"Social Media Depression" - An Honors Project
Social Media Depression
An Honors Project by SoulfullyAButterfly
Introduction
Social Media no doubt affects our mental health, and research has proved that overtime, as social media usage has increased, so has depression and other mood disorders.
A UK study carried out by the Royal Society for Public Health tested the psychological impact of social media use on 1,500 adolescents and concluded that,
Almost every major social media platform had a negative impact on the subjects psychological wellbeing, ranging from anxiety to self-esteem.
What is happening as a result of the wave of social media usage, can be coined as Social Media Depression
How does it work?
🕹️ Rewards as Triggers: Every like, comment, notification, or view we get on social media acts like a reward, a trigger which acts to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure and satisfactory feelings.
🕹️ Manipulation of Emotional States: Emotionally charged posts can easily transfer and modify our own emotional states. (Ferrara and Yang, 2015)
How do these Causes lead to Social Media Depression?
🏷️ With reward triggers, emotional contagion, and other factors such as targeted advertising as a result of powerful social media algorithms, Social Media Depression is likely to occur when individuals feel the need to not only engage more on social media but engage with a more interesting or appealing manner.
🏷️ Thus, Social Media Depression refers to decorating the truth in order to gain more online appeal. This new term reflects the difference between what is portrayed online and what the situation is in reality – a difference which is important in the face of general mental health and well-being.
Symptoms of Social Media Depression
🗝️ As Social Media Depression refers to decorating reality, all usage of any tools, filters, or other methods which alter the perception of the actual situation fall culprit under this label.
🗝️The general addiction to keep on presenting a better lifestyle than reality is also a highlighted symptom.
🗝️ FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out can lead to individuals posting fake-portraits of their lives.
Impact Based on Different Social Media Sites
The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) and Young Health Movement (YMH) in a 2017 report #StatusOfMind state,
The five most popular platforms were given a net average score which were used to establish the league table rankings:
(1) YouTube (most positive)
(2) Twitter
(3) Facebook
(4) Snapchat
(5) Instagram (most negative)
The rankings were established after a scoring system based upon common 14 goals regarding mental health well-being, including the consideration of awareness and understanding of mental health issues.
How Can Social Media Depression be Combatted?
The #StatusOfMind report (2017) recommends:
💡 Introduction of a pop-up heavy usage warning on social media – seven in 10 (71%) young people surveyed by RSPH support this recommendation.
💡 Social media platforms to identify users who could be suffering from mental health problems by their posts, and discretely signpost to support – four in five (80%) young people support.
💡 Social media platforms to highlight when photos of people have been digitally manipulated – more than two-thirds (68%) of young people support.
An Enlightening Video Portraying Social Media Depression
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EFHbruKEmw
Conclusion
Social Media Depression is a condition which overtime, can affect mental health. In order to combat this state, awareness and other warnings can be placed – action is required by both social media users, as well as social media agencies.
Resources
▪️ https://psychcentral.com/blog/does-social-media-cause-depression/
▪️ https://www.rsph.org.uk/about-us/news/instagram-ranked-worst-for-young-people-s-mental-health.html
▪️ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/social-media-is-redefining-depression/280818/
Discussion Questions
(1) Have you ever faced Social Media Depression?
(2) Do you limit your daily social media usage, or keep track of it? How does this help you?
(3) Should we believe everything we see online and on social media? Why or why not?
@SoulfullyAButterfly
Very Interesting!!
@SoulfullyAButterfly
1) I had social media depression.
2) I am trying to limit the time i am on social media. Whenever i feel urge to go to social media, i ask myself what do i need there on social media and whether it can wait.
3) we shouldn't believe what there is posted on social media. I think that 90 % of information there on social media is false, exagerrated or some important truth is hidden from us.
@SoulfullyAButterfly
(1) � � � Have you ever faced �Social Media Depression�?
Yes, I did. I have been in the worst phase of it. I spoilt around 2 years of my life in it. Took me a hard knock to get off and look again.
(2) � � � Do you limit your daily social media usage, or keep track of it? How does this help you?
Yes. Nowadays I limit it a lot. I prefer to create content that consume it.
(3) � � � Should we believe everything we see online and on social media? Why or why not?
No, never. The online world is an illusion. There are a lot of things working behind it to make it look engaging and addictive. The trick is to use social media for career/business rather than passively scroll or fight.