Increase In Social Media

Due to the invention of smart phones, social media sites are right in the palm of everyone’s hand at any given point of the day, no matter what the time of day it is. As a result, social media use has rapidly increased amongst teens and young adults all around the world. Along with an increase in social media usage in this population, symptoms of depression and low self-esteem have also become more common. Several media outlets have attempted to create a relationship between the rapid increase in social media usage and symptoms of depression and low self-esteem in the world’s young adults. Many researchers have looked into finding a relationship between these three variables and all have found similar results.
Gonzales and Hancock (2011) demonstrated …show more content…
Researchers found that those who reported high collective self-esteem were also likely to report that they use social network to communicate with their peers along with using it for entertainment purposes and passing time (Barker, 2009). Barker (2009) discusses that this finding is most commonly found in female participants, while men were more likely to report negative collective self-esteem and used social media for learning and social compensation. The study also found that participants who felt isolated and reported negative collective self-esteem turned to their social media sites for companionship, since they do not contain positive relationships with those in their regular lives (Barker, 2009). It was also mentioned that males are likely to search for social compensation and identification, along with learning about being social through social network, and they correlate this information with the men maturing since they’re now in college (Barker, …show more content…
Several of these studies have found varied results, but most find that the amount of time an individual spends on social networking sites is based off of the individual’s self-esteem, or self-esteem is negatively affected by extreme social network use. Many researchers have also found that self-esteem plays a role in the individual’s willingness to join social networking sites. This study will continue to look at these factors that have been studied in previous studies in an attempt to add onto the research. Numerous researchers have suggested that more studies should be conducted and that there should be studies that include those who do not use the internet, along with participants with documented depression and social anxiety in an attempt to replicate previous data with a variety of individuals, considering college students use the internet for other