Question

write 1000 words about how mental health impact social media?

Answer 1

Our mental state greatly influences the use of social media and the vice versa. Social media use and mental health are both positively and negatively correlated. Young adults have been reported as most active users of social media and are at the high risk for developing mental health issues.

Negative impact:

Loneliness is one of the major mental health concerns of the present time. Children, youth and adults, all are going through this mental health problem. A person with feeling of loneliness who is looking for social contact is more likely to use social media. While remaining on social media if that person feels less isolated and lonely, he feels rewarded in form of social media contact. Now whenever that person feels lonely, she/he is going to use online communication as a way to reduce the feeling of loneliness. The leeser the person feels lonely by using social media, the more time she/he will spent on social media. Studies have found that social support reduces feeling of loneliness (Schnieder et al. 2001). Thus the hour of using social media might increase day by day.

As the person gets addicted to use of social media, not using it induces feeling of withdrawal and loneliness. A strong relationship has been found between social media use and compulsive behaviour. It has been reported that 45% of British adults fetl restlessness when they were not able to acess social networking sites (Deters et al., 2012). Overuse of internet is positively correlated with feeling of loneliness (Yao and Zhang, 2013).

Low self-esteem is another mental healt problem which impacts the use use of social media and get influenced by it. On social networking sites people post their filtered photos and only best moment of life which do not represent the reality. Moreover sucess and failure stories are also shared on social media by people. Mostly youth and adults start developing a sense of comparison when they see such posts of their friends and relatives. This social media induced comparison profoundly impacts their self-esteem which in turn could lead to feeling of stress, anxiety and depression.

Cyberbullying is a major sourse of stress these days. Trolling has become a commonn thing which negativily impacts people's mental health. Hackers are more active on social networking sites. They hack personal information of people and misuse them for their personal goals. People who become victim of hackers, and trollers go through lot of stress. People have even committed suicide due to cyberbullying.  

Excessive social media use badly affects the productive level of human beings. It becomes hard for people to come out of bed and do daily household chores. People who are addicted to social media use, are more likely to develop problematic behaviours such as impulsivity and aggression. Addicted people starts avoiding their daily life functioning which badly affects their physical and mental health as well.

Positive Impact:

Social media can be used as a good source of learning. It is a good sourse for keeping oneself updated with current affairs and global news. When people feel well informed and learned, their self-esteem is increases.  

Social media provides a good plateform for showcasing talent. Creative writers, bloggers, artists, and photographers now a days have easy accessibility to people thruogh this medium. Getting appreciation on this plateform for their creative work boosts their self-esteem and enhances their self confidance which are important for sound mental health.

Financial crunch is great source of stress. A lot of people now can work from home through the medium of social networking sites which provides them with an environment where they can manage their home and work as well. People can earn a handsome amount of money on various social networking sites these days. Thus social media could provide a huge financial support to people.

Sharing negative life experiences on social networking sites and getting support from friend work as stress buster for people. People going through mental and physical health problems generally ask this question of "Why me?" to God. Sometimes people find friends who have gone through the similar experiences of pain and traumatic life events. Listening to them gives the sufferers a feeling that they are not the only one who have suffered in life and this feeling of not being alone gives them relief.   

Thus both positive and negative impacts can be seen.