Investigating Social Media's Role in Shaping Health Perceptions

This report examines the pervasive influence of social media on individual and public health, highlighting its role as a mass medium that shapes perceptions and disseminates information, both accurate and biased. It delves into how social media, along with other forms of mass media like television, radio, and newspapers, affects mental health, contributes to conditions like depression and anxiety, and can be manipulated by political opinions. The report further discusses how mass media's portrayal of gender, race, social class, and other demographics influences societal views and individual mindsets, often leading to negative impacts due to the spread of fake news and biased information. It emphasizes the need for critical evaluation of media content to mitigate adverse effects on mental and physical well-being, ultimately affecting how individuals perceive the world and their place within it. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

How social media affect your
health

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Different forms of mass media in society and their impact over person perception...................4
How everyday thinking is influenced by mass media in form of accurate and biased
information..................................................................................................................................5
Ways through mass media is influenced by political opinion.....................................................6
Presentation of Gender, Race, Social Class, Age, Disability and Mental Health give a
particular view.............................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Social media refers to a computer-based technology that can share ideas, information and
thought through virtual networks and is utilized by large number of populations. In present time
social media is highly used by people. There is high impact on the health of people due to regular
use of social media. There are many of health-related issues caused due to watching social media
for longer period. In this report, there is a discussion about different types of mass media output
which is related with opinions and views. There is also discussion about the ownership and
structure of mass media. There is also some description about the way to represent the situation
and its influence to public perception along with views within society (Gage-Bouchard, (2018)).
MAIN BODY
Mass media refers to the communication which is related to broadcast, written and
spoken and are reaches to a large audience. This involves television, movie, radio, internet,
magazines, newspaper, advertising and many more. Mass media can reach to large population at
short time. There is a high impact of this media over the large population. This can help to share
the information to a large population at a limited time. Social media is the part of mass media
that is highly effective in today's time with using internet. Several people get impacted due to
spending long time with it. Due to longer use of social media leads to create a various impact on
the large population. This can lead to creating an impact on the mental health of large population.
Social media can influence large population towards any positive or negative aspect. This can
make popular to any people overnight or can defame any celebrity overnight. Due to having
much power virtually this can lead to create an impact on mind (Alanzi, (2020)). This can also
impact the mental status of an individual or large population. Due to having high influence there
is need to use social media carefully. It should not be used negatively to spread fake news or hate
towards any specific people or category. There are mental health-related issues can cause to
having an impact over the perception or mental status. There are many mental health-related
issues like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, eating disorder, paranoia and many more. These
can lead to create health-related impacts to the people. There are many health-related issues
caused due to the continuous use of social media which is either due to getting impact on their
mental health or to their physical health. Mass media lead to create an impact over a large
population and can create a psychological impact. It can change the perception of individuals or

large population upon any topic or any condition. This is highly effective and can lead to create
large impact on mental health. It has been observed that mass media can be influenced by
political parties that means that there are a large population that there are many of the population
that get impacted due to getting influenced by fake news which impacts their mental health
(Kolhar, (2021)). Various types of mass media are there able to influence and deliver their ideas
and information to large population. There are the various impact of the mass media over large
population. They are the one who can influence large population about any topic or can create
awareness related with a current topic which is one of the current information. Social media
plays an important role in delivering information to large population and is two-way
communication. This is the type of mass media where people can share their views or ideas over
any topic. Social media also helps people to share their emotions at this platform. There are
various health-related issues causes due to regular use of social media. There are various health-
related issues relates with the mental health issues like depression, addiction, anxiety and many
other disorder. Depression is one of the largest health-related issues can be observed in a large
population.
Different forms of mass media in society and their impact over person perception
There is various type of mass media which includes radio, internet, magazine, newspaper
and television. They are having high reachability to large population. They are having high
efficiency to impact society negatively which can lead to make people towards crime, bad mental
and physical health disorder, violence, nudity and other severe outcomes. For example- Due to
any reason, any person spreads a rumor about any individual which can create a negative impact
on people and create scenario of mob lynching which is life-threatening for any individual
against whom rumor has been spread (Tengilimoglu, (2017)). Like this, there are many examples
of the negative impact of mass media on society which has created change in the perception of
an individual or large populations. Such type of scenario creates high level of influencing power
on large population by spreading wrong information with a few clicks whether it is true or false.
Every individual interpret those rumor or spread information accordingly. Social media also
impact the relationship between two people or two communities. By making friendly behaviour
can help to make better relation with other community. Whereas, a negative share of information
can lead to create violence between two communities or two individual which can create high
negative impact physically, mentally, emotionally on large population. There are various

controversial stories has been reported and printed without any fact or evidence. Due to having
faith on mass media people believe on the information which has been informed through mass
media to the large population. There is no any type of question raise towards those media which
lead to create change in opinion of individual and creates trap for innocent. In such situation,
large population need to focus on evidence-based information which is either spread through
newspaper, magazine or any website but not having enough time to investigate the information
for the correctness of the information. This directly impact the individual perception and make
their mindset accordingly (Wang, (2021)). Due to spread of such type of information on regular
basic, makes any individual mindset according to this and create hatred within individual mind
and creates negative impact on long term. Spreading of fake news or any related news which is
not ethical are provided to a large population, this can create negative impact for change in the
perception of large population. Due to long run of such type of news create change in perception
of individual and can lead to create a negative impact on their physical or mental health. There is
also a chance of creating mental health disorders due to continuing getting news or information
of negative aspect. There are many people get impacted due to continuously getting negative
news through the mass media which impacts over mental health and make their perception
negative about the world and people in the society. A different form of mass media have high
ability to change the perception of the individual. Social media has high level of influence power
to change the perception of large population by delivering information in just few clicks.
How everyday thinking is influenced by mass media in form of accurate and biased information
Everyday thinking is directly influenced by the mass media especially by social media
which can create a form of accurate and biased information. Today's time social media is directly
influenced by some specific people who are having large number of followers and work for any
specific individual or specific community or party (Yuan, (2021)). In this, they spread
information in favour of their party and spread negative news or information about opposition.
Due to having a large number of follower, this make them believe on the right information
without any evidence and impact their thinking style on some specific topic for specific
community or party. When such type of information are regulated over time and due to
consumption of this information by large population continuously, this lead to creating a change
in their thinking and their mindset which is influenced by spread of that information with the
help of mass media especially social media. There are a large number of a follower of social

media who get maximum information on this platform. There are other accurate or biased
information are directly consumed by social media follower and this lead to create the impact on
the their mindset and easily influenced by information which is shared on the mass media or
social media. This create a negative mental impact on large population and create mental
disorder like getting anxiety, anger, depression and other mental health-related disorder. For
example- when any information is shared on social media which is against any individual then
this create hatred towards that individual (Nam, (2020)). When individual get this information
about the hatred from large population, then this create an impact on mental status of that
individual which creates health-related problem directly. This also creates the risk of life when
this depression or anxiety cross their limit and any person is not able to wear that hatred anymore
and due to negative impact about the individual. News or information which is shared by mass
media or social media are presented with some news stories which inform the public whether it is
correct or not. Large populations consume such news or information and make their perception
and take their side according to their mentality. By continuing getting negative news about any
individual or party can lead to create high impact on the thinking of large population and
influence them to think negatively on every aspect about that individual or party or community.
It can be easily observed that there are number of examples of mob lynching which is due to the
spreading of fake news or information about any individual or any community. This created
impact within people and such information influence thinking of individual or large population
every day. Due to consumption of such type of hatred news or biased information, this influence
people mindset over time and create negative impact on their health either physically or mentally
(İlgün, (2019)).
Ways through mass media is influenced by political opinion
There are different ways through which social media can be influenced by political
opinion. Mass media or social media refers to a business which required large amount of fund
because it have high reach ability to large population which needed a large amount of fund to
control and regulate this platform in an effective manner. There are various legislation and law
which need to follow by the mass media or social media which require to follow those laws and
legislation effectively political power can influence social media or mass media by making their
opinion and deciding the hot topic on which mass media or social media should be talk about.
Through this, social media or mass media can influence large population and influence their

mindset regarding any topic. Political opinion is highly effective in influencing the mass media
or social media (Anu, (2018)). This is highly effective mass media is influenced by political
opinion which provide information about some specific topic that should be delivered to a large
population as a hot and recent topic on which population should talk about. Political agenda
influenced by the political opinion through social media due to having large number of follower.
This create high effectiveness on influencing people and show the power to the mass media to
influence the information and make priority which is related to the psychological process. Here,
media continuously cover any specific issues which make a viewer for consumer think that this
is the priority issue related with their society. It also influences mass media to set for agenda
which could be in favour of any specific party or community. There is a need of fund to run the
mass media or social media. For this, there is need for large funding. Some big businessmen
provide funds by making them to run their agenda on social media or mass media either by
directly funding or by providing advertisement which can help to give large profit or revenue
(SHRESTHA, (2019)). Mass media or social media need some business to increase the revenue
and fund which can help them to earn money and collect fund to run their social media. Political
opinion influences mass media or social media by making hot topic which can increase the
number of viewers to get busy on social media. Mass media and increase the number of views
which provide large business and enhance their popularity along with the business. Political
opinion influences mass media or social media. Due to following up by a large population who
are involved in political issues or interested in political issues which create large view and
provide large business to mass media or social media.
Presentation of Gender, Race, Social Class, Age, Disability and Mental Health give a particular
view
Mass media or social media have a large viewers where the presentation of race, gender,
class, disability and mental health. This can consider seeing the public to provide a particular
view regarding them. This can create different ability and lead to create mental impact on the
particular individual or large population (Keles, (2020)). Social media is highly influencing large
population which can create impact on creating differentiability within people that could create
differentiation based on social class, gender, race, disability and mental health. These are highly
effective and can create depression or anxiety to some specific group of community or in within
society. This is highly effective and can impact individual mental health and make them sick. It

is highly effective in creating mindset regarding differentiability between social class, disability
and mental health which is highly effective and create variation within society people. It create a
particular view regarding specific gender, social class, race and people which can have high
impact and make proportion regarding some specific views. This can lead to create mental health
disorders and influence various perceptions (Alhabash, (2020)). This can be observed as the
mental health disability or disorder which is due to impact and influence of social media or mass
media. It can be noticed that social media influence large population regarding is gender, social
class, race, mental health and disability and particular view to treat with them which is mostly
and negative manner. So, there is a high impact of social media on changing views and
perception of large population in a negative way. It also create various mental health-related
disease or issues like depression and anxiety in the large population and they influence their
mind set accordingly (Zolnoori, (2021)).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that there are impact of social media on
mass media on individual life. It can create change in perception of individual and particular
view regarding any specific race, gender, mental health, disability for a specific community and
so on. Social media have a impact on delivering information that should not be biased but
eventually, it is influenced by political opinion. It also influence public perception within society
regarding any community-specific individual or political party. In this report, there is a
discussion about various type of mass media and there issues to inform public. There is also
discussion about how media can influence the perception and behavior of large population within
society. There is also discussion about particular view which is influenced by social media on
based on gender, age, race, social class, mental health and disability.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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163.
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Gage-Bouchard, (2018). Is cancer information exchanged on social media scientifically
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social service research, 45(1), 34-43.
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psychological distress in adolescents. International Journal of Adolescence and
Youth, 25(1), 79-93.
Kolhar, (2021). Effect of social media use on learning, social interactions, and sleep duration
among university students. Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences, 28(4), 2216-2222.
Nam, (2020). Effects of a social-media-based support on premenstrual syndrome and physical
activity among female university students in South Korea. Journal of Psychosomatic
Obstetrics & Gynecology, 41(1), 47-53.
SHRESTHA, (2019). The Potential Role of Social Media in Pharmacovigilance in Nepal:
Glimpse from a Resource-limited Setting. Journal of Clinical & Diagnostic
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health. Journal of interpersonal violence, 36(3-4), NP1965-1985NP.
Yuan, (2021). Social media for enhanced understanding of disaster resilience during Hurricane
Florence. International Journal of Information Management, 57, 102289.
Zolnoori, (2021). Mining news media for understanding public health concerns. Journal of
clinical and translational science, 5(1).