Facebook Mental Health

1492 Words3 Pages

Over the last decade, social networking sites, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are being widely integrated in our daily life. Social networking sites are so widely spread that Facebook alone has more than one billion active users all around the world and it is predicated that the number of users will continue to increase, especially in developing countries. The introduction of smartphones has also allowed people who are always on the move or have no personal computer to access to social network sites more frequently. Social networking sites are currently being use for both business and personal leisure, and it has helped in many ways like increasing publicity, maintaining connectivity and even lower cost. For example, utilizing Facebook …show more content…

Several researches have found that social networking sites have been correlated to depressive symptoms, personality disorders, and low self-esteem in the users (Chou & Edge, 2012; Lup, K., Trub, L., & Rosenthal, L., 2015; Mehdizadeh, S., 2010; Pantic, I. 2014). Thus any confirmed relationship between social networking sites and mental health problems would pose a severe public health issue. Even so, it will be unfair to undermine the positive effect that social networking sites may have on improving mental health. Betton & Tomlinson (2013) gave some case studies on how social networking sites can be used in the recovery of mental health problems. This research will look into the different roles of social networking sites in mental health problems, hoping to increase our understanding of the potential impact of social networking …show more content…

Thus explaining the urgency to study the effects of it. The high usage of social networking sites often led to a negative feedback loop. As decrease time spent with friends and family usually causing the users to feel lonely and depressed, they are more inclined to spend more time on the sites and further reducing the reducing the daily face-to-face communication with people closer to the users, and thus leading to the feeling of loneliness and depression. Usage of social networking sites may also result in the assumption that others are living a more fulfilled life and are more happier than the users and further deteriorate any psychiatric comorbidities. Self-esteem may also be impaired when handling negative feedback from other users, especially in users with high narcissism level. Although currently most of the researches does indicate that social networking sites is link to mental health problems, like depressive symptoms, personality disorders, and low self-esteem, there still no concrete evidence showing the use of social networking is a direct cause of it. Researches have shown that when social networking sites are used for bonding relationship with friends and family, it will have optimistic effects on mental health. Social networking sites help to lower down anxiety level by giving more time to users, to reflect and portray a

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