In recent years, social media has rapidly grown as one of the primary sources of social interaction. For the most part, we have seen it as a great thing due to the fact that communicating with others, even those across the world, is easier now than it has ever been. When taking a look at adolescents and young adults, practically everyone uses some form of social media. On the flipside of the positive factors of having social media, there can be many negatives to come with it. In particular, frequently using social media is likely to cause mental health issues in young adults, including both anxiety and depression.
Chloe Berryman; Christopher J. Ferguson and Charles Negy, all of which who study psychology in association with Stetson University, put out an article on Psychiatric Quarterly, entitled, “Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults.” According to data pulled from a survey involving large sample of adolescents in 2017, the Royal Society for Public Health reported that there were in fact evidence for connections between social media use and mental health issues (Berryman 308). Although, with the way the data was collected, it is not safe to say that social media use is always the root cause of all socio-personal problems, there certainly is still a connection between the two (Berryman 313). With this being said, it helps point towards the idea that social media can be a good thing, but when it is used by an individual too much, that is when it becomes an issue.
Jeff Cain, EdD, MS, an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice & Science at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, includes his take on the effects of social media in an American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education article entitled, “It’s Time to Confront Student Mental Health Issues Associated with Smartphones and Social Media.” He agrees with the fact that there are many other factors in the lives of young adults that could influence mental health problems, but suggests that the combined effects of both cell phone and social media use have a negative effect on ones well-being (Cain 738). Cain references an annual survey which is conducted by The American College Health Association (ACHA) which examines the health of college students. The results of the survey included the following:
From their 2016 survey of 5099 graduate and professional students across 34 schools, the ACHA reports that within the last 12 months, 41.5% of students “felt things were hopeless,” 51.8% “felt very lonely,” 55.3% “felt overwhelming anxiety,” and 33.5% “felt so depressed that it was difficult to function.”
Based on the survey itself, it is undeniable that in recent years, the trend of increased symptoms of mental health issues is prevalent. When comparing the increase popularity of social media and cell phones to the increased levels of mental health problems, the correlation becomes quite apparent (Cain 738).
Dr. Santhiny Rajamohan, PhD, RN, an associate professor of nursing, who has an area of specialty in mental health nursing, put out an article on, Nursing, entitled, “The hazards and benefits of social media use in adolescents.” Rajamohan mentions that the connection between depressive symptoms and social media usage stems from adolescents building more online and less offline relationships. Those who use social media daily were reported to feel more lonely than those who do not (Rajamohan 52). The loneliness, which has been linked to social media use, has further been linked to symptoms of both depression and anxiety in young adults. With there being many cases of depression that developed from overuse of social media, the term “Facebook depression” has been coined by psychologists. The term refers to any cases of depression in which the primary cause was said to be using social media too much (Rajamohan 53). The overall point of this article was that overuse of social media directly causes issues which are likely to lead to larger problems, such as developing depression.
When it comes to pinpointing exactly what aspects influence an increase in mental health issues, there have been many different experiments done to track just that. Specifically, a cluster analysis put together by Ariel Shensa, a statistician and research scientist at the University of Pittsburgh, helped report on that on a relatively large scale. In “Social Media Use and Depression and Anxiety Symptoms: A Cluster Analysis,” on American Journal of Health Behavior, with research conducted by multiple PhD holders and Certified Health Education Specialist, data was collected from a sample of 1730 adults ages 32 and under. The goal of the analysis was to identify different patterns of social media use and to then determine whether or not they are in association with different patterns of depression and anxiety symptoms (Shensa 116). Researchers then created 5 different “clusters,” or groups to determine how often someone uses social media. Each of the categories were “Wired,” “Connected,” “Diffuse Dabblers,” “Concentrated Dabblers,” and “Unplugged,” with wired being a great deal of social media use, and unplugged as little to no social media use. These categories were created based on things such as time spent on social media, frequency, how many platforms used and problematic social media intensity, each of which being made up of multiple sub categories to determine each (Shensa 119).
After situating all of the variables, and making sure the method of research would not have any flaws, there were results leading to show correlation between social media use and symptoms of depression and anxiety (Shensa 123). Of the five clusters, symptoms of depression and anxiety were only prevalent in two of which. The two clusters being “Wired” and “Connected,” being the two which include the most time spent on social media. As showcased by many other studies, those who spend a great deal of time on social media are much more likely to develop these mental health issues than those who do not spend what is considered to be too much time on social media (Shensa 123). As suggested in other studies, the idea of using social media too much and spending too much time on these sites is what ultimately leads to mental health problems like depression and anxiety.
In addition to the studies that have been done to determine whether or not adolescents and young adults are experiencing these symptoms, there have been surveys reported which involve asking a sample of users to evaluate themselves. In particular, a self administered questionnaire, involving people aged 17–25, was put out on the internet by a woman named Faazila Fathima and other Indian pediatrics. She then reported the results of the survey in her article titled “Social Media and Anxiety — a Survey,” which was a part of Drug Invention Today. The survey sampled 100 individuals, and was aimed to find whether or not there is a correlation between the amount of time spent on social media, and anxiety in adolescents and young adults. The survey begin with questions based solely on social media usage. It had found that 26% of users stated that they spend 6 to 8 hours on social media a day, in addition to this, an even scarier statistic was that 47% of survey takers reported to spending more than 8 hours on social media a day (Fathima 1842). It was also reported that the survey resulted in 57% of participants admitting to feeling anxious when not able to use social media, and that 40% of individuals stated that there have been negative impacts on their self esteem as a result of using social media (Fathima 1843). Those with a low self esteem and anxiety are then more likely to develop depression. When taking a look at these percentages, it becomes quite apparent that social media use can have a negative impact on one’s mental health.
From an overall standpoint, using social media in moderation is not all that likely to cause severe mental health issues. But with that being said, overuse of social media has a strong connection to various mental health problems, including both depression and anxiety. If used too much, social media is bound to cause various mental problems primarily in adolescents and young adults.
Works Cited
Berryman, Chloe, et al. “Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults.” Psychiatric Quarterly. Academic Search Complete, doi:10.1007/ s11126–017–9535–6. Accessed 5 Nov. 2019.
Cain, Jeff. “It’s Time to Confront Student Mental Health Issues Associated with Smartphones and Social Media.” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. Gale Academic OneFile, eds-a-ebscohost-com.library.icc.edu/ eds/detail/ detail?vid=4&sid=5ecdd8f7–59e5–4740–8597-de04f3f41577%40pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=JnN jb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#AN=edsgcl.562035613&db=edsgao. Accessed 5 Nov. 2019
Fathima, Faazila, et al. “Social Media and Anxiety — a Survey.” Drug Invention
Today, vol. 12, no. 9, Sept. 2019, pp. 1841–44. Academic Search
Complete, eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/ detail?vid=12&sid=e9023ae9–6957–4681-a47b-ee2b538552ec%40sdc-v-sessmgr02&bdata=Jn Njb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#AN=138949534&db=a9h. Accessed 11 Nov. 2019.
Rajamohan, Santhiny. “The hazards and benefits of social media use in adolescents.” Nursing, vol. 49, no. 11, pp. 52–56. Wilson OmniFile Full Text Mega Edition, doi:10.1097/01.NURSE.0000585908.13109.24. Accessed 6 Nov. 2019.
Shensa, Ariel, et al. “Social Media Use and Depression and Anxiety Symptoms: A
Cluster Analysis.” American Journal of Health Behavior, 2018, pp. 116–28.
CINAHL Plus with Full Text, http://dx.doi.org.library.icc.edu/10.5993/
AJHB.42.2.11. Accessed 12 Nov. 2019.