Exploring the Impact of Social Media on Mental Health in Australia

This essay investigates the impact of social media on the mental health of individuals in Australia. It discusses the increasing use of the internet and social media platforms, and how excessive engagement can lead to mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and sleep problems. The essay outlines the addictive nature of social media, its contribution to feelings of isolation and unhealthy comparisons with others, and the biopsychosocial factors involved. It also examines the biological, psychological, and social components affecting mental well-being. Furthermore, it highlights the resources available to support Australians experiencing mental health challenges, including home care therapy, AI and robotics, government funding, programs, and AHS services. The conclusion summarizes the negative impacts of excessive social media use and the importance of seeking support from available resources.

social media how it affects
mental health

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Social media in the daily living mainly impacts the mental health of the individuals living
in Australia. Due to the increased use of the internet and the social media apps and sites mainly
impacts mental health of individuals. When large number of individual mainly using the internet
are excluding their feeling which impacts the thoughts and mental health of the individuals living
in the Australia. By spending high level of the concentration and the time in using internet and
social media impact and causes mental health issues including the anxiety, depression,
distressing conditions, sleep problems . With being socially connected by using the mobile
phones and the tablets may cause and harm the health which results in disturbing mental and
emotional well-being of an individual’s living in Australia. This essay provides details about the
social media impacts on the metal health of Australian people. Also biopsychosocial impacts of
issue on people diagnosed with mental illness. Lastly the resources currently available for
supporting the mental health issues.
MAIN BODY
Social media an issue affecting metal health and well-being of people living in Australia
With the increased use of the internet and the social media applications and websites
impacts the mental health of the individuals living in Australia. The social media networks are
mainly used by large number of individual around the world (Hefler and et.al. (2019)). This
mainly causes impact on mental health with resulting the increased risk of the depression,
loneliness, harming self, anxiety and the suicidal thoughts by continuously using 3-4 hours of
internet and social media apps. The main impact of the social media on mental health of
Australian people including:
As the social media Addictive in nature, by using it one regular basis it impacts
individuals as it is addictive in nature which impacts the brain storming capacity in the
individuals. The addiction being caused of using the social media including the Instagram,
Facebook and other apps impacts the mental health of the individuals which causes and results in
fluctuating mood, behaviours when the social media sites are use excessively (Support services
for depression and anxiety, 2022).

It Causes depression as Around 20% individual in a year in Australia are mainly
impacted from their mental health as by constantly using the social media. They mainly age
around 1-80 years’ individuals causing depression, anxiety and the disorderliness behavioural
substances. With the high range of depressed individuals in the country which mainly results in
loss of sleep, heavy headache, loss of appetite.
Feeling Isolated with increased use to social media mainly impact the individual well-
being by using the online sites and social media apps for long time around 3- hours in day results
in arising the feeling of loneliness among the individuals due to lack of face to face interactions
among individuals.
By using the online websites and social media apps arise Comparison with others which
is unhealthy, as with using the Facebook ad the Instagram on daily basis resulted in comparing
the lives with others (Ikafa, I., & Perry, L. (2022)). This impacts the mental health by making
jealous of the other individuals this results in raising depression among the individuals which are
regularly using the online websites and social media too excessively in Australia.
Biopsychosocial impacts of the social media on people living with diagnose metal illness
The biopsychosocial impacts of using the social media by the people living in Australia
mainly includes the factors impacting the lives of the individuals living in the country by
changing their behaviours and moods. It also creates the pressure which causes harmful decisions
by getting more frustrated with excessively using the social media apps and the websites. As the
biological factors mainly includes the age of the individual which mainly influences the use of
the social media by getting more addicted. Usually the younger individual living in Australia
mainly are addicted with using the more online activities. Also, the social factors mainly include
the role of gender and the intensity among the users and the society living in the dynamic
environment mainly impacts the mental health and the individuals which are suffering from the
mental illness. Also, the users mainly are addicted for using the social media as for comparing
and following the latest trends which are being followed by the celebrities and various
influencers. The biopsychosocial model generally enhances the healthcare professionals to
illustrate the phenomenon like depression by determining all the reliable psychological,
biological as well as the social factors which may be contributing towards the development or
maintenance of an illness( Keles, McCrae and Grealish, (2020)). A biopsychosocial model of
well-being and medicine generally examine how the basic three aspects such as psychological,

biological and social components can occupy the roles in a relative well-being and illness. In
terms of mental health, it generally shows people that there is potential to effectively influence
an individual’s mental well-being.
Biological component: A component is often linked with the relationship of illness as well as a
bodily well-being. Such as a vulnerable patient can experience a lymphedema that usually can
cause moderate but the long term well-being issues which should be addressed by the healthcare
professionals. Including the acute and severe well-being issues. The biological element involves
with mental health such as injury, genetics, hormones, disease, exercise, stressors and toxins as
well.
Psychological component: In this, a psychological component is the aspect of mental as well as
an emotional wellness which is also associated with the behaviour (Guntuku and et.al. (2019)).
Having sudden alterations within the lifestyle generally have been the detrimental for those
people who have experienced mental illness situations such as depression and anxiety as well.
With the use of the social media is negatively impacted the mental health and
resulted in arising the negative symptoms as of the depression, anxiety and the stress
related issues. With the increased use of the social media mainly decreased the sleep and,
results in arising the depression, poor economic performance (Chancellor, et.al., (2019)). In
Australia, around 20% and nearly 4.8 million Australian are mainly influenced their
mental health and the behavioural conditions due to the anxiety
Social component: It is generally an interpersonal element like the social interactions and the
community activities. Exceeding the use of social media can make an adverse impact on the
ability of a person in order to socialise or can maintain the healthy relationships with the family
members and peers as well.
With the use of social media it mainly impacts the mental health and arise the
isolation, depression, exposure of the content and cyber bullying manly impacts the
individuals due to the excessive use of the social media. The mental illness is around 20%
aged in 16-80 experiences in the mental illness.
Furthermore, with excessively using social media mainly impacts the health and ill
individuals living in Australia as many advertisements distorts the image and give unrealistic
beauty hacks and the body image design an image in the mind of individuals impacts the
imagination ability (Schønning and et.al. (2020)). Also, following the high beauty standards and

with the constantly new trends of the social media results in arsing and impacting the
expectations being made by the communities and society which leads to the severe life changing
decisions as which reduces the self-confidence, impacts the mental health by resulting in
improving and constantly adopting the trends and change. Also the addiction to use the social
media results in arising stress in an individual as by not able to exhibit and understand other
emotions by chatting on online apps rather contacting in person results in arising stressful
situation and lead to depression by constantly engaging self while using social media apps.
As by using the Instagram it engages and attracts large number of individual as for using
its new feature of reel and your tubers influences to constantly use and influence the individual
for immaterial exercising to get the best body result and trying to use the instant DIY videos
(Johnson and et.al. (2020)). This impacts the mental health for not gaining the results and causes
stressful conditions.
Resources currently available to help and support people experiencing heath issues in
Australia.
The possible resources that are available to help as well as provide support towards the
people mainly experiencing health problems in the Australian are as mentioned below:
Home care therapy: The therapist and the home care therapy is the resource which are
mainly used in current times for treating the mental health issues (Johnson and et.al. (2020)). As
the people living in the country are mainly guided by the professional counsellors and
encouraging to practise the meditation.
Artificial intelligence and robotics: With using the AI and the robotics are the resources
mainly available in the country which helps in detecting the behavioural signs around 90%. As
by analysing the behavioural patterns with seeing the symptoms of biting the nails, hand taping
this mainly helps in analysing the anxiety in individuals.
Government funding: The financial resources are mainly employed for treating the
mental illness being caused to the people living in Australia (Mental health services, 2022). The
funds which are mainly raised for reaching out all the youth individuals for preventing the
suicidal attempts being raised from using the social media and high use of internet in the country.
Government programs and service: Different programs and services being introduced
by government including the ABLe, family mental health supporting, IPS programs, digital

working and study services this mainly helps in overcoming the issues being caused to the
individual living in Australia.
AHS services: Due to the rise in the use of internet impacted the individual living in the
country, the major impact caused due to the social media mainly impacted the mental health this
causes the depression and occurring the suicidal thoughts among the individuals. For this the
government supporting resources by providing all hours suicidal supporting helps in ensuring
individuals by treating and counselling their mental health (Mental health services, resources
and links, 2022). As this includes the counsellors, psychologist and metal health nurse which
helps in treating the individuals living in Australia.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay it can be concluded that, with the high use internet and the social
media apps and websites mainly impacts the mental health of the people living in Australia.
Spending long hours and time limit per day by using the social media apps and sites impact and
have caused the mental health problems. With excessive use of the internet and the social media
has caused the cyber bullying which impacted negativity on the mental health and the well-being
of the individuals. This arise the depression, anxiety and stress with sleeping problems. As in
Australia, as the adolescent mainly impacted by daily using the social media around more than 3
hours in a week. With using social media, it results in arising stress, depression and leading
towards losing the memory. Current resources and the organisation mainly help Australian
individuals including head to health, Head space, Mensline Australia, black dog institute etc.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hefler, M., Kerrigan, V., Henryks, J., Freeman, B., & Thomas, D. P. (2019). Social media and
health information sharing among Australian Indigenous people. Health Promotion
International, 34(4), 706-715.
Ikafa, I., & Perry, L. (2022). Resettlement experiences of African migrants in Australia and how
they affect mental health. Mental Health Practice, 25(4).
Schønning, V. and et.al. (2020). Social media use and mental health and well-being among
adolescents–a scoping review. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 1949.
Johnson, A., and et.al. (2020). A review and agenda for examining how technology-driven
changes at work will impact workplace mental health and employee well-
being. Australian Journal of Management, 45(3), 402-424.
Keles, B., McCrae, N. and Grealish, A., 2020. A systematic review: the influence of social media
on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. International Journal
of Adolescence and Youth. 25(1). pp.79-93.
Guntuku, S. C and et.al. (2019). Understanding and measuring psychological stress using social
media. In Proceedings of the international AAAI conference on web and social
media (Vol. 13, pp. 214-225).
Chancellor, S., et.al. (2019). A taxonomy of ethical tensions in inferring mental health states
from social media. In Proceedings of the conference on fairness, accountability, and
transparency (pp. 79-88).
Online:
Mental health services, 2022 [Online] Available through:
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/mentalhealth/services/Pages/support-contact-list.aspx
Mental health services, resources and links, 2022 [Online] Available through:
https://raisingchildren.net.au/grown-ups/services-support/services-families/mental-health-
services
Support services for depression and anxiety, 2022 [Online] Available through:
https://au.reachout.com/articles/support-services-for-depression-and-anxiety