social science essay example

social science essay example

The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health: An Interdisciplinary Analysis

1. Introduction to Social Media and Mental Health

The vast majority of published exploration and research to date on the relationship between social media and mental health has emerged from the social sciences, predominantly psychology and human-computer interaction. The work from these disciplines focuses on exploring the quality of disclosure and support in social media, examining how social network structures contribute to attention management, and mapping the links between posting display, emotional support, and crisis. Bail, Guynn, and Maloney observe that social media discussions of well-being tend to focus on niche consumer markets or narrowly defined professionals. While data around these specific concerns are of medical interest, they observed that there is weak representation of significant areas such as mental health and learning, especially in discussions about broader characteristics of mental well-being.

The utilization of numerous forms of social media has exploded within the past decade, particularly among young adults, giving rise to many questions from scholars and society at large. With many platforms, timing, and display devices, it seems that almost anything on social media can be found by almost anyone. This has raised concerns that social media encourages poor mental health. Some of these concerns have focused on public health anxieties about large-scale disease outbreaks, such as flu pandemics, which may be underscored and amplified by user interactions and influencers. Other claims reflect more general worries: negative mood enhancement, low self-esteem, fear of missing out, and over-reliance on the validation of others.

2. Theoretical Frameworks in Social Science and Psychology

Several limitations constrained the current analysis. First, this literature is concerned with a potential problem – not with an established consequence. Indeed, despite the comprehensive investigation of the links between Facebook use and mental health problems, contradictions and methodological limitations exhibited by some of the initial research should be considered before jumping into this association. Second, social comparison theories emphasize many other dimensions related to viewed physical appearance (i.e., comparison of attractiveness, socially appearance schematics, or internalization of appearance standards) and behavior (i.e., comparison affecting feelings of envy, identification with imaged person, or inspiration), and related emotional evaluations that have not been or vastly under-researched. Third, the association between social networking and mental health is not simple or unidirectional.

While several attachment-based models addressing natural spaces have been proposed over the years (e.g., Fear and Avoidance Hypothesis, Nature Relatedness, Non-Gregarious Agents, or Environmentally Sustainable Happiness), it was not until the last few years that a couple of authors penned down in the middle of a more open debate about the potential web replacement of face-to-face contact and its mental health consequences. Critical analyses of smartphones and social media contrapositions have concluded that these technologies might replace or modify one important dimension of one’s life: the psychological and emotional closeness with family and close friends. As a backdrop of social media use, social comparison theories and their gap-filling with individual’s self-esteem are used to examine the relationship between social media use and mental health problems. Different weighting of current evidence may continue to deserve substantial debate, despite efforts aimed at disentangling both direct and underlying mechanisms of that association.

3. Empirical Studies and Research Findings

One of the most important contributions of the literature has been the use of panel data since this addresses the significant endogeneity problem potentially associated with cross-sectional data analysis. The impact of social media use on the mental health of social media users is also consistent across different countries. However, the magnitude of the estimated parameters of these results is not strictly comparable, and potential confounding factors are not always controlled for, such as insufficient control for family background and employment status.

The majority of the empirical literature provides evidence that a number of negative consequences are associated with the use of social media. These negative consequences are assumed to have an adverse impact on the mental health of the population. There is tentative evidence specifically about the impacts of social media usage on well-being and depression, and the impact on loneliness and social anxiety. Several studies report negative effects of social media use on the mental health of social media users. This literature has begun to address many of the methodological limitations of the earlier work, such as sample bias, usually addressing this problem with the use of representative national sample data.

4. Implications for Policy and Practice

Health experts also need to be aware that their traditional knowledge and practices may need to change given the increasing use of social media, as some of the current approaches that may be effective for face-to-face interaction may not be as effective in an online context. Health experts should also not be multiphobic about the use of social media for health purposes, and some of the established social media practices that are designed for the exchange of other types of information may be adapted effectively for health information. For example, although many social media platforms are not functioning as effectively as they could for mental health purposes, they are developing applications to create conversations around information that has been curated, such as an interest in seeking a diagnosis. Furthermore, its use is not limited to curation of research quality information, with some communities turning towards insights through other individuals’ experiences, encouraged by privacy policies and data protection legislation.

Social media companies have already started to increase their efforts in identifying and supporting users who may be facing mental health issues, with the rapid detection of certain words or phrases that commonly appear in such circumstances, and regarded as a form of advertising their services. Social media companies may, therefore, want to consult mental health professionals and involve them directly in the design and testing of these guidelines. This may require a more active engagement by policymakers to facilitate the interaction between the socially responsible social media companies and the mental health experts.

5. Conclusion and Future Directions

Different barriers prevent the sharing of knowledge, frameworks, and empirical data among disciplines. Mental health in psychology gains knowledge from experiments, longitudinal studies, and participant observations. These studies are sometimes built upon clinical trials with individuals in controlled settings. There is a framework involving the definition, treatment, and the setting of mental health according to a spectrum. In computer science, researchers collect data about posting features, posts, comments, likes, affiliations, networks, and post times of social media. These data help computer scientists and customization experts design tools and applications that protect users or groups based on factors that include system content, unique users, and timeline history. It is a framework involving social media categories, periods, contexts, platforms, and features according to the sharing behavior.

This paper reviewed substantial disciplinary work on the interplay between social media use and mental health. It was revealed that different disciplines support their own perspectives on the relationship and often have unique methodologies to assess and present their perspectives. Towards an integrated understanding, we organized existing work and linked definitional and methodological differences among disciplines with inconsistency in findings. This paper highlights different levels of analysis and study methodology as the current barriers to interdisciplinary analysis.