EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON MENTAL

HEALTH OF TODAY’S YOUTH

NAME- ROHIT YADAV

MBA(G), 1ST YEAR
ROLL N0.-184
EMAIL- yadavr965@gmail.com

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

DEVELPOMENT,PUNE

Abstract
The necessity and use of social media in this digital world is increasing day by
day and it plays a vital role in our life. Today’s youths use these social media
platforms the most for various purposes. The increasing hours on social media
by today’s youth is growing concern and how this excessive use of social media
effects on mental health of today’s youths. The relationship between social
media and young users, as well as how it impacts their mental health, is the
subject of this research paper. The researchers used a hypothesis test to prove
that social media has had a detrimental effect on youthful minds.Null hypothesis
was accepted after the research. It was discovered during the study that social
media causes mental tension, anxiety, and depression. Data is obtained in two
ways: primary and secondary, and it is collected through a survey and a review
of existing research respectively. The paper primarily focuses on the aforesaid
topic and problem, and a quantitative study was used to accomplish this. The
researchers used chi-square to prove their hypothesis. Although social
networking has certain benefits, it does have psychological consequences.

Keywords: Social Media, Youth, Mental Health, Psychological

 Introduction
Research on social media and adolescent mental health has proliferated in
recent years, with many studies exploring whether more frequent use of social
media is associated with various mental health concerns, including depression,
body image concerns and disordered eating, and externalizing problems. In
general, findings from these studies have been mixed, with many revealing a
small but significant negative effect of social media use on mental health. A
growing body of work now seeks to build on these studies with more nuanced
investigations of how, why, and for whom social media use may have positive
or negative effects on youth development.
If you’re spending an excessive amount of time on social media and feelings of
sadness, dissatisfaction, frustration, or loneliness are impacting your life, it may
be time to re-examine your online habits and find a healthier balance.
Social media platforms are designed to snare your attention, keep you online,
and have you repeatedly checking your screen for updates. It’s how the
companies make money. But, much like a gambling compulsion or an addiction
to nicotine, alcohol, or drugs, social media use can create psychological
cravings. When you receive a like, a share, or a favorable reaction to a post, it
can trigger the release of dopamine in the brain, the same “reward” chemical
that follows winning on a slot machine, taking a bite of chocolate, or lighting up
a cigarette, for example. The more you’re rewarded, the more time you want to
spend on social media, even if it becomes detrimental to other aspects of your
life.

Literature Review

Beginning with the term ‘Social Media’ itself, it can be explained as a “form of
electronic communication such as Web sites or Applications for social
networking and blogging in which people create online communities to share
personal photos, videos, information, ideas, personal messages, and other
content." The term Social Media was first used around 2004 but gained
popularity rather in several recent years.
While reviewing and researching for the topic in 2022, the top 7 Social Media
platforms according to a study done by Statista are:
1) Facebook (2.74 Billion active users)
2) YouTube (2.29 Billion active users)
3) Instagram (1.22 Billion active users
4) TikTok (689 Million active users)
5) Snapchat (498 Million active users)
6) Pinterest (442 Million active users)
7) Twitter (217 Million active users)
The increased use of social media stems from the cheap availability of the
internet and a vast market of mobile phones and other handheld electronics.
Young adults are the most active consumers of social media, despite the fact
that it is accessible to almost everybody. A study conducted by Sprout Social it
was recorded that around nearly 60 – 75% of users are under the age of 30 (14-
30). Given that social media is prominent in the lives of young audience, it is
also important to understand how this usage may affect them.
According to a research done by Nadkarni and Hofmann (2012), people use
social media for two fundamental reasons: a need to Belonging and a desire of
Self-Presentation. In another research by Toma and Hancock (2013) discovered
that Facebook profiles help individuals meet their demand for Self-Worth and
Self-Integrity. But these sole purpose of using the applications eventually
devolve into something that causes more harm than good.
Numerous researchers have found links between social media use and
undesirable consequences such depression, anxiety, obsessive behaviour,
loneliness, and narcissism. The growing use of social media among young
individuals raises concerns about its potential harmful consequences. 
A research paper published in 2018 by O'Reilly, M., Dogra, N., Whiteman, N.
et al. Comments and views of adolescent teens was recorded for various themes
of social media concerning mental wellbeing. The first theme recorded was
‘Stress, Depression, Low Self-Esteem and Suicidal Ideation due to Social
Media’.
Participants stated that they believed social media was a risk to their mental
health. Stress, low self-esteem, despair, and suicide ideation were highlighted as
possible detrimental effects of social media. Despite reports that it can help
people connect and be a source of support, this was the case. Many of these
remarks were made in the context of broad by standing events, rather than being
based on personal experiences. The adolescents felt that for some of their peers
social media may lead to depression and in more extreme cases suicide.
In an another study done by B Keles, N. McCrae, A. Grealish (2020), After
conducting their investigation, they arrived to the conclusion that time spent,
activity, investment, and addiction are all linked. All of these factors were
discovered to be linked to depression, anxiety, and psychological distress.
HC Woods and H Scott (2016) conducted a study on the same subject and found
that with Cronbach's alphas of.80 and.72 for anxiety and depression,
respectively, 47% were anxious and 21% of individuals were depressed.
Several research have also linked social media use to anxiety and obsessive
behaviour. According to a recent study, 45 percent of British adults are
concerned or uncomfortable when they are unable to access their email or social
networking sites (Anxiety UK, 2012). Rosen et al. (2013) discovered that
younger generations (especially the iGeneration and Net Generation) check in
with their communications and social networks frequently (defined as every
hour, every 15 minutes, or all the time). When they couldn't check their social
networks or texts, younger generations were constantly more nervous than older
generations.
Phantom vibration syndrome, defined as perceived vibration from a cell phone
that is not vibrating, has been observed to occur in huge numbers of people as a
result of this constant connectivity (Drouin et al., 2012; Rothberg et al., 2010).
Phantom vibration syndrome could be a consequence of the anxiety that cell
phones cause in those who are constantly monitoring social media and texts.

Second most recorded issue that is faced as the adverse effect of Social Media is
‘Cyber Bullying and Trolling’.
A statistic shown by Ogi Djuraskovic in an internet article (2022) tells that:
The most common type of online bullying is mean comments 22.5%.
35% had shared a screenshot of someone’s status or photo to laugh at them.
61% of teens who report being bullied say it was because of their appearance.
56% of online harassment victims reported that they had been harassed on
Facebook.
7 in 10 young people experience cyberbullying before they hit the age of 18.
It also revealed that, in 2018, India has had the greatest rate of children being
victims of cyberbullying. Over 37% of Indian parents have stated that their
children had been victims of cyberbullying at least once, a 5% increase from
2016.
In the same research paper done by O'Reilly, M., Dogra, N., Whiteman, N. et al,
the participants responded with convey about how a lot of them had been
bullied or trolled online and how it affected them emotionally and had an effect
on their self-esteem. Participants discussed cyberbullying extensively, believing
it to be a serious threat to young people's mental health and well-being. They
actively blamed social media for promoting this facet of adolescent life, which
has been regarded as inherent to adolescent living by some.
The participants claimed that social media has created a platform for others to
engage in bullying behaviour, which can lead to feelings of isolation and have a
detrimental influence on emotional well-being. Furthermore, they recognised
that using social media exposes teenagers to this type of behaviour, as this type
of behaviour was primarily related to social media.
In an article by NetMeds (2019) it was stated that while these online actions
may appear to the perpetrator to be harmless or even mischievous, they have
far-reaching consequences on the victim's thinking.
This is due to the degrading nature of content provided on online platforms or in
their linked text messaging portals. It can include threats, sexual innuendos, hate
messages, filthy images, and defamatory rumours, and it can be inflicted on the
victim by a single person or a group of people.
This almost always results in severe symptoms that have a negative impact on
the victim's mental health. Depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, low self-
esteem, rage, and frustration torment them.
Mandy Kloppers (2012) published a detailed study telling that:
87 % of teenagers claim they have been bullied on social media at some point in
their lives.
36.5 % of respondents say they've been bullied on the internet before.
Cyberbullying affects people from all walks of life and ethnic origins.
Young people who are trolled on social media are more than twice as likely to
self-harm or attempt suicide.
Cyberbully perpetrators were also 20% more likely than non-bullies to have
self-harmed or attempted suicide.
Participants also explored the issue of trolling in relation to cyberbullying.
Trolling has been distinguished from cyberbullying, according to arguments that
trolling is a continuum of behaviour ranging from primarily offensive to
harmless (Phillips, 2015).
Trolls were described as attention-seeking, vicious, uneducated, and low-
confidence by a third of the young population on these apps, with a quarter
being attacked on a regular basis and one-in-ten admitting to instigating trolling
(Rice, 2013); trolls were described as attention-seeking, vicious, uneducated,
and low-confidence by a quarter of the young population on these apps (Maltby
et al., 2016). The mental health repercussions were argued to be significant.

The third most known and one of the major issues with social media is the one
that not only affects one mentally but also hampers their routines and their
lifestyle.
‘Addiction to Social Media’
Despite the fact that social media has a huge user base, it is a recognised reality
that some people are addicted to social media. Excessive or compulsive usage
of social media has been claimed as a detrimental consequence of modern life.
A study done by Suzanne Zivnuska, John R. Carlson, Dawn S. Carlson, Ranida
B. Harris & Kenneth J. Harris in 2019 determined that the addiction firstly
affects work-life balance. They claim that social media addiction is linked to a
lack of work–life balance. As a person grows more hooked to social media, time
and energy that might otherwise be committed to meeting job and family
obligations is depleted in favour of spending that time and energy on social
media. As a result, the employee is less likely to achieve goals at work or in his
or her personal life, resulting in a marked lack of balance in both. They explored
the interplay of social media addiction and reactivity, as well as how these
factors affect work–family balance, job burnout, and workplace performance,
using COR theory.
Y Hou, D Xiong, T Jiang, L Song published a research paper (2019) confirmed
their assumptions that social media addiction was linked to poor mental health,
which was supported by earlier research (Koc & Gulyagci, 2013). Furthermore,
it was, as expected,
Self-esteem was found to perform a mediating function in the relationship
between social media addiction and mental health, with the opposite mediating
effect being insignificant. They also confirmed the prediction that social media
addiction was negatively related to academic performance.
Coming back to the study done by O'Reilly, M., Dogra, N., Whiteman, N. et al,
in their study the respondents said things like ‘people can’t survive without their
phone’ and ‘social media is like an online drug’ and just like any other
substance addiction social media too has repercussions. The argument was
made that social media is as addictive as drugs and might be troublesome for
some people since it takes time away from their "family," which can lead to
"negative side effects."
They reported that the main issue they had was not getting enough sleep. They
described how their continual access to social media had an influence on their
sleep, and some even shared personal insights into their addiction. A respondent
even shared an event where they said
“I had an experience of that with WhatsApp where lots of people were
messaging at the time I’d go to sleep at about 10 o’clock at night and then I felt
the need, even when there was no-one messaging me, just to keep checking and
it did affect my sleep.”
While the impact on young people's sleep was recognised, so was their overall
dependence. They'd 'keep checking' throughout the night to see if messages had
arrived. As a result, the young people in the survey admitted to using social
media on a regular basis, and some even felt "quite dependent" on it.

With all of the aforementioned subjects and issues already addressed, this study
will attempt to determine whether there has been a change, and if not, whether
there are any more issues or consequences that affect the young even after all of
these prior reports..
Problem Statement
Is social media making the youth lonesome, unproductive and void?
Is social media a platform that provides amusement and connects people all
over the world, or is it a platform that causes more harm than good to its users?
Although users are addicted to the apps, there is a dearth of awareness about
how they are hurting their mental health. It can lead to things that are largely
undesirable and have a significant impact on their way of life.

Research Objective
 The objective of this research is to understand, analyse and evaluate the
effects of social media on the lifestyle of today's youth.
 Determining whether the effects described in prior studies have changed.
 Determining if there are any new issues that have arisen as these
platforms have evolved.

Research Methodology
The researchers attempted to collect the data through a survey. The survey
conducted is the fundamental foundation of the research. The survey was
conducted by circulating the Google form to collect the primary data. The
secondary data was collected through news articles, research papers, internet
articles and journals. Simple random sampling method was used in the survey.
The data was collected from 141 respondents who were categorized into 3 age
groups of under 15, 15-25 and above 25. No data cleaning was done as all the
responses were complete. The data was collected over the course of 2 days.
The data collected is to be classified as quantitative nature. This research is
basic and exploratory.

Research Hypothesis
H0 Social media is causing depression, anxiety and lower productivity in the
youth.
Ha Social media is not causing depression, anxiety and lower productivity in
the youth.
Data Analysis and Interpretation

 A survey was used to acquire the data for this research paper. A total of
141 people took part in the survey. Males made up 60.3 percent of the
141 recorded responders, while females made up 39.7%.
 The majority of those surveyed were between the ages of 21 - 25,
accounting for 64.5 percent of the total. The percentages of those aged 15
- 20 and over 25 were 14.2% and 19.1%, respectively. While those under
the age of 15 made up only 2.2 percent of the population.

 Instagram was the most often used social media platform, with 84.4% of
respondents using it on a daily basis. Whatsapp was the second most
popular app. It was used by 77.3% of the people. Snapchat came in third
with 40.4%, followed by Facebook with 28.4%. Finally, Twitter (24.1%)
and Reddit (5.7%).
  The majority respondents expressed that they used social media apps to
"Stay in Touch with their friends and what they’re doing" and "To watch
Funny and Entertaining Content".
Second Majority was recorded that a good number of people were using these
apps "To stay Up to Date with news and current affairs".
Other said that they were using the apps to 'to fill up their spare time" and to
share photos and videos with others"

 Following the poll, the average time spent on social networking apps can
be expected to be around 2 hours. As 37.6% of participants said they used
it for 0-2 hours and 41.8% said it was for 2-4 hours, the majority by a
little margin. While some respondents (20.6%) admitted to using the
internet for more than 4 hours, others denied it.
 When asked if they had lost sleep due to social media, the majority of the
respondents, 44%, said yes. While 17.7% of respondents were indecisive
and chose the 'maybe' option. 38.3% of people did not believe that their
use of these apps had an impact on their sleep. Insomnia is major problem
when it comes so social media’s direct effects. Insomnia later on leads
various other mental and physical difficulties.

 When asked if "Social Media has made people less productive and
lethargic?" the respondents said yes. Again, a plurality of 44% voted in
favor of the same. 26.2% of respondents disagreed, while the remaining
29.8% were undecided and chose the option of ‘maybe.' Lethargy can
also be mistaken for mental exhaustion, which requires the attention of
mental health professionals.
 Respondents were asked if they ‘compared their lives to others' on the
applications, which can be connected to having self-esteem difficulties. It
was a razor-thin margin, with 52.5% saying they didn't compare
themselves to others and 47.5% admitting to doing so.
 A significant number of respondents (76.6%) said that social media
platforms facilitated the acceptability of toxic behavior and routines. The
remaining 23.4% of the population, on the other hand, did not appear to
believe this was the case. Bullying is linked to toxic behavior, and
victims experience depression and anxiety as a result.

 The respondents were asked how frequently to they come across a post
that triggers unwanted feelings? 7.8% of respondents always come across
such posts, 21.3% say it happens frequently, and 46.1% say it happens
occasionally. While 19.1% of respondents rarely come across posts like
these, and 5.7% had never seen one. Mental breakdowns might occur as a
result of a series of offensive or upsetting posts.
  A large proportion of respondents (51.1%) say that social media apps
have strayed from their original purpose, with Instagram, Facebook, and
Twitter coming in first, second, and third, respectively. 11.3% of
respondents disagreed, while 37.6% are still undecided on the subject.

• 74.5% of respondents have had to block or limit someone on social media

applications due to personal safety concerns. While the remaining 25.5% never
had to, this demonstrates the online sense of security. Unwanted feelings such
as dread and anxiety can be triggered by not feeling safe and worrying about
yourself and your data online, which can seriously obstruct the pursuit of a
healthy and calm mind.

 On a scale of 1 to 5, respondents were asked to rate how safe they feel

online, with 5 being the safest.
1. 7.8% of voters chose 1, indicating that they do not feel safe at all.
2. 14.9% of those polled chose option 2, which suggested they felt unsafe.
3. 49.6% of voters chose 3, which was neither safe nor dangerous.
4. 4 received 20.6% of the vote, indicating that people were feeling
comfortable.
5. The remaining 7.1% voted for 5 because they felt completely safe.

 "Do you think violet/vulgar videos/images make the youth less sensitive
to violence?" was another query. 84.4 percent agreed with this, while the
remaining 15.6 percent disagreed. Insensitivity can lead to a sense of
being detached or separated from the world, as well as a lack of empathy.

 66% of the people that responded felt that all the social media apps are
fake and promoting and setting unrealistic standards. While at the same
time 58.2% of people edit their photos before they post it. In contrast,
34% of those polled do not believe social media is phoney, and 41.8
percent do not feel the need to modify their photos. Self-esteem and
confidence concerns can be linked to the impulse to alter or adjust your
images.
 When asked if they had ever been in a scenario when a conversation or
debate turned abusive, 44.7% said they had, while the majority of 55.3%
said they had not. This is an example of cyberbullying. Experiencing such
incidents can lead to freight, panic, and anxiety attacks, and the victims
may begin to isolate themselves.
  Finally, the subjects were asked explicitly if social media had influenced
their mental health. 55.3% of respondents said social media had a
negative impact on their mental health. The remaining 44.7% said it had
no impact on their mental health and well-being.

Conclusion
According to the hypothesis test conducted above, there is a negative impact on
the minds of young people. Following the collection and analysis of data, it may
be determined that the effects of social media are large and complex, and that
they differ from person to person. However, according to the findings of the
researchers' investigation, the impacts are mostly negative. Loss of sleep,
specifically Insomnia, lack of productivity, and lethargy, were the most
prevalent concerns. This study also added to the topic by revealing a less-
discussed issue: the enabling and promotion of toxic behavior, which includes
bullying, abuse, and insensitivity toward others. The study also observed that
the majority of users on any social media platform are concerned about their
safety and well-being when using these platforms. There are also concerns
about stuff on the internet that is unpleasant and causes undesirable feelings,
which occurs frequently.
Conversely the positive effects of social media may include, staying in touch
with friends and family, staying up to date. Where a part of social media spreads
negativity and violence, there is another part that spreads messages of hope,
unity and ambition.
To conclude every user is advised to adopt the positive aspect of social media
and avoid the negative aspect of it for their own mental well-being.
References

Journals and Research Papers:

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psychological distress in adolescents, International Journal of
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Websites and Articles:

 https://www.dreamgrow.com/top-15-most-popular-social-networking-
sites/
 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/
 https://www.thoughtsonlifeandlove.com/the-effect-of-trolling-via-social-
media-on-mental-health
 Cyberbullying Statistics, Facts, and Trends (2022) with Charts by Ogi
Djuraskovic https://firstsiteguide.com/cyberbullying-stats/