Let’s Put Down Our Phones:

Social Media Addiction Awareness

Group
Valerie Alfaro
Rochelle Bernarte
Giselle Rojas
Stephanie Vasquez

California State University, San Bernardino

Master of Public Health Program
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Table of contents

Executive Summary 1
Mission Statement 2
Smart Goals and Objectives 3
Program Design and Implementation 4
Program purpose and Rationale (literature review) 5
References 7
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Executive Summary
Social Media addiction is arising as a public health issue as technology becomes more

ingrained in everyday life. It can have a big impact on young adults, both negative and positive.

On one hand social media can bring people together and offer certain resources that they may not

be able to find elsewhere. On the other hand, social media can negatively affect mental well-

being and leave one with an addictive behavior. With interventions in place there can be a better

understanding of why students rely so heavily on social media. The right intervention program

can lead us to the goal that students can improve their mental health and lessen their addiction to

social media.
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Mission Statement
Our mission is to reduce the instance of social media addiction among California State

University, San Bernardino college students through creating an intervention that increases

awareness and provides resources to promote healthy social media consumption.

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Smart Goals and Objectives

Goals
● Create awareness of social media addiction and its effects amongst CSUSB students.

● Identify groups at potentially higher risk of social media addiction.

● To reduce excessive social media consumption among CSUSB students through

providing alternate activities that serve to enhance mental well-being.

● To increase overall mental well-being and self-esteem among college students at CSUSB.

Objectives
1. By the end of the 2022 school year, there will be educational programs at CSUSB to

redirect addictive behaviors.

2. By the end of the 2022 school year, CSUSB students will participate in more academic

and social activities by 40%.

3. By the end of the 2022 school year college students will be able to decrease their time

spent on social media by 50%.

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Program Design and Implementation

i. Target population
Our program aims at targeting CSUSB students ages 18-25. According to Fall 2020

information published by the California State University San Bernardino website, the median age

of undergraduate students at CSUSB is 22 years (CSUSB, 2020). With a population of 19,404

students, most students are local to the southern California region (CSUSB, 2020).

Key determinants. The focus of our intervention aims to directly impact a population group that

sees a high rate of social media usage. In data gathered by the California Health Interview

survey, more than 50 percent50% of southern California residents ages 18-25 said they spent

many times or constant time every day on social media (CHIS, 2020). Although specific

information is unavailable, using the available data we can assume that students at CSUSB have

similar rates of social media consumption based on age group and region.

ii. Two types of needs assessment for our target population

Using a normative and expressed needs assessment, we plan on implementing a program

that would reduce addictive behavior while also increasing awareness. Regarding the normative

needs assessment, we referenced data provided by the California Health Interview Survey to

create goals for our program. The expressed needs assessment also includes data collected by

CHIS. For this assessment, we looked at data that compared social media use and mental health.

Program purpose and Rationale (literature review)

In a study conducted by Bhaskara et al. (2020), college students displayed lower mental

health status when they reported higher social media use. The study supports the association
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between excessive time spent on social media and lower mental well-being. The study found that

students who spent more than four hours on social media also had negative health behaviors

associated with poorer mental health (Bhaskara et al., 2020). These behaviors include loneliness,

poor sleep patterns, and isolation (Bhaskara et al., 2020).

Social media plays a big role in the lives of college students. To increase awareness and

provide resources to promote healthy social media consumption, one must realize the extent of

their usage. College Students are already facing a mental strain when dealing with the constant

deadlines and studying. In order to get away, they use social media as an outlet, but this can also

lead to negative effects on a student’s mental health. In the article, authors Piper Vornholt and

Munmun De Choudhury (2021), feel that introducing supportive interventions, coping strategies

and mitigation programs may lessen the strain students are dealing with. Some Students are

prideful in the fact that they do not want to reach out for help. There is this stigma attached to

seeking therapy or finding resources that can help them (Vornholt & De Choudhury, 2021). In

the interviews that were conducted in this study, it was found that some students appreciated

their social media accounts in order to connect with peers, however they did point out the lack of

awareness social media has when it comes to mental health (Vornholt & De Choudhury, 2021).

They bring up the idea of campus counseling, in an effort to inform students and design a social

media-based mental health support tool (Vornholt & De Choudhury, 2021). Although this tool

may be contradicting, it could be a good steppingstone for students to understand the gravity of

their addiction.

Younger university students tend to be heavier users of the internet, using it to their

benefit to increase their knowledge, but in many cases, an overabundance of internet usage can

be a toxic activity with many consequences that can permeate into their lives offline. This

activity can become an addiction, to which can result in depression, harassment, and anxiety,

among others, mostly affecting our daily life, and even our academic responsibilities (Gómez-
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Galán et al., 2020). In Gómez-Galán et al. (2020) the objective was to find other variables

associated with the increased use of technology among 14 Spanish university students during the

first wave of the COVID19 pandemic. Gómez-Galán et al., (2020) discussed the biggest negative

aspects of the increase of information and communication technologies (ICTs) which include the

lack of communication, reduced listening skills, and emotional withdrawal. He also discussed the

need for preventive and educational measures to use ICTs responsibly.

The results of this study showed that at the beginning of the pandemic there was an

increase of ICTs being used to help make quarantine and isolation barrablebearable. There were

incidences of addiction to social networks. The Spanish university students showed an addiction

level of 21.9% and 27.7% lack of personal control in the use of social networks, and 47.1%

excessive use of social networks. Gómez-Galán et al., (2020) found that rather than an obsession

with social networks, what Spanish university students presented was an excessive use of them,

as well as a lack of personal control to dissociate themselves from them. In short, this study

found that university students suffer from the excessive use of social networks, and students

would benefit if universities were to provide clinical and social support so that students can

safely use social networks without developing an obsession.

References

California Health Interview Survey. (2020). AskCHIS: UCLA Center for Health Policy

and Research. Retrieved from https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/Pages/AskCHIS.aspx.

CSUSB. (2020). Facts and Stats. Retrieved from

https://www.csusb.edu/about-csusb/facts-and-stats
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Bhaskara, N.V., Nandanur, B., Chakraborty, A., & Ghosh, S. (2020). The effect of social

media usage on the mental well-being of medical college students in Bangalore,

Karnataka. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 9(11), 5731–5735.

doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_910_20

Gómez-Galán, J., Martínez-López, J. Á., Lázaro-Pérez, C., & Sarasola

Sánchez-Serrano, J. L. (2020). Social Networks Consumption and Addiction in College

Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Educational Approach to Responsible Use.

Sustainability, 12(18), 7737. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187737

Vornholt, P., & De Choudhury, M. (2021). Understanding the Role of Social

Media-Based Mental Health Support Among College Students: Survey and

Semistructured Interviews. (2021). JMIR Mental Health, 8(7), e24512–e24512.

https://doi.org/10.2196/24512