Does Social Media Have a Positive or Negative Impact on Mental Health?

Human beings are inherently social beings with a constant need for a progressive human-to-human connection (Karim et al., 2020). Through such connections, humans have been noted to improve their mental well-being and reduce the risk of stress, anxiety, and other depressive symptoms. In fact, the deprivation of such social connections risks poor physical and mental development and poor mental health in adolescents (Orben et al., 2020). The effects of lack of social connection on mental health have been identified during COVID-19 as a result of adopted measures such as social distancing and the resulting mental health crisis (Galea et al., 2020). Consistently, technological advancements, especially in the development and widespread adoption of social media platforms, have changed how people socialize, connect, and communicate. Social media have emerged as new socialization agents, generating virtual social settings that influence how people interact, communicate, and see themselves and the world Uznienė (2022). Because socializing is considered a form of media Genner & Süss (2017), and socialization influences both mental and physical well-being, there are huge debates about whether socialization through social media positively or negatively impacts mental health. Social media use negatively impacts mental health. As the United States and the world are seeing an increase in the adoption and prolonged use of social media as a medium of communication, as well as a growing mental health crisis, it is critical to explore whether social media use has an impact on mental health. This research proposal aims to develop a qualitative study to explore whether social media positively or negatively impacts mental health.

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Literature Review

With recent global events impacting physical human socialization, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and advancements in technology, especially social media and related technologies, research interests have grown on how social media use affects mental health. The topic has become prominent in research as several studies have investigated how social media use affects the user’s mental health. For instance, a study by Bekalu et al. (2019) associates social media usage with improved social wellness, mental health, and self-reported health outcomes. The authors appreciate that the vast research on the topic has focused on social media usage as normal socialization, which affects mental and physical health outcomes. Arguably, Bekalu et al. (2019) note that past research has narrowed its focus on the mental wellness impacts of social media use based on the duration and frequency of use. However, research ignores the emotional connections users develop with social media usage and how it can improve their lives. From the perspectives of adult Americans and how they include social media in their daily routines and how they emotionally get connected to the sites they use, Bekalu et al. (2019) found that routine social media usage positively impacted health outcomes, while emotional connection to social media had negative health outcomes. In a systematic review, Keles et al. (2020) found similar positive and negative effects among adolescents. The review found that social media usage improved adolescents’ social interactions and social involvement as well as access to peer support. Increased use risked exposure to aggressive online behavior. Bekalu et al. (2019)  relate these mixed effects; negative or positive effects of social media use were associated with the level of usage and emotional connection with use and may vary across individuals with regard to their socioeconomic status, gender, and race.

Although social media use has major social benefits that improve the health and social wellbeing of an individual (Bekalu et al., 2019; Keles et al., 2020), Viner et al. (2019) argue that the concerns over the potential negative effects of social media use and mental health and wellbeing among young people cannot be ignored. In their study, although Bekalu et al. (2019) argue that the dose-effect approach is not sufficient to determine the effect of the complex social media use-mental health relations and more factors need to be explored, Viner et al. (2019) focus on the effect of how frequently the young adults use social media use and how it eventually affects their mental health and wellness. However, Viner et al. (2019) also integrate other factors, such as gender and intention of social media use, in mediating the impacts of social media use on mental health. The evidence shows that there are varying degrees of social media use among boys and girls. Considerably, girls are mo