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Essay Psyc104
Essay Psyc104
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PSYC104
PSYC104- Essay
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and their damaging abilities. Across various pieces of research, it is evident studies and
scholarly sources support this theory. Social media platforms such as Instagram and
Facebook are the few that has people having less face to face contact with their peers.
Leading them to believe they have interacted with people without talking to them but rather
just seeing a photo of them somewhere that they posted. The discussion of Self-esteem,
mental health disorders and why following your friends on social media leads you to believe
you have communicated with those friends. The evidence throughout these sources will
support the argument of a diminishing psychological health when the highest level of
Self-Esteem is based on the social approval and support of friend networks, often self-esteem
diminishes due to lack of these. It is common that a position in a friend group is determined
from the popularity online as well as attractiveness from the number of likes within a post,
meaning that if friends have more likes or followers/ friends psychologically it has been
entered that you are beneath them. Responsiveness of social networking between friends is
detrimental to how people feel about themselves as their key feature is the presentation of
oneself ‘the main photo’ which is essentially a picture of how you would like others to see
you but not a true representation. Self-esteem can also be diminished from friends leaving out
of things and then seeing photos published later, giving a person the thought they aren’t good
enough to be seen with their online friends outside the online world. A Research study found
that the negative relationship between Facebook and self-esteem since self-presentation is
their key part of the of the usage of the social media. Those with lower self-esteem were
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found to be online more to promote themselves as a person hence hopefully changing their
social status amongst peers. (online social networking and mental health.) As communication
is 24/7 and it isn’t required that face to face interactions occur due to it being more efficient
and no physical exertion is required. It is evident that majority of friendships online across
the various platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, these online friendships are
unrealistic and harmful to their psychological health as they try to be this edited unattainable
Furthermore, is evident on diminishing psychological health and its life orientating disorders
that are acquired from online itself and the friendships that are created from just being on-
line. Examining the information gathered by this source provides evidence supporting that
online friendships are putting people in terrible mental states that they develop disorders such
as depression, agoraphobia and social anxiety as they continuously attempt to be like their
friend’s online profile. This is according with how mental health is diminishing from constant
comparing oneself to these photos of friends and as it continues so will the mental states of
those using it profusely leading to such mental disorders. It was found that those that spend a
large amount of their time online rather than meeting their friends in person were more than
likely depressed, this being as social interaction in person is very beneficial to mental health
and all that comes with it such as playing sport (Twenge, J. 2017). The psychological damage
occurs due to the photos posted on Instagram of friends are unrealistic as they are staged to
make that person look the best they can, creating terrible body image. Therefore, it is evident
that screen time is a major contributing factor in the growth of depression amongst youths.
psychologically damaging capabilities meaning until seen in person that person that you are
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talking to isn’t who they say they are or what they look like in their photos. These friendships
can also lead to unhealthy understandings of what peers are talking about due to the complete
lack of being able to distinguish tone or body language online, the only way being is through
emoji’s which can be interpreted in numerous ways thus increasing the psychological health
issues. To expand from friendships and anonymity, bullying doesn’t stop once school is over
these days people can be harassed all day at school then return home and still be under strain
health at the hand of their peers online. It is clear online bullying can be worse as those that
bully cannot see the anguish of those on the receiving end, previously home was a haven for
those being bullied yet now it is just another place they can be further bullied. A research
article further explains a case of putting anonymity upon candidates there was a clear
difference between someone’s online and offline personality (Henderson, S., & Gilding, M.
2004). This is vital to understand that people can befriend a person and only share a certain
part of them, manipulating the friendship until the possible meeting up with them in person
yet a lot of that time it doesn’t happen as they are hiding something. Therefore, anonymity is
a manipulation of one’s friendship and as they rarely leave offline it becomes a psychological
trauma, they could be a best friend that has decided they no longer like this person and want
and recognise the effects of lack of these interactions has on mental health for example
loneliness. As stated previously online people have an authoritarian view when it comes to
what they say online as they don’t see the outcome of what their saying thus creating a
psychological health, especially when online. This is evident in a report that indicates the
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importance of face to face interactions in comparison to online relationships, sharing that the
quality of an interaction is far better when it is a face to face interaction (Mesch, G., &
Talmud, I. 2006). Online friendships are much less reliable and in the end are never as close
in friendship to those that aren’t online, friendship in person is much better for psychological
health and is much more reliable as there is no wait in response while online friendships can
see your message and possibly never read it. Results from a study on Facebook users also
found while although the users on Facebook were far more extraverted, they had much
stronger feelings of loneliness. (Ryan, T., & Xenos, S. 2011). Therefore, loneliness online is
detrimental to mental health, people need people to function in their usual order and it has
been proven that those most lonely tend to be online much more than those who aren’t.
denied that online friendships diminish the psychological health of all those that have more
interactions with those online rather than face to face interactions that have been proven to be
beneficial for one’s mental health. Therefore, it is evident that psychological health can be
determined through the amount of time spent online chatting in comparison to in person.
References
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