The Negative Effects Of Social Media On Mental Health

Improved Essays
Social media sparks great controversy these days. With the invention of this valuable tool, people are able to share information and communicate with others in a way that they never have before. It’s quick, easy, and fun. Almost everyone makes use of social media or, at least, knows someone that does. According to a report by CNN, 1.57 billion active users are on Facebook every month, and this statistic continues to grow (Fiegerman, 2016, p. 1). It’s the big thing right now, and has been since the beginning of its time. The controversy concerning social media deals with whether or not it does more harm than good. Many claim that the newer generation is hooked. They’re constantly looking down at their brightly lit screens, and this is terrible …show more content…
This idea is something that professionals, including psychologists, are beginning to discern and take advantage of. Everything has negative aspects. Social media is not short of this conclusion. Many researchers are investigating how social media can affect people and society as a whole. It has been reported that social media can negatively affect mental health. It is said to potentially lead to depression. It has the possibility to impede rehabilitation efforts with addicts. There are even studies on how social media promotes narcissism. The possible impacts on society include people disconnecting from one another. Older people complain that kids these days cannot have decent conversations with anyone anymore because it all has to involve unspoken messages containing lol’s and emojis. It is important to take into account that people become heavily involved with any new type of technology. Every generation has had its own item of fixation. One could say that hands that once carried newspapers now carry phones. This is not because today’s society is hooked on technology, but …show more content…
The purpose of research is to contribute new knowledge to the community. Once something is discovered that could promote more research or benefit an aspect of society, it is imperative that that discovery is conveyed to other professionals and the public. There seems to be no better way to do this than through social media. People who make up policies, colleagues, organizations, and the general public can all be reached instantaneously and with no hassle. Ideas can be spread in minutes. An article can be posted on a website like Facebook and have a million views in an hour. Dr. McDermott, a professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette said, “Disseminating information to the public and to other professionals is such an important part of psychological research. I have a treatment for PTSD that is guaranteed to work. Getting this treatment out there and known could make such a difference and help so many people” (insert citation here). Not only can information be communicated more efficiently, but it can be exposed to a wider audience. Whereas before, research may have only been exchanged between professionals. Now the general public has easy access to lots of new information. This, of course, is extremely beneficial. Social media makes it easier for ordinary people to keep up with new theories and research that can help them to better their

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Ever believe the internet is taking over people’s lives? According to the United Nations agency there are over three billion people on the internet. But how many of those people on the internet become sucked into it? There’s an estimate of seventy-eight percent of people that have social media. People who have a social media account can occasionally get their life caught up in social media.…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Impact of Social Media: What Role does it play on a Child’s Mental Health? Social media has taken over the entire world in a large way. Social media Web sites, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, have become basic regimes of day to day modern life, particularly for kids.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Social media is at our fingertips now more than ever before. Social media can be accessed on our desktop computers, lap tops, and smart phones. Social media can be a positive platform, however when used excessively or maliciously,…

    • 1482 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although there is a negative impact that shows social media as being bad and a threat to our society, there is much more positivity about it. The main positive impacts that social media has on the society is that it opens many more opportunities to communicate with others, people are able to talk to large groups of people at once, important news alerts and announcements are able to be told to everyone in the community in all one place, and it is a good way to get teens and young people to get involved and alerted. Social media is a great way to be connected to each other in the community and to each other around the…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Social Media Effects Where is your phone right now? For many millennials our phones are our lifeline to the outside world, and our phones are right next to us. Countless Americans use their cell phones every day to communicate, form relationships, and engage with people socially. This includes popular social networking apps such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat.…

    • 1494 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    You know the saying, “It’s too good to be true.”? Well, it seems almost impossible nowadays to find someone without them being attached to social media in one way or another. Especially with phones having mobile applications left and right, it’s as if the millions of users of social media are completely captivated by what their friends, family, celebrities, or colleagues are doing every second of the day. As the number of users continue to increase, could social media pose a problem that is silently creeping its way to the normality of everyday life? The popularity of social media has cause negative effects on children and teens, such as, an invasion of one’s privacy, a continual rise of online bullying, and the most recent of them all, “FOMO”…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Technology changes everybody 's lives. There are so many ways that it changes each person 's life and there are good and bad reasons for each one. Since kids are now just as caught up as the adults, or farther than adults in the technology world, it is changing fast. Although technology has many glitches and downfalls, it helps our world stay connected and the benefits far outweigh the issues with technology. Social media has so many positive aspects such as keeping the world connected.…

    • 2330 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    was conducted to see the effects of the campaign on youth and young adults. There were no significant findings so a second study was conducted for a longer period of time. The second time the study was conducted for up to a year after the PSA was launch rather than focusing on the short term (Livingston, 2014). Using social media as a way to promote the awareness of mental health is a new approach but with youth are so engaged in social media today it can be a valuable experience and a great way to engage them in learning about mental health. The study was extended from an evaluation of 1 month to a 1 year evaluation.…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People are already mindful and concerned on how much time is being consumed on the new world of social media. Most of the users are consciously becoming addicted and more dependent on online activity. Social media has been an issue that brought many controversies to debate. For instance, in the pro-social networking article (“Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites” by Karen Frazier), the author asserts that social media has a lot of negative impacts in the society, especially in young adults and teenagers. Unreliable communication, high risk of interventions with strangers, cyberbullying, and a substantial decrease in school grades are some of the main concerns of Frazier.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If we use social media in axcess, we will forget the time and things around our environment. It is why social media can make someone being anti social. And the last of negative impact that media social can give to us is social media make negative impact to our health like impact to our psyches, Its the biggest negative effect from media social. Pornography for the example, pornography is one of the effect that can impact to our psyches.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It has has effected every institution of society: family, religion, government, economy, and education. There has been both positive and negative aspects to social media. In today’s life, its about trying to find the right balance with social media that society can prosper from it. Social media will always be apart of the world, so instead of deeming it as a negative effect on society, there are ways that it can be more of a benefit than…

    • 1453 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The popularity of Social Media in today’s society is on the rise, and will only increase as time goes on. Not only is it used as a form of communication between friends, family, and peers; it’s also the force that drives the worlds of advertisement and marketing. Companies big and small rely on social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, to connect with their consumers and discover what products and services are in high demand. The articles “Social networking benefits validated” by Karen Goff and “Is Too Much Social Media Use Bad for Teen Health?” by Talal Al-Khatib, along with other articles, explore the opposing sides of the usefulness of social media.…

    • 2031 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Like many millennials, I use social media as a means of entertainment as well as an educational resource. No doubt, social media sources like Facebook and Twitter have redefined how people communicate and interact with the world. With the dawn of these revolutionary platforms, people are living and interacting in a microcosm brimming with 7.5 billion people. No longer does distance stifle an individual 's connection. Just ten years ago, I would have never imagined that communication would be driven by reports that are 140 characters or less, viral shares, and 6-second videos watch by millions.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Social Media: A Better Option for Today’s Society People all over the world have their own views on social media. A group of people will tell you that social media is one of the world’s greatest inventions; others may try to convince you otherwise. There are two types of people: the type who are against social media for any reasons, including possible dangers, and the type who are all for social media and all of the convenience that it has to offer.…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Internet Privacy

    • 1348 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The internet is a global network system in which people can rapidly transmit information to one another; it has become more popular with the increase in technology. Browsing the internet had grown popular to not only adults, but teens and children as well. Teens use the internet to communicate with other people throughout the world instantly. Social media has caused a lot of controversy in the world today, yet it still continues to grow bigger and bigger. People can instantly access whatever website they need or want to go on at any time they want through smart phones, tablets, etc.…

    • 1348 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays