Negative Impact of Social Media on Mental Health

This article discusses the negative impact of social media on mental health, including increased rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide. It explores the role of social media in promoting unrealistic beauty standards, cyberbullying, and addiction. The article also highlights the importance of mental health interventions and wellness resources.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
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Social media applications such as Instagram,
Facebook and Snapchat in modern times serve as the perfect destination of respite for
the adolescent and young individuals. According to Gini and Espelage, (2014), social
media platforms have been compared to a second world where members believe in
portraying the best version of themselves. As stated by Van Deursen et al. (2015), the
purpose of the evolution of social media technology was to enable users to connect to
one another, create and share content and participate in social networking. However,
in recent times, the ultimate purpose seems to be significantly compromised. Research
studies suggest that the unscrupulous use of social media applications have negatively
affected the mental wellness of people across all age groups. According to
Nimh.nih.gov (2019), excessive use of social media has adversely affected the mental
wellness of young students belonging to the age group of 13 to 17 years of age. Social
media applications have indeed helped individuals to stay connected to their dear
ones, build stronger relationships and also improve business networking. It has helped
in building an unfiltered open communication channel which has triggered problems
such as bullying and body shaming. As reported by Martin (2019), it has been
mentioned that 91% of the young people in Australia access different social
networking sites on the internet. Further, statistical figures suggest that the
prevalence percentage of depression and anxiety among young individuals have risen
by 70% in the previous 25 years (Martin, 2019). Social media has facilitated abusers
to stay connected to the victims and aggravate their level of emotional stress. In
addition to this, the marketing of cosmetic goods and trendy apparels make use of

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models with an unrealistic perfect body shape. This subsequently results in setting an
insane ‘insane beauty’ standard. In the pursuit of achieving the unattainable beauty
standard, individuals resort to starvation which leads to eating disorders. In addition
to a number of physical health problems, voluntary starvation has also been reported
to cause depression and increased stress. In addition to this, edited and filtered
photographs posted by social influencers about exotic destination and a near about
perfect life harbours feelings of dissatisfaction among viewers and make them feel
unworthy about their personal achievement. It leads to reduced self-esteem and low
self-confidence which harbours anxiety and depression. With the increased use of
social media, happiness is defined by reel parameters than real qualitative
parameters. In addition to this, trending psychotic online games such as ‘MOMO’ and
‘Blue Whale’ has led to a number of deaths due to suicide and practicing self-harm.
According to a report published by Martin (2019), it was published that a total of 3128
Australians took their life in the year 2017 on account of participating in suicidal
game challenges. The reported estimate featured a hike of over 262 deaths compared
to previous years. The national report data published by the Australian Bureau of
Statistics mention that self-harm has been ranked as the thirteenth leading cause of
death. In addition to this, it has also been mentioned that the death rate due to suicide
has risen to be equivalent to 12.6 deaths per 100,000 people (Martin, 2019). The death
rate due to self-harm and suicide has been reported to be highest in the past 10 years
(Nimh.nih.gov, 2019). Research studies on bullying suggest an increase in the
prevalence of the online bullying, where aggressors or harassers make use of social
media to anonymously connect with vulnerable individuals and subject them to
emotional distress (Nimh.nih.gov, 2019). According to a research conducted by
Daniels and Zurbiggen (2016), an existing relationship has been identified with

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increased social media use and problems with teen sexuality. Younger individuals post
provocative photographs online in order to attract attention of their peers and in
doing so, they acquire negative attention of predators which leads to cyber
harassment (Hasinoff, 2013). In addition to this, research studies also indicate
problems with social media addiction which leads to wasting valuable time which
could have been utilized to do something productive which could have positively
contributed to career or development growth (Van Deursen et al., 2015; (Gini &
Espelage, 2014). Social workers and health care professionals such as psychiatrist,
counsellor and psychotherapist help in addressing the mental health issues so as to
promote recovery. Psychotherapeutic interventions such as counselling and use of
mindfulness based therapies such as yoga and meditation helps in reinforcing mental
peace and recovery from social insecurity. In addition to this, wellness websites such
as headspace and web based mental wellness applications also help in promoting
recovery.

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References:
Daniels, E., & Zurbriggen, E. (2016). ‘It’s Not the Right Way to Do Stuff on Facebook:’
An Investigation of Adolescent Girls’ and Young Women’s attitudes Toward
Sexualized Photos on Social Media. Sexuality & Culture, 20(4), 936-964.
Gini, G., & Espelage, D. L. (2014). Peer victimization, cyberbullying, and suicide risk
in children and adolescents. Jama, 312(5), 545-546.
Hasinoff, A. A. (2013). Sexting as media production: Rethinking social media and
sexuality. New Media & Society, 15(4), 449-465.
Martin, L. (2019). Australia's rising suicide rate sparks calls for national target to
reduce deaths. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/26/australias-rising-
suicide-rate-sparks-calls-for-national-target-to-reduce-deaths [Accessed 4 Apr.
2019].
Nimh.nih.gov (2019). NIMH » Depression. [online] Nimh.nih.gov. Available at:
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression/index.shtml [Accessed 4
Apr. 2019].
Van Deursen, A. J., Bolle, C. L., Hegner, S. M., & Kommers, P. A. (2015). Modeling

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habitual and addictive smartphone behavior: The role of smartphone usage
types, emotional intelligence, social stress, self-regulation, age, and
gender. Computers in human behavior, 45, 411-420.