Social Media and Mental Health

Social Media and Mental Health

Nowadays mental health is playing such a big part in people's lives, more than a lot of people think. Keyes, C (2005, Pg. 4) states that mental health was linked with our ‘Psychological, emotional and social well-being.” Mental health cannot be seen on the outside like physical health, so others can’t feel how another may be feeling inside. Mental health that does not get treated well and without good support, means the suffering for the individual is worse, as they don’t know what to do. If mental health is treated correctly and they receive the right support, that means they can carry on with a normal life. Also, professionals can learn more about different kinds of mental health and have a better understanding to give the help that people need.  A person's mental health is most affected through the young stages of their lives, right the way through to adulthood. Mental health.gov (2017) found that these few factors can add to many mental health disorders.  

• Biological factors – within the brain or genes  
• Life experiences – any trauma or abuse they may have experienced 
• Family history of mental health

Mind.org.uk (2016) found that when people have poor sleep habits, it had more of a negative impact on mental health. Woods, H. C and Scott, H (2016) also support this point as in their research they found that, using social media late at night can lead to bad sleep patterns, low self-esteem and greater levels of anxiety and depression. However not all studies that have been conducted around mental health have the same views. Barry et al (2017) found in their research that people who have depression or anxiety, loved and craved the interaction that could happen over social media. This meant that they had a better mental state of mind and found that being on social media gave them that sense of company. 

When social media is combined with someone who suffers from mental health, it makes even daily tasks much harder for them. Hererra, B (2016) found that the effects of social media onto mental health, can be both damaging for them and beneficial. This is because of the content we see online and then how we recognise it. 

Have you calculated how many times you check social media a day? A few times a week? A few times an hour? The Telegraph (2015) states that one average person has five different social media accounts and spends are 1 hour and 40 minutes daily on the sites. Edwards, M (2015) stated that social media is so current that information travel across one side of the world to another, making it easy for people to have a wide audience of people to connect with. Beyens et al (2016) supports this as he believed that it is important to keep social media accounts and maintain all social connections people may have.  

In contemporary society, everyone is expected to look a certain way, behave a certain way and not be different from others. However, when someone is suffering from something like mental health, the pressure of having to meet all these needs can have many negative aspects to their lives. People who are already suffering feel like they are different already, and when they cannot meet the needs of something like social media, which has become so popular in recent years. It again can really affect them, so it is no surprise how so many young people are beginning to suffer with issues. Young children are growing up in a society full of technology that is everywhere around them, so it is no surprise that all they know and want to do is technology. There are many different opinions on the effects of social media onto mental health. Naslund et al (2014) found that social media can be valuable to people that are suffering from a mental health disorder, as it brings them more support. This then gives them a bigger sense of hope for the idea of companionship, also confidence for others that are facing the same problems. However not all people agree it is always beneficial to them as Sampasa-Kanyinga, H and Hamilton, H (2015) found in their research. They found in their studies that the link between mental health and social media, could begin to start psychological distress. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffWFd_6bJ0 

This video investigates into the impact of social media on the brain. In the video it states that social media is used by 1/3 of the world. Considering how many people are on the earth, it shows how much were really are involved with social media sites, and how important to our lives they really are. Furthermore, it follows on to say that people are becoming addicted to being online like a ‘psychological’ addiction, it rewires our brain to crave the immediate decisions that social media rewards you with. Moreover, the main point of ‘Phantom Vibration Syndrome’ shows that even when you thought your phone was buzzing it wasn’t. The statistics of 89% of people finding out that this usually happens around once every two weeks, it was then proven to be an ‘itch’ where the brain has registered to the usual buzz of a phone. Most surprisingly in the video it was found that 30-40% of face-to-face conversations were talking about experiences, whereas 80% of social media involvements were talking about themselves. So, our bodies are rewarding themselves for posting when an audience is involved. 

In conclusion, from the research I think that it is clear to see that mental health is no easy matter. Mental health with the combination of social media can be very beneficial to them having a sense of companionship and for someone to talk to. It means that the interaction is good to keep them busy and makes themselves feel within more confident to speak to others, depending on the level they have of mental health. However, people are always going to have positive and negatives views of any subject, so negatives of this idea do exist. As stated, the negatives of social media against mental health are bad sleep patterns and higher levels of anxiety of depression and anxiety. With a good combination of both positives and negatives of social media against mental health, a good balance I personally think will be beneficial to the individual.  

References 

AsapSCIENCE. (2014). 5 Crazy Ways Social Media Is Changing Your Brain Right Now. [Online Video]. 7 September 2014. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffWFd_6bJ0. [Accessed: 3 December 2018].

Barry, C., Sidoti, C., Briggs, S., Reiter, S. and Lindsey, R. (2017). Adolescent social media use and mental health from adolescent and parent perspectives. Journal of Adolescence, 61, pp.1-11. 

Beyens, I., Frison, E., Eggermont, S. (2016). “I don’t want to miss a thing”: Adolescents’ fear of missing out and its relationship to adolescents’ socialneeds, Facebook use, and Facebook related stress. Computers in Human Behavior, 64, pp.1-8. 

Edwards, M. (2015). How Social Media Has Changed How We Communicate - Future of Work. [online] Future of Work. Available at: https://fowmedia.com/social-media-changed-communicate/ [Accessed 03/12/2018]. 

Herrera, B. (2016). Social media and young people's mental health. [online] Mental Health Foundation. Available at: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/b log/social-media-and-young-peoples - mental-health [Accessed 03/12/2018]. 

Keyes, C. (2005). Mental Illness and/or Mental Health? Investigating Axioms of the Complete State Model of Health. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73 (3), p.4 

Mentalhealth.gov. (2017). What Is Mental Health? | MentalHealth.gov. [online] Available at: https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental - health/index.html [Accessed 03/12/2018]. 

Mind.org.uk. (2016).Sleepproblems|Mind,thementalhealthcharity-helpfor m e n ta l h e a l th p ro b l e m s . [online ] Available a t: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health- problems/sleep-problems#.WnnDWracYU0 [Accessed 03/12/2018]. 

Naslund, J., Grande, S., Aschbrenner, K. and Elwyn, G. (2014). Naturally Occurring Peer Support through Social Media: The Experiences of Individuals with Severe Mental Illness Using YouTube. PLoS ONE, 9 (10), p.1. 

Sampasa-Kanyinga, H. and Hamilton, H. (2015). Social networking sites and mental health problems in adolescents: The mediating role of cyberbullying victimization. European Psychiatry, 30(8), pp.1021-1027. 

The Guardian, (2018), Peak social media? Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat fail to make new friends[ONLINE]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/aug/10/peak-social-media-facebook-twitter-and-snapchat-fail-to-make-new-friends [Accessed 3 December 2018]

The Telegraph (2015) Is your daily social media usage higher than average? Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/11610959/Is-your-daily-social-media-usage-higher-than-average.html (Accessed 03/12/2018) 

Tom Bradshaw, (2017), Social Mania: Can Social Media Benefit Your Mental Health? [ONLINE]. Available at: http://1215today.com/debates/social-media-benefit-mental-health/ [Accessed 3 December 2018]

Woods, H.C., Scott, H. (2016). #Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.Journal of Adolescence, 51 pp.41-49.