Social Networking Sites and Wellbeing

Running head: SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AND WELLBEING
SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AND WELLBEING
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SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AND WELLBEING
Social networking sites (SNSs) have become an integral and almost inseparable part of
human lives as every minute, billions of people login to numerous social sites for various
purposes. The youth in particular, have been remarkably influenced by the emergence of social
sites. It is a fact that the youth hold the key to the development of any country and their physical
and emotional wellbeing matters. Therefore, highlighting the issue of the adverse effects of
social sites on the subjective wellbeing is important.
The essay will focus on the growing popularity and demand of social networking sites
and the repercussions of using these sites on subjective wellbeing in young adults.
A technical definition of the social networking site could be that it is a web application
that people across the world use to construct social relations or ‘networks’. The network is
created by viewing the profile created by different users and sending and receiving friend
requests. People make friends online with whom they chat and share common interests. A social
world is created on the digital platform that gives an opportunity for everyone to speak out their
minds especially those who prefer to stay anonymous. Varying categories of people could be
found on these SNS platforms – some who like to expose while some who try to raise a voice but
keep their identity a secret. People post pictures and videos online in an attempt to receive as
much likes and reactions as possible. Although the clicking of a simple ‘like’ button does not
seem to create much of an effect, some young adults do get affected by it. Receiving likes and
positive comments on SNSs have an impact on the wellbeing of the users.
As Tromholt (2016) explains, “the concept of wellbeing is gaining more and more
interest” in recent years due to the increase in the use of SNSs and its emphasis in policies
designed for the public. Wellbeing could be physical, mental and emotional and it is important

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SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AND WELLBEING
for an individual to maintain all aspects of wellbeing. One can assess whether someone
maintains his or her wellbeing properly by analyzing the medical history he or she has. Those
who suffer from various illnesses like depression, obesity and so on are identified as those who
do not care for their wellbeing. The use of Facebook has also been linked to the wellbeing of the
people in recent years. In a study conducted by Kross et al., (2013), it was found that the
affective wellbeing of Facebook users are extremely low when spent more time in it and
subsequently high when they were not using it. The study further revealed, “The more
participants used Facebook, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time”. It
demonstrated how Facebook had an influence on the cognitive wellbeing of the people.
Many have asked the question as to how Facebook contributes towards or affects the
subjective wellbeing of individuals. Subjective wellbeing, as Steptoe, Deaton and Stone (2015)
point out, has three aspects that can be categorized as evaluative wellbeing or life satisfaction,
hedonic wellbeing or feelings if happiness, anger, sadness and so on and eudemonic wellbeing or
the sense of meaning and purpose in life. Kim and Lee (2011) find that the use of Facebook
results in the increase of subjective wellbeing in both negative and positive ways. It depends,
state the authors, on the number of friends, young people have on Facebook and the strategy they
use to present themselves on the social site. The study by Kross et al., (2013) found that little
research had been done on the reasons for Facebook’s influence on the subjective wellbeing of
the young users. The authors therefore used an experience-sampling method to identify the exact
reasons as to why and how Facebook influences subjective wellbeing. The authors found that
‘direct’ social interaction did not have any significant difference in the satisfaction levels or
subjective wellbeing of the users. It clearly indicated that the satisfaction or gratification people
find in Facebook is far more than they do in real life.