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Effects of Social Media on the Social Wellbeing of Teens Essay

05 november 2019

Effects of Social Media on the Social Wellbeing of Teens Essay

Berryman, C., Ferguson, C. J., & Negy, C. (2018). Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults. Psychiatric Quarterly, 89(2), 307-314.

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The article raises the concerns that are aired from different quarters on their views towards use and effects of social media. The advancement in technology and rapidly increasing use of social media by the youths is becoming a matter of attention to policy makers, advocates and parents. Studies in this area have shown divergent outcomes that does not necessarily pointing to a particular side. Some of the studies have shown that the use of social media among the youth have resulted in negative mental health outcomes which include decreased empathy, suicidality, and loneliness. On the other hand, some of the studies have pointed to the beneficial impacts of the use of social media among its users. The study carried out in this paper points to particular outcomes on the use of social media among the adolescents. The outcomes include suicidal ideation, mental health symptoms, loneliness, decreased empathy, and social anxiety. The study found that the use of social media is not predictive of any form of impaired mental health functioning. On the other, the study showed that vaguebooking resulted in suicidal ideation, indicating such a particular behavior is an indication of serious issues. Overally, the study deduced that apart from vaguebooking, other concerns that are raised on matters of social media use may not be justifiable.
Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). Social Networking Sites and Addiction: Ten Lessons Learned. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(3), 311.
The increased need for connections via the social media platforms comes with effects that this article seeks to give an insightful view of on the platforms users. The paper shows how the increased use of online social networking sites (SNSs) have impacted on its users due to its increased popularity in the last decade as people seek to get connected and share similar interests. The urge to be connected and through the online social networking sites has resulted in behaviors and symptoms which are compulsive and can be related to those of substance abuse. This article presents the new insights into the addiction of online social networking by examining 10 lessons learned on this area as deduced from empirical research. The lessons identified in the paper are; the difference that exist between social media and social networking, the electric nature of social networking, social networking as a way of life, the addictive nature of using social networking sites, the fear of missing out (FOMO) could be a critical concern when it comes to social networking addiction among other lesson which are comprehensively looked into in this research paper.
Lup, K., Trub, L., & Rosenthal, L. (2015). Instagram# instasad?: Exploring Associations among Instagram Use, Depressive Symptoms, Negative Social Comparison, and Strangers Followed. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(5), 247-252.
The paper gives a comprehensive analysis of the continuous growth of social networking and its influence especially on psychological wellbeing. The paper gives a close attention to Instagram – a photo sharing social networking platform. Instagram just like Facebook and other social networking platforms have negative influences on the well-being of its users. The study evaluated a theoretically grounded moderated meditation model of the relationship between the use of Instagram and depressive symptoms. The study gives an overview of the use of Instagram to be marginally positively related to depressive symptoms, and the significant negative relationship between depressive symptoms and positive social comparison. The number of strangers one follows moderated the relationship of the use of Instagram with a significant social comparison and the depressive symptoms. The finding of the study were more aligning to the fact that frequent use of Instagram negatively impact on the lives of those individuals who follow most strangers, while showing positive association with those individuals who follow less strangers. Furthermore, article shows the negative risk that comes with following strangers can be reduced by lessening the number of strangers that one follows.
Meier, E. P., & Gray, J. (2014). Facebook Photo Activity Associated with Body Image Disturbance in Adolescent Girls. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(4), 199-206.
The article examines the relationship between body image and the activities of adolescent girl on the social networking site, Facebook (FB). The paper tries to give an in-depth perspective of an elevated internet “appearance exposure” and how it positively correlates with the increase in body image disturbances among adolescent girls. The research was conducted on this population on specific FB features. The features that the study gave emphasis are the level of weight dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization, motive for thinness, self-objection, and comparison on appearance. The research deduced that an elevated Facebook exposure is significantly correlated with drive for thinness, weight dissatisfaction, self-objection, and thin ideal internalization. Additionally, the study looks into the implications that individuals encounter as a result of trying to cope and keep up with the lifestyle presented by those who follow them as well as those who they follow. However, the research deduced that higher overall FB use did not have any correlations with higher body image disturbances. Moreover, the authors of article posit that an exploratory assessment on the comparison of non-FB users and FB users showed that FB users have significant score on self-objectification as well as physical appearance comparison.
O’Reilly, M., Dogra, N., Whiteman, N., Hughes, J., Eruyar, S., & Reilly, P. (2018). Is social Media Bad for Mental Health and Wellbeing? Exploring the Perspectives of Adolescents. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 23(4), 601-613.
The impact of involvement in social media is a key concern for the authors of this research paper. They seek to investigate the effects of social media on the mental health and well-being of adolescents. The paper aims at bridging the dearth of empirical research into the perception of adolescents on social media, especially on areas of being a knowledge resource and how those young people draw upon the broader social and media discourses in expressing one’s viewpoints. The intention of the authors of the paper t bridge this knowledge gap led to their pertinent discoveries on this topic area. That is, the paper provides a comprehensive analysis on the aspect that the adolescents perceived social media to be a threat to mental wellbeing. The areas which they felt that the social networking sites posed threat to their well-being include their belief that SNS could result in mood and anxiety disorders, their perception that SNS is a platform for cyberbullying and the addiction aspect that can be associated with social media.
Oberst, U., Wegmann, E., Stodt, B., Brand, M., & Chamarro, A. (2017). Negative Consequences from Heavy Social Networking in Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Fear of Missing Out. Journal of Adolescence, 55, 51-60.
This research articles looks into the attractive nature of social networking sites (SNS) especially for adolescents and the consequences of such involvement to this population category. It explores on the negative psychological consequences that the user of these SNS experience. The article analyzes on the fear of missing out (FOMO) and the intensity of social media use among this population in order to scale to find adequate explanation for the link between the psychopathological symptoms and the negative consequences that arise from the use of SNS via mobile devices. The authors of the article deployed the use of structural equation modeling to assess the impact of FOMO and Social Networking Intensity (SNI) and their link with psychopathology symptoms. The research deduced that the different genders have different source of trigger for their involvement in SNS. That is, for girls a feel of depression triggers higher involvement in SNS, while boys are highly triggered with anxiety. The results of the research further triggers the debate on the addictive use of smartphones as wells as other mobile devices.
Richards, D., Caldwell, P. H., & Go, H. (2015). Impact of Social Media on the Health of Children and Young People. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 51(12), 1152-1157.
The article gives a review of the literature on the impact of social media on the health of children and young people. Online social networking platforms have hugely changed the landscape of interaction among different people across the globe. Social media plays an important role in the lives of many young generations as it provides a platform for information exchange, interaction, live chats from different regions of the world. The study gives a comprehensive perspective on the identified impact of social media on the mental health of these young people especially on areas of well-being and self-esteem, body image, as well as well effects of cyberbullying. Nevertheless, the paper deduces that exact determination of the causes and effect of mental health deterioration on the young people cannot be such easily done since it all depends on the nature of the young person. The study further recommends an intensive research on the impact of social media on young children, in terms of identifying those that are mostly at risk of harms from the social media exposure and usage. The identification would further help in finding best mitigation strategies for health care providers can give appropriate advice and education for the young people and their parents.


Woods, H. C., & Scott, H. (2016). # Sleepyteens: Social Media Use in Adolescence in Associated with Poor Sleep Quality, Anxiety, Depression and Low Self-Esteem. Journal of Adolescence, 51, 41-49.
The article examines the relationship between the use social media and sleep quality, anxiety, depression and self-esteem among adolescents. The study measure the overall social media use, emotional investment in social media, nighttime-specific social media use, self-esteem, levels of anxiety and depression, and sleep quality among this population. The research points out that those adolescent who use social media more, as well as those who more emotionally invested in social media are deduced to experience lol sleep quality, high levels of anxiety and depression, and low self-esteem. The control of the research study on the areas of depression, self-esteem, and anxiety while examining nighttime specific use of social media showed that the individuals who use social media more at night experienced poorer quality of sleep.

The research findings in this study points to the concern that is raised on the effects of use of social media on the wellbeing of adolescents. Moreover, the study puts more emphasis on the nighttime social media use as well the emotional investment that the youths put in social media and suggests that the areas further warrant more investigations in the overall wellbeing of this population.