The Negative Effects Of Social Media And Depression

Social Networking: The recent study revealed that more and more people of all age groups are facing depression due to social networking. For e.g. someone enjoying outing/get together with friends or getting more likes or comments makes one feel jealous and/or left out. Most children and young people are experiencing loneliness due this.

Social media has been widely used in the United States and the rest of the world. These sites influenced the way we communicate, but, what about our health? According to the National Center for Biotechnology, researchers have found that the use of social media has increased the number of psychiatric disorders

With this increase in technology, particularly the internet and social media, researchers have begun to question its effects on mental health, particularly anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

Some people may wonder what effect social media has on people worldwide. Many people are using social media daily and because of that, they might not know the effects that can be lurking behind a screen and causing harm to their mental health. Social media has many negative effects on mental health. Some people could think that mental health and social media has no relation, when it does. It is a fast-growing issue with many “cause and effect” reasons behind it. Each cause needs to be recognized along with the effect it has on the people who use social media.

Social media has been an essential piece of peoples’ lives around the world. Social media can be used for either interactive websites or even entertainment websites for people. Today, social media can come in many different forms like blogs, forums, podcast, photo sharing, social bookmarking, live broadcasting video, and more. Social media sites can spread news of engagements, divorces, and even break ups. We also hear about job gains and losses, political news, or even the news of life and death where it can be easy or hard to become overwhelmed. Today there are many different reasons and opinions on why social media can cause an effect on mental health especially on major depression. People of different age groups can access social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to observe posts and entries that people can put on these sites every day. Some of the entrees and posts people

In 1971 the first email was sent. This was the beginning of social media. Social media is a form of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other contents. Social media sites are like fads where people eventually stop using them and move on to the next one. This essay will be about the effects of social media on the mental health of the main users of social media.

The more we use social media, the less happy we seem to be. Many people would agree that social media leads to isolation, depression, and anxiety. Social Media impacts people in many ways; some are good, but some are very bad. Using social media to communicate is extremely convenient, unfortunately, more people are developing social anxiety because we are learning to comunicate through a screen from a young age. Also, seeing people posting about all the good in their lives can lead you to compare yourself to others. Most importantly, increased exposure of bullying through the internet contributes to high risk of depression. Generally, social media has more bad effects on our mental health than good ones.

Firstly, there have been significant links between our online presence and other aspects of our mental health, which has inspired the subject matter of many recent research studies around the world. There are many psychological and physical factors that affect our mental well-being due to the impact of social media. Depression and Body Dysmorphia being the leading causes, due to the content the individuals are exposed to while online. Even though researchers coined the correlation between social media use and depression as complex. Data was collected from a sample of 340 first year college students, and the findings were that the increase use of Facebook have been associated with higher levels of loneliness. Also the extensive use of Facebook has been associated with higher rates of disordered eating and body image insecurity.

Becker, M. W., Alzahabi, R., & Hopwood, C. J. (2013). Media Multitasking Is Associated with Symptoms of Depression and Social Anxiety. Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 16(2), 132-135. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0291

Social media is described, by the Merriam-Webster dictionary (2015), as “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)”. As few as 10 years ago the term social media was yet to be coined, but within that decade the use of these blogs, websites and sharing platforms has increased exponentially with no plateau in sight. From creating Instagram accounts for household pets, to sharing Halloween themed baking ideas over Pinterest, people today have access to social media outlets for almost everything. Today about 74% of people ages 18-65 use some form of a social networking site (Pew, 2014). Facebook takes the lead in social media usage with about 71% of those adults. LinkedIn and Pinterest are tied for second at 28% of users, 26% use Instagram, and Twitter falls last in the top 5 most used social medias with 23% of users (Pew, 2014). In September of 2013 the Pew Research Center measured that 90% of adults ages 18-29 used these social media outlets on a daily basis, which is an astonishing increase from the 9% that was measured in February 2005 (Pew, 2014). Due to the fact that young adults are increasingly involving themselves in these online platforms, it is very important to understand the long term and psychological effects (such as depression, social anxiety,

The popularity of social media giants such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are on the rise and so is our nation's overall poor mental health status (The State of Mental Health in America). Studies have shown that there is a direct link between our social media obsession and our poor mental health (Walton). Social media can lead to feelings of comparison, jealousy and even delusional behavior. Another effect that social media has on our mental health is that it often leads to feelings of sadness and loneliness. Lastly, social media addiction is one of the many things that affects our mental health. Studies show that social media is often the cause of poor mental health, it can cause comparison, jealousy, loneliness and lastly addiction.

“The analysis showed that people who reported using the most platforms (seven to 11) had more than three times the risk of depression and anxiety” (Zagorski web). The younger the person is when exposed to social media the more likely they are to suffer from depression and anxiety. With teen’s brains not fully developed and using multiple social media site this could lead to negative thought or feeling in a teen. This could lead to making a teen self-harm or committing suicide. With so many teens on social media and so many emotions on these sites they are contagious to read, however when a teen reads these statuses it also can make them feel the same way. So, when a teen reads a depressing status it can cause them to feel the exact same way.

Using social media disturbs make deep relationship with others. When they are using social media we do not need to move a lot. It is okay just to stay. We do not need to active a lot. As a result, it leads naturally mental and physical disorders.

Social media seems to be one of the many hot topics of discussion recently, and consequently many people have the false sense of security that they have a profound knowledge on how it affects the health of the teenage population. A sedentary lifestyle, decreased sleep, as well as other physical health conditions seem to come to mind when one links health and social media. However, there is a much bigger problem that can go unnoticed because it can be impossible to see: the impact it has on mental and emotional health. These branches of health are just as important, and even arguably more important than physical health is. Social media can be utilized to connect with distant friends and express oneself; however, teenagers should refrain from the overuse of social media due to its detrimental effects on their mental and emotional health.

Social media is one of the most common ways for people to communicate anywhere and at any time in modern society. Some people think that it is beneficial to have in society. Although, many people are starting to see negative effects arise from the use of social media as well. These negative effects are increasing and becoming more problematic every day. The disadvantages of social media far outweigh the advantages. Social media effects everyone in society, especially teenagers by negatively impacting their lives, face-to-face interactions, and mental health.