Social Media Effects on Mental Health
In today’s society, it is rare to find an individual who’s not in possession of a smartphone. According to Taylor (2023), there are more than six billion smartphone users worldwide. Smartphones provide easy access to social media platforms, which continue to increase in number with the advancement in time and technology. Social media platforms create opportunities for people to interact all over the world, and their freedom during their interactions has led to numerous adversities, including their impacts on mental health. Accordingly, social media affects mental health because of anxiety, depression, and self-harm that are subjected to people.
Mental health issues stemming from social media occur from information shared on the platforms. According to Buckland (2014), people perceive information differently, as knowledge deeming facts or as a process of getting informed or becoming aware. Consistently, these definitions illustrate why mental issues arise because of information intercepted from social media. Therefore, information shared on social media platforms, be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube, amongst other platforms carries weight for a targeted individual. Additionally, social media has continued to be linked to the current increase in mental health problems, as illustrated since 2000 (Braghieri et al., 2022). Subsequently, the increase in smartphone ownership and social media platform use is directly linked to the increase in mental health conditions because of its impact on self-expression, all of which can be elaborated on using documentaries.
Social media affects mental health by increasing anxiety in users. Social media platforms allow individuals to share their lives and express themselves. However, their expression can be met with aggression by other users, leading to anxiety disorders. Also, anxiety disorders can be illustrated in excess fear, response to a perceived or otherwise threat, and anxiety in anticipation of a threat to come. People use social media to interact, reducing their face-to-face interactions with others, and anxiety symptoms are apparent when they have to interact with people face-to-face (Karim et al., 2020). Subsequently, increased screen time on social media platforms reduces face-to-face interactions, increasing anxiety tied to such interactions. Thus, studying interactions occurs through conversations and interviews (Aufderheide, 2008); this helps establish the impacts of social media on mental health.
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Additionally, social media affects mental health by increasing depression cases among users. Social media reduces social relationships and community life participation as people mostly interact online. Consequently, without these aspects in people’s lives, the feelings of loneliness increase, leading to depression. Additionally, people predisposed to depressive tendencies are more susceptible to negative mental health conditions, in addition to factors such as gender and age (Braghieri et al., 2022). The increase in the use of antidepressants illustrates the increase in depression cases. Consistently asking questions is mandatory to grasp the extent of any given topic (Nichols, 2017). In this case, questions will establish the number of people under depression remedies, including antidepressants, establishing the severity of social media effects on mental health.
Further, social media affects mental health by increasing self-harm tendencies. Social media promotes social standards, including beauty and wealth, among others. Comparison is inevitable when standards are already set, creating pressure on users to meet the set standards (Karim et al., 2020). Meeting stereotypic standards while being popular might put a user down when they do not measure up. Furthermore, they may compare themselves with their peers and not only to other popular figures on social media (Braghieri et al., 2022), influencing their self-esteem. Low self-esteem leads to self-harming tendencies such as eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, and non-suicidal actions such as cutting and burning oneself to cope with inadequacy feelings and to measure up. Therefore, selecting the appropriate target population and medium can aid in enlightenment on social media effects on mental health documentaries. There are alternative platforms for documentaries (Balsom & Peleg, 2016), including social media.
In conclusion, mental health is greatly affected by social media. Many factors play into the severity of the effects, including time spent online, gender, age, and predisposition. Some of the common conditions linked to mental health include self-harm, anxiety, and depression, all of which are represented in several signs and symptoms and may even represent a greater condition. Documentaries will help spread awareness and enlighten people about what to be keen on. Several factors can be considered during documentary creation, including medium for use, target population, and means of interaction.
References
Aufderheide, P. (2008). Documentary film: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
Balsom, E., & Peleg, H. (2016). Documentary Across Disciplines. Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
Braghieri, L., Levy, R., & Makarin, A. (2022). Social Media and Mental Health. American Economic Review, 112(11), 3660–3693. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20211218
Buckland, M. (2014). Documentality beyond documents. The Monist, 97(2), 179–186. https://doi.org/10.5840/monist201497212
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
Nichols, B. (2017). Introduction to documentary (3rd ed.). Indiana University Press.
Taylor, P. (2023, January 18). Smartphone subscriptions worldwide 2027. Statista. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/.