Social Media and Mental Health

Social Media and Mental Health
Name
Institution
Social Media and Mental Health
Over the past years, there has been a growing debate on the issue of social media and its impact on mental health. Many types of research have argued for the idea that the connectivity provided by social media makes it more of a source of self-medication than a source of self-loathing amongst individuals. However, nothing could be further from the truth, especially since social media sites are the reason why many people all over the world hate themselves. Social media promotes self-loathing through causing low self-esteem, breaking and interfering with human connection, and encouraging additional competition that eventually leads to depression and anxiety. It is because of its impacts on people’s mental health that individuals have to be careful with how they use social media. Even though this is the case, social media also impacts positively on mental health by enabling connectivity and decreasing negative emotions thereby leading to increased emotional well-being. While it is true that social media use has some benefits, the frequent use of the same can lead to people being increasingly unhappy and hating themselves with time. The present paper investigates the different ways in which social-media promotes self-hating behaviors and how this affects mental health.
Background Information
Social media encompasses all online platforms and publications that allow for conversations and interaction between and among the different users of these platforms. On social media people’s thoughts, interests, personal information and photos can be shared. Some of the social media platforms include Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat with the first two being the most commonly used ones. All over the world, around 40% of the total population is said to use the different online social media. In America alone, about 68% of the adult population is noted to use Facebook with more than half the number accessing the online site at least once in a day. All over the world, the youths or young adults are the frequent users of the five social media platforms. Due to the entertainment offered on these sites in terms of access to live videos, people’s personal information, and photos, a majority of its users have a hard time controlling the urge to be on at least one platform. This lack of control has led to general dependability and addiction to social media in such a way that most of the information that is shared freely on the platforms affect the users easily. In the long run, it is the mental health that is affected largely in several ways.
1. Effect on Self-esteem
Social media use has been linked to low self-esteem amongst its users. Notably, online social sites enable people to share feelings and other personal information with family, friends and strangers. In sharing this information, everyone has their own share of insecurities that determine the way they react to the shared information. For instance, one may choose to share details about their relationship status, a holiday in some exotic place or simply “perfect” photos of themselves. Due to this, it may instill toxic envy and jealousy within other users that do not have the same privileges (Center for Mental Health, 2018). In another case, an individual may feel envious of his age mates who might have accomplished much in life before them. For both cases, this envy can lead to the feeling of regret, as one tends to question why he or she is in the same position as the others. Eventually, people end up experiencing self-doubt that in turn causes too much unhappiness and therefore low self-esteem. Inarguably, low self-esteem affects heavily the overall mental health of any individual because it is from this that people begin feeling hopeless and worthless in life. In addition, platforms such as Facebook that require people to provide their personal details do contribute to low self-esteem in instances where users are subjected to negative comments.
2. Human Connection
Social media use interferes with human connection thus leading to increased feelings of loneliness thereby interfering with the overall wellbeing of an individual. In the recent past, families and friends always found a way to connect and establish close relationships over old media including newspapers, radios and the Television. However, with the introduction of social media and the internet, all this has changed particularly since nearly everyone now seems addicted to social media use. Ideally, social media, especially Facebook, has become a part of people’s lives in the modern age with individuals using the various platforms to express their views, feelings and to establish friendships with other users. Evidently, social media has led to the decrease in the value initially placed on interpersonal relationships. While previously families and friends could sit and discuss issues, nowadays this time is spent posting the same issues on social media platforms to be read by online friends and strangers alike. According to Barrett (2018), even communication between students in classrooms is now becoming difficult due to the virtual connectivity provided by social media. Not surprisingly, most youth find satisfaction in sharing their personal problems with online strangers who could not even be interested in them, rather than doing the same with actual friends and family members that would offer a better solution. Moreover, the easy access to mobile phones and other devices has led to a situation wh...