Multimedia Story - Social Media's Impact on Mental Health
By Jack Neary
Q News
Today, about 4.6 billion people or 59% of the worlds population uses social media, with that number expected to only increase. With many different platforms such as facebook, twitter, instagram and youtube there are many different ways for people to get engaged within the world of social media. Being engaged can have a positive and/or negative impact on the people who use those platforms whether they know it or not.
For many, including Karissa Fryar, a sophomore at High Point University, social media is a way to communicate with and/or create content for other people, friends and family. Also, social media is used by 20% of Americans as for them to receive news on events happening in the USA and the world. These factors among others are why billions of people use social media every single day.
For others like HPU sophomore Eric Ellner, social media can be distracting, addicting and detrimental to one’s mental health and wellbeing.
Social media addiction
The main goal of social media is to simulate real human interaction from anywhere at any time through posting and viewing pictures and receiving and giving out likes and comments. These pleasurable activities stimulate the brain to release dopamine and other hormones that make you feel happy.
Karissa Fryar mentioned that she spends a little over 4 hours everyday searching through various social media platforms. She said how “if I’m bored which happens a lot I always grab my phone and check tik tok, instagram and snapchat to see if my friends have replied to one of my snaps/posts, making it super easy to stay in touch with them whenever”.
With billions of people using social media daily, there are so many positive interactions to be had that your brain can not help itself but make you visit multiple social media platforms countless times everyday. However, the more time you spend using social media, the more likely you are to suffer from mental health problems and potentially worsen them.
Social media use and mental health
Cyberbullying/bullying, Self-image issues and depression/anxiety are the most common mental health problems that can occur from excessive social media use. The people who are the most seriously affected by these are teenagers and young adults because they do not know how to properly deal with them.
Using social media too much every day can disrupt your sleeping schedule which leads to less sleep. Not getting enough sleep everyday can lead to certain diseases, depression and reduced immune system function just to name a few.
Loneliness is something that can occur as a result of excessive social media use. This happens due to you spending less time interacting with people face-to-face and instead on various social media platforms. Studies have shown that people who experience high-levels of loneliness and/or depression tend to use social media/Internet as a way to get emotional support.
Should you even use social media?
Using social media allows you the ability to stay in touch with family and friends worldwide, having access to information and learning online to name a few. Roughly 1 in 5 Americans use social media to get news that is happening worldwide, in the US and locally.
While interviewing Eric Ellner, he expressed that “without social media people wouldn’t be able to stay in touch with my friends/family members from home, get up to the minute alerts on news and even be able to connect with companies about potential internships and jobs”.
With the rise of social media companies, Linkedin has become one the most helpful social media platforms where you can build your personal brand for careers that you want to pursue as well as contact employers for potential job or internship opportunities. Over 47 million companies out of the 56 million use Linkedin when they are deciding whether or not to hire someone.
How to use social media safely?
Dr. Laura Nagy is a clinical psychologist and an assistant professor of Psychology at High Point University. She explained that “you should limit the time you spend on social media platforms to 30 minutes because anything more than that will start to negatively impact your mental health and wellbeing”. This can be done by setting time limits for social media platforms/apps on your smartphone through the settings.
When receiving news through social media platforms, make sure you follow credible sources such as the New York times or USA today. With social media becoming so widely used it has led to people spreading lies and/or false information that now more than ever is becoming harder to distinguish real news, so make sure to check sources.
With the increase in hackers being able to hack into peoples social media accounts make sure that you have a strong password. Make sure that you are selective who you request to be friends with and make sure to block spam accounts if they come up. Take precautions against your information because you wouldn't want someone else to steal it right.
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