Is Social Media Affecting Our Mental Health and Well-Being?

Is Social Media Affecting Our Mental Health and Well-Being?

Article
Behavioral & Mental Health
Current Medical News
Contributed byKrish Tangella MD, MBAApr 15, 2017

According to Facebook, there are 757 million daily active users in their social website as of December 2013. The original goal of social media networks was to keep individuals connected; however, some researchers suggest social media networks can have a negative impact on our mental health and well-being.

A study from the Salford Business School at the University of Salford reported in The Telegraph that social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter feed anxiety and make people feel inadequate. They polled 298 people and found that 53 percent of those individuals said the launch of social networking sites had changed their behavior. Fifty-one percent of that group said the impact had been negative. 

Also, the researchers found social networks and emails addicting, with 55 percent of people saying they felt "worried or uncomfortable" when they could not access their accounts.

According to Dr. Shannon M. Rauch, of Benedictine University at Mesa, AZ, social media is used for self-distraction and boredom relief. “For those who post status updates, the reinforcements keep coming in the form of supportive comments and 'likes.' And of course we know that behaviors that are consistently reinforced will be repeated, so it becomes hard for a person who has developed this habit to simply stop,” she said.

Previous studies have concluded that Facebook could affect personal interactions. Researchers from the Benedictine University in Mesa, AZ and Providence College in Rhodes Island concluded that exposure to an individual on Facebook before a face-to-face encounter led to increased arousal, especially for those who are high in social anxiety.

“Whether it is a priming effect or an unwelcome stimulus change, the implication for socially anxious Facebook users is the same: initial Facebook exposure may not serve a protective function during a subsequent live exposure, but may lead to an increase in negative arousal,” the researchers said.

DoveMed released an earlier article discussing how high Facebook image viewing has been linked to body image disturbances. Researchers from the American University surveyed 103 middle and high school females during a free class period over the course of a week. They found no considerable correlations found for total Facebook use and any of the body image measures. However, the researchers did reveal the significant differences between non-Facebook users and Facebook users for age, self-objectification and physical appearance comparisons.

Facebook was shown to not affect individuals who used the website generally. They did find that adolescent girls who engaged in photo activities on Facebook were more likely to engage in self-objectification. 

Although there have been many studies supporting the avoidance of social networking, individuals should not deactivate their accounts just yet.

A study from the University of Missouri revealed that social media profiles can provide insight into the mental health of people. The research team asked a group of participants to print their Facebook activity and linked traits of their activity with the level to which these people showed an assortment of symptoms including social withdrawal to unusual beliefs called schizotypy. They found that individuals with schizotypy showed signs of social anhedonia, or the inability to encounter happiness from normally enjoyable activities, such as interacting and talking to peers.

These people with social anhedonia were more likely to:

  • Have few friends on Facebook
  • Communicate less frequently
  • Share fewer pictures
  • Have a longer Facebook profile 

Study leader Elizabeth Martin, a doctoral student in MU's psychological science department in the College of Arts and Science, said, “Therapists could possibly use social media activity to create a more complete clinical picture of a patient. The beauty of social media activity as a tool in psychological diagnosis is that it removes some of the problems associated with patients' self-reporting.”

The use of social media networking continues to increase and the individuals need to be careful how they use the website and who they interact with.

Additional Resources:

Social networking profile correlates of schizotypy
Facebook and Twitter feed anxiety, study finds

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Krish Tangella MD, MBA

Pathology, Medical Editorial Board, DoveMed Team

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