life.
In addition to that, according to research, females social media users are more prone to having mental health issues than males, and part of it comes from social media's ability to pose body image issues, especially among young teenage girls, who often compare their bodies to other girls, which can hurt them mentally and force them to change themselves even though initially they would not do that. Moreover, a lot of these females often get cyberbullied by people online commenting on their bodies or even their lifestyles. A lot of cases regarding this cyberbullying keep on happening up to this day, but one of the most extreme examples of social media use on someone's mental health is a South Korean singer and actress, Sulli, who committed suicide back in 2019 due to the heavy pressure she had to endure from news and netizens talking badly about her appearance, lover and lifestyle.
Another research on this topic is the presence of Facebook and its connection to increased depression and anxiety among college students. This is seen from the increase in students reporting having mental disorders not long after Facebook's launch in February 2004 with a 7% increase in severe depression and 20% in anxiety disorders while some others who were vulnerable to mental disorders symptoms were treated with therapy or antidepressants. Furthermore, researchers stated that the longer someone is exposed to Facebook, the stronger the effect becomes.
Overall, the correlation between social media and mental health issues is something that needs more attention from everyone, considering the fact that it can hugely impact people's daily life. Social media sure does have a lot of advantages, but it can also become problematic if not used right which could have an impact on people's level of anxiety and depression. If social media has made you isolate yourself, neglect school or work, compare yourself to others, or even suffer from lack of sleep, it may be time for you to reassess your time spent on social media and start using it wisely.
References
Beyari, H. (2023). The Relationship between Social Media and the Increase in Mental Health Problems. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(3), 2383. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032383
Daniels, N. (2021, October 1). How does social media affect your mental health? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/learning/how-does-social-media-affect-your-mental-health.html
Karim, F., Oyewande, A. A., Abdalla, L. F., Ehsanullah, R. C., & Khan, S. (2020). Social media Use and its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic review. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.8627