HOW SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTS HUMANS MENTAL HEALTH

Social media are responsible for aggravating mental health problems.

VARIABLE

1. Social Media & Anxiety

4. Social media and loneliness

RATIONALE

As social media nowadays is widely use so it is important for us to focus on it does it really
affects a person’s mental health or not. Being a social media addict I faced a lot problem in my
personal life so I want to highlight that how social media affects a persons life and also how if
could beneficial and a lot use of use can degrade you. Even I want to highlight why this social
media is so addictive. Even ICD and DSM are focusing on the aspects of social media addiction
and video game addiction so this is the time to focus on this topics and have deeper study as well
as research on it.

Literature Review

This research effort is targeted at finding the effects of social media on mental health. Therefore,
the literature review discusses the relevant research that is useful to the objectives of this
research project. Several research studies investigating the topic under review are found to be
very recent. Since most of the innovative features offered by social media platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others are not that old and the phenomenon of the use of
these media has boosted recently with the introduction of revolutionary features and platforms, a
volume of recent research on its effects on human mental health is available. Most of the studies
chosen have been published in the past four to five years.
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, the number of social media users worldwide in 2019 is 3.484 billion, up
9% year-on-year . 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.

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 debated 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 [10-15]. 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
As the reason behind this much use of SNS is the algorithm on which this social media is
designed is The Social Dilemma features former social media developers from companies like
Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These developers explain how they have created
design techniques like push notifications and endless news feed scrolling to keep us glued to our
devices and to control our behavior. The main dilemma that comes from this is that millions of
people are becoming addicted to social media, which can be harmful for our wellbeing. Even if
you’re not on social media, you can just as easily become addicted to checking your email inbox,
because of those same tactics. A 5,000 person study found that higher social media and screen
time use correlated with self-reported declines in mental and physical health, and life
satisfaction. In the 16 studies, anxiety and depression were the most commonly measured
outcome. The prominent risk factors for anxiety and depression emerging from this study
comprised time spent, activity, and addiction to social media. In today's world, anxiety is one of
the basic mental health problems. People liked and commented on their uploaded photos and
videos. In today's age, everyone is immune to the social media context. Some teens experience
anxiety from social media related to fear of loss, which causes teens to try to respond and check
all their friends' messages and messages on a regular basis.

On the contrary, depression is one of the unintended significances of unnecessary use of social
media. In detail, depression is limited not only to Facebooks but also to other social networking
sites, which causes psychological problems. A new study found that individuals who are
involved in social media, games, texts, mobile phones, etc. are more likely to experience
depression.

The previous study found a 70% increase in self-reported depressive symptoms among the group
using social media. The other social media influence that causes depression is sexual fun [12].
The intimacy fun happens when social media promotes putting on a facade that highlights the
fun and excitement but does not tell us much about where we are struggling in our daily lives at a
deeper level. Another study revealed that depression and time spent on Facebook by adolescents
are positively correlated. More importantly, symptoms of major depression have been found
among the individuals who spent most of their time in online activities and performing image
management on social networking sites.

Another study assessed gender differences in associations between social media use and mental
health. Females were found to be more addicted to social media as compared with males. Passive
activity in social media use such as reading posts is more strongly associated with depression
than doing active use like making posts . Other important findings of this review suggest that
other factors such as interpersonal trust and family functioning may have a greater influence on
the symptoms of depression than the frequency of social media use.

Methods

AIM: Identify that social media affects human mental health maybe on a positive or
negative side.

Population :

1. People more addicted to social media .

Sampling techniques: probability sampling.

Statistical techniques:

For the purpose of this study a quantitative research method was used to investigate the
following questions: RQ1. What is the relationship between the number of hours of daily
social media usage and depression? Quantitative research design allows for data to be
obtained from a larger number of participants and is structured to provide statistical and
computational results of data. The most common technique for collecting quantitative data
include surveys and questionnaires. Quantitative research approach is better suited for
generalizing findings to larger populations and identifying general trends in populations

A quantitative approach is utilized when a researcher converts observations into data for
analysis from a neutral objective perspective. Quantitative research can tell you when,
where, and how often things happen. Data is gathered in numerical forms which can be
assigned to categories or rank orders as well as measured in units of measurements. Most
often surveys are utilized for quantitative research. A survey design allows for quantitative
description of trends, attitudes, and opinions of populations. Survey designs assist
researchers to answer three kinds of questions: descriptive questions, questions about
relationships between variables, and questions about predictive relationships between
variable over time. 
A descriptive research design is the most appropriate method for analyzing the data in the
present study. Descriptive analysis is correlational and examines relationships. It is vital to
examine the relationship between social media and mental health as well as social media
and relationship satisfaction and jealousy. The descriptive statistics allows to quantitatively
summarize data gathered from online surveys and questionnaires. Descriptive statistics
assist in analyzing quantitative survey responses .

REFRENCES

1. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shabir-Bhat/publication/
323018957_Effects_of_Social_Media_on_Mental_Health_A_Review/links/
5a7c9e97aca272341aeb7472/Effects-of-Social-Media-on-Mental-Health-A-Review.pdf
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4183915/
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7392374/
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5904786/
5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026840121400098X
6. https://www.spotlightonresearch.com/mental-health-research/the-impact-of-social-media-
on-mental-health
7. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563219301931