How Does Social Media Cause Depression?

Just as individualism is an essential part of many peoples’ lives, the regular consumption of social media has become an important part of millions of peoples’ lives around the Globe. As a matter of fact, Internet has been introduced to almost all the nations around the world; therefore, access to social media has become incredibly convenient. Internet has brought adverse changes in the forms of communication that are available and being used. Due to which, online social media has gained astonishing worldwide growth, which has led to attracting attention from variety of researchers globally. Even though with time all generations have come to embrace the changes social media has brought about, teenagers and adults are the most fanatic users …show more content…
Stoney Brooks, an assistant professor in the jones college of Business at Middle Tennessee state University, and Phil Longstreet, an assistant professor at University of Michigan-Flint, states, “This increased engagement may coincide with a decrease in an individual’s overall well-being by increasing negative life outcomes such as depression” (20). The authors contends that social media has become a way of life for many individuals. Indeed, over “a billion” people are active social media users. Moreover, the authors observe that the over-usage of social networking sites could cause a great decline in well-being over time, specifically how people fell moment-to-moment and how satisfied people are with their own lives. People are so obsessed with social media that while using social media sites, we tend to overlook the negative impacts of its excessive use. According to the authors, Social networking sites are associated with depressive symptoms in fact that computer-meditaited communication might lead to the altered impression of physical and personality traits of other users. This might lead to incorrect conclusions regarding physical appearance, educational level, intelligence, and moral integrity. Therefore, the more people engage with social media, the higher the chances of getting depressed. The authors write, “We posit that this increase in SNS usage will be associated with significant elevated levels of depression” (21). There is a clear connection between social media usage and depression. As the amount of time users spend with social media enhance, they have less time for other activities, which can result in negative life outcomes. Social networking sites have become a universal technology with massive numbers of people involved on daily basis. Just to have fun, People keep hanging on social networking sites that later on leads to