I wholeheartedly believe that social media currently holds a greater negative position with
mental health than it does a positive one. My biggest support of my decision is remembering
how hooked I was myself not too long ago and noticing how negatively it was affecting me.
To be fair, as I have said before, I have had a lifelong struggle with depression, BUT nothing
could've prepared me for what was waiting when I finally took a more active role on
Facebook. It seemed like anything I said, SOMEONE had an argument for, or a nasty
comment to oppose my position, usually it got VERY personal and hurtful almost magically
swift. For example, I say I disliked a political candidate or opposed the behaviour of a certain
criminal, and automatically I was "An ugly mannish crack addicted loser" or "a racist", well
alright then if you say so... Unfortunately, instead of letting these hateful comments roll off my
shoulders I spent a lot of hours angry, attacking back, and causing a much bigger problem
online and for my stress than if I had ignored the jerk in the first place. It got to the point where
I was just seeking to start an argument just to fuel fire, I knew I would ignite, because I let
others ignorance make me bitter and ignorant. When it got so bad that my panic attacks started
happening on the regular and my boyfriend was at his wits end with my face in my phone and
my almost constant frustration, I knew I needed a change.
This scholarly article The Emotional Impact of social media in Higher Education, written by
Iwamoto, D. and Chun, H. in 2020 provides a detailed 27-point study on different aspects of
social media and their statistical correlations with students experiencing increased stress,
depression, and anxiety. It would take me all day to explain the entire statistical results of this
study so I will simplify it and you can read the article yourself if desired for more information.
The data showed a very strong positive correlation between hours of social media usage and
reports of stress, anxiety, or depression. Some aspects of social media, such as Pinterest and
Snapchat had little correlation with these negative effects, but for aspects like Facebook,
Instagram, and YouTube the positive correlations could not be ignored. The results of this
study led them two conclude two ideas that I found very interesting. The first idea was that
participants appeared to put a lot of concern into how others perceived them, and shockingly,
the feedback they wished to receive often was desired from strangers, rather than friends and
loved ones! A second idea that was taken away from this analysis that I found to be amazing
and brought an all-new perspective to light was that social media succeeds in keeping us
superficially connected, BUT those connections we hold on social media have very little to no
personability or emotional capacity. These two discoveries leave me with little doubt of the
negative impact that social media has on the typical individual, let alone what devastation it
can bring for larger groups, cultures, and even entire countries.
I feel that the idea of social media's effect on psyche holds very strong connections in
emotional intelligence and ethics. Anyone who spends even a moment on social media can
admit that we have seen some inappropriate behaviour expressed online. It takes an individual
strongly versed in self-control, morality, and lack of bias to control themselves on social
media. Although I believe a lot of people are honest about the basics of themselves online,
social media is yet an easy place to pretend and to be someone you are not, thus social media
can not only become an easy place to speak the rudest of thoughts aloud without repercussion,
but it also becomes a place filled with danger for those who are young, emotionally unstable,
fragile minded, or desperate. We have a long way to go before most social media outlets
become the ethical environments they should strive to be. Until then I will keep my distance
and control my own usage, and I would suggest that others take the time to evaluate their own
social media habits. I am positive that all of you could find at least one area in which to
improve online, whether it's the way you talk to others; what you choose to read about; how
much time you feel you need to dedicate to scrolling; or how many of those high "like"
numbers you need to see to feel elevated satisfaction or self-esteem.
My first inclination with this discussion post was to argue with myself. I see both sides to this
equation. Social media presents unique opportunities to learn and communicate, but it is also
associated with isolation and depression (O'Keeffee & Clarke-Pearson, 2011). Many studies
have found a possible association between social media use and psychological incidences in
adolescents (Keles et al., 2019). Social media may promote low self-esteem or a negative
image of oneself (Keles et al., 2019). We all know how impressionable we were at that age,
and social media seems to propagate any societal missteps a young mind takes. Any negativity
can contribute to depression or anxiety. Correlation is not causation, and further studies are
needed to gauge the psychological consequences of social media use. Currently, evidence
points to it being psychologically healthier to limit social media use and spend more time
socializing in person.
Social media can have a negative impact on someone's psychological well-being by becoming
attach to what going on, Facebook, Instagram, tik Tok, and snapchat. I believe that people use
social media to escape from reality and be judgemental of what people post or feel that
someone life seem better than their own where they feel to become online bullies. Social
Media can be both positive and negative on some one’s well-being like the speaker on Ted talk
stated people are so addicted to their phones that they feel like they are missing something
important and feel like they must post everything they do. It also takes away human
connection where you are face to face with someone enjoying their company where social
media can cause depression, anxiety, bulling leak of sleep a poor people skill. Like I stated
social media is a place where people feel untouchable and feel like they can say and post
whatever they want no matter who they hurt as long they get likes and hearts on their states.
Am for one have a Facebook and Instagram account and am not even on them most of the time
I have them because my son posts his art work on Instagram and Facebook for my family that
leaves in P.R, Florida and in Denver. Facebook to me is like a soaper where people post their
problem or business and people talking about each other to me that is unhealthy so I stay away
from it.
In this week’s discussion we were asked to pick a position on the negative or positive impacts
on our psychological well-being. In my opinion, I believe that social media negatively impacts
our psychological well-being. Social media platforms are all around us in today’s world.
Some of those platforms are Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, and Snap Chat. How many of us
look at these for some point if not hours at a time. We are seeing so many people including
children being hurt by trying to follow what people are doing on Tik Tok. How many times
have you heard the saying “Oh if you didn’t see on Facebook, it didn’t happen.” Today, we are
seeing many criminals, predators and even terrorists to act in a negative way to our
communities, children, and everyone around us. Social media fosters a false sense of online
“connections” and superficial friendships leading to emotional and psychological problems
(Jacob, 2015). The Impact of social media on Society was a great article on our topic. It really
dived into the primary reasons why it is having a negative impact on us. If anyone has the time
to read the article please follow the link to the article, as it is a great article.
When it comes to social media and its effects on our psychological well-being it can be linked
to our career connections. We just went through a pandemic for COVID-19. Having our
smart phones enabled us to continue to work from home. We were able to answer emails and
phone calls. We could log into other platforms like zoom and this gave us the incentives of
being in meeting without really being there. Our smart phone is just not a phone today, they
are minicomputers that can give us access to almost everything in the world. Our careers were
able to continue without stopping even though we were not in the office. c It connected us to the
world in a whole different way, other than what we consider “normal”.
Social media impacts our lives in many ways, but the primary way is usually harmful. Many
people are feeling more depressed and feel less worthy of themselves after being on social
media for a few minutes a day. People only show you a small portion of their lives on social
media, and for some reason, everyone who sees it feels they need to do better in their lives, or
their lives are not good enough. I know people whose lives are literally crumbling beneath
their feet but are posting vacations and fancy cars or homes on social media. They can't afford
any of those things, but they always make it seem like they own all of them. They may feel like
they need to uphold a specific type of image, or maybe they are running away from their real
problems by posting the opposite on social media. Either way, it is a negative effect on them
for having to be something they are not, and it is a negative effect on the person seeing their
posts and getting depressed because they do not have those things. Social media affects
everyone, the one who sees and likes the post and the one who does the posting. Both people
unknowingly struggle with some sort of psychological condition because of social media.
Social media's effect directly relates to self-care. We must be more mindful of how much time
we spend on social media. Social media can be a good way of keeping in contact with people
you have not seen in a while, but serious psychological effects can take form when too much
time is spent on social media.
References:
Amedie, Jacob, "The Impact of Social Media on Society" (2015). Pop Culture Intersections. 2.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/engl_176/2
Keles, B., McCrae, N., & Grealisj, A. (2019, March 21). A systematic review: The influence
of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. Taylor &
Francis. Retrieved October 5, 2022, from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02673843.2019.1590851
O'Keefe, G., & Clark-Pearson, K. (2011, April). The Impact of social media on Children,
Adolescents, and Families. Publications.aap.org. Retrieved October 5, 2022, from
https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/127/4/800/65133/The-Impact-of-Social-Media-
on-Children-Adolescents
Iwamoto, D., & Chun, H. (2020). The Emotional Impact of social media in Higher Education.
International Journal of Higher Education, 9(2), 239–247.
