Does Social Media Have a Positive or Negative Impact on Mental Health?

Does Social Media Have a Positive or Negative Impact on Mental Health?

Human beings are inherently social beings with a constant need for a progressive human-to-human connection (Karim et al., 2020). Through such connections, humans have been noted to improve their mental well-being and reduce the risk of stress, anxiety, and other depressive symptoms. In fact, the deprivation of such social connections risks poor physical and mental development and poor mental health in adolescents (Orben et al., 2020). The effects of lack of social connection on mental health have been identified during COVID-19 as a result of adopted measures such as social distancing and the resulting mental health crisis (Galea et al., 2020). Consistently, technological advancements, especially in the development and widespread adoption of social media platforms, have changed how people socialize, connect, and communicate. Social media have emerged as new socialization agents, generating virtual social settings that influence how people interact, communicate, and see themselves and the world Uznienė (2022). Because socializing is considered a form of media Genner & Süss (2017), and socialization influences both mental and physical well-being, there are huge debates about whether socialization through social media positively or negatively impacts mental health. Social media use negatively impacts mental health. As the United States and the world are seeing an increase in the adoption and prolonged use of social media as a medium of communication, as well as a growing mental health crisis, it is critical to explore whether social media use has an impact on mental health. This research proposal aims to develop a qualitative study to explore whether social media positively or negatively impacts mental health.

Literature Review

With recent global events impacting physical human socialization, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and advancements in technology, especially social media and related technologies, research interests have grown on how social media use affects mental health. The topic has become prominent in research as several studies have investigated how social media use affects the user’s mental health. For instance, a study by Bekalu et al. (2019) associates social media usage with improved social wellness, mental health, and self-reported health outcomes. The authors appreciate that the vast research on the topic has focused on social media usage as normal socialization, which affects mental and physical health outcomes. Arguably, Bekalu et al. (2019) note that past research has narrowed its focus on the mental wellness impacts of social media use based on the duration and frequency of use. However, research ignores the emotional connections users develop with social media usage and how it can improve their lives. From the perspectives of adult Americans and how they include social media in their daily routines and how they emotionally get connected to the sites they use, Bekalu et al. (2019) found that routine social media usage positively impacted health outcomes, while emotional connection to social media had negative health outcomes. In a systematic review, Keles et al. (2020) found similar positive and negative effects among adolescents. The review found that social media usage improved adolescents’ social interactions and social involvement as well as access to peer support. Increased use risked exposure to aggressive online behavior. Bekalu et al. (2019)  relate these mixed effects; negative or positive effects of social media use were associated with the level of usage and emotional connection with use and may vary across individuals with regard to their socioeconomic status, gender, and race.

Although social media use has major social benefits that improve the health and social wellbeing of an individual (Bekalu et al., 2019; Keles et al., 2020), Viner et al. (2019) argue that the concerns over the potential negative effects of social media use and mental health and wellbeing among young people cannot be ignored. In their study, although Bekalu et al. (2019) argue that the dose-effect approach is not sufficient to determine the effect of the complex social media use-mental health relations and more factors need to be explored, Viner et al. (2019) focus on the effect of how frequently the young adults use social media use and how it eventually affects their mental health and wellness. However, Viner et al. (2019) also integrate other factors, such as gender and intention of social media use, in mediating the impacts of social media use on mental health. The evidence shows that there are varying degrees of social media use among boys and girls. Considerably, girls are more likely to use social media frequently than boys. The rate of use increases exposure to cyberbullying and negatively impacts sleep and physical activity. Viner et al. (2019) found that the combined frequent social media use, exposure to cyberbullying, poor sleep, and lowered physical activity increased levels of anxiety and negative life satisfaction and happiness. Conclusively, the negative mental health and wellbeing outcomes of social media use can be related to the frequency of use, gender, and or both exposure to cyberbullying and/or the lack of sleep and/or physical activity (Viner et al., 2019). Additionally, Viner et al. (2019) recommend employing interventions that prevent and improve resilience to cyberbullying and promote better sleep and physical activity among adolescents and young people.

Current evidence on the topic of social media use and mental health makes it harder and trickier to conclude the actual effects of social media on mental health. For instance, Ni et al. (2020) argue that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was characterized by reduced physical socialization, social media became a major socialization platform. Evidence from their study shows that the Internet is an invaluable resource for supporting telemedicine, ensuring daily routines, and supporting socialization and communication in healthcare. However, increased social media use among the community and healthcare professionals during the pandemic in search of pandemic-related information led to an emotional contagion with an increased rate of anxiety and depression. However, Ni et al. (2020) do not directly link social media use to the increased mental health crisis but to access to misinformation about the pandemic. In a similar study, Zhao and Zhou (2020) posit that the various underlying stressors related to the pandemic lead to the increased negative mental health outcomes associated with increased COVID-19-related social media use. From the findings of their study, Zhao and Zhou (2020) argue that, although prolonged social media use is related to negative mental health outcomes, increased exposure to negative disaster news through social media during the pandemic increased the rate of depression among users. Hence, it is the negative effect that mediates the leads to negative mental health with social media use.

Conclusively, current knowledge still does not agree on the impact of social media use on mental health, as evidence links social media to positive and negative mental health. However, studies supporting positive or negative mental health with social media use seem to be inconclusive in their findings. Therefore, there is a need for further research that combines more factors of mental health with social media use, including frequency, duration, gender, socioeconomic factors, as well as other individual user factors, to accurately determine how social media use affects mental health.

Problem Statement

Social media today is an essential part of people’s daily social life. The expansion of internet access and social media adoption and usage are today viewed as factors of social evolution (Sadagheyani & Tatari, 2021). Social media has improved the accessibility of social connections, entertainment, news, and information. Regardless of the growing research focused on social media use and mental health outcomes, the actual impacts of social media usage remain unclear, and the evidence is contradictory (Sadagheyani & Tatari, 2021). Some evidence shows that social media can be agents of socialization and a source of needed social connection (Uznienė, 2022). The virtual world enabled by social media can provide social support and create a sense of having a social life. However, other study findings related social media to the development of mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, loneliness, and addiction (Srivastava et al., 2019). As an argument for the negative social media effects on mental health, Karim et al. (2020) argue that social media usage could lead to envy with detrimental effects on the severity of anxiety and depression in individuals. The conflicting evidence on the effects of social media on mental health creates the need for a deeper investigation of the phenomena of social media and its impact on mental health. The proposed qualitative study will aim to determine whether social media positively or negatively impacts the mental health of users.

Theoretical Framework

The proposed study will be guided by the transactional model of development (Sameroff, 2009). The transactional model of development helps us understand how human development occurs due to influencing and getting influenced by factors within an individual’s environment. This means a form of transaction exists between the individual and the context of influence. Individuals may be influenced or impacted by familial, social, economic, or cultural forces. According to the model, transactions occur whenever one person influences or is affected by another (Sameroff, 2009). Such transactions occur at all levels of interactions and impact physical and psychosocial development.

The following hypothesis will be tested in the proposed research:

H₁: Social media use negatively impacts mental health.

References

Bekalu, M. A., McCloud, R. F., & Viswanath, K. (2019). Association of Social Media Use With Social Wellbeing, Positive Mental Health, and Self-Rated Health: Disentangling Routine Use From Emotional Connection to Use. Health Education and Behavior, 46(2_suppl), 69–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198119863768/ASSET/IMAGES/LARGE/10.1177_1090198119863768-FIG3.JPEG

Galea, S., Merchant, R. M., & Lurie, N. (2020). The Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19 and Physical Distancing. JAMA Internal Medicine, 180(6). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.1562

Genner, S., & Süss, D. (2017). Socialization as Media Effect. In The International Encyclopedia of Media Effects. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118783764.wbieme0138

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, 12(6). https://doi.org/10.7759/CUREUS.8627

Keles, B., McCrae, N., & Grealish, A. (2020). A systematic review: the influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. In International Journal of Adolescence and Youth (Vol. 25, Issue 1). https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2019.1590851

Ni, M. Y., Yang, L., Leung, C. M. C., Li, N., Yao, X. I., Wang, Y., Leung, G. M., Cowling, B. J., & Liao, Q. (2020). Mental Health, Risk Factors, and Social Media Use During the COVID-19 Epidemic and Cordon Sanitaire Among the Community and Health Professionals in Wuhan, China: Cross-Sectional Survey. JMIR Ment Health, 7(5), e19009. https://doi.org/10.2196/19009

Orben, A., Tomova, L., & Blakemore, S. J. (2020). The effects of social deprivation on adolescent development and mental health. In The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health (Vol. 4, Issue 8). https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30186-3

Sadagheyani, H. E., & Tatari, F. (2021). Investigating the role of social media on mental health. In Mental Health and Social Inclusion (Vol. 25, Issue 1). https://doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-06-2020-0039

Sameroff, A. (2009). The transactional model. The Transactional Model of Development: How Children and Contexts Shape Each Other., 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1037/11877-001

Srivastava, K., Chaudhury, S., Prakash, J., & Dhamija, S. (2019). Social media and mental health challenges. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 28(2), 155. https://doi.org/10.4103/IPJ.IPJ_154_20

Uznienė, R. (2022). Media – Agents of Socialization. Regional Formation and Development Studies, 8(3). https://doi.org/10.15181/rfds.v7i2.2378

Viner, R. M., Aswathikutty-Gireesh, A., Stiglic, N., Hudson, L. D., Goddings, A. L., Ward, J. L., & Nicholls, D. E. (2019). Roles of cyberbullying, sleep, and physical activity in mediating the effects of social media use on mental health and wellbeing among young people in England: a secondary analysis of longitudinal data. The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, 3(10), 685–696. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(19)30186-5

Zhao, N., & Zhou, G. (2020). Social Media Use and Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Moderator Role of Disaster Stressor and Mediator Role of Negative Affect. Applied Psychology: Health and Wellbeing, 12(4), 1019–1038. https://doi.org/10.1111/

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Free Essay Sample. Add a literature review to provide a background for your proposal and justification for the proposed study. Your review of the literature should include pertinent/recent data on your phenomenon of interest and should provide the impetus for the proposed research.

The literature review should also include information about the theoretical framework or conceptual frame for your proposed study. Your paper should not exceed 4 pages, excluding the title and reference pages. This assignment is worth 125 points. Be sure to proof your work before submission and make sure you are following APA (7th ed) guidelines.