Introduction and overview
The modern techno environment has influenced the inception of different modes of communication courtesy of the available technology. As such, rewards for heroes have grown tremendously, given the amount of recognition that a single successful event predisposes an individual to. The global audience can recognize individuals and immediately reward them for their prowess. Their success is celebrated all over, and the nature of their lives is followed through platforms such as social media sites. As such, numerous athletes and players are continually influenced to be on social media. This tends to be a good thing but for those extroverted individuals whose lives in the limelight seem to be more beneficial to them (Hayes, 2022). However, this would not be the case for all athletes, as people are different.
Nonetheless, the pressure often seems to mount, and it almost becomes a demand for all athletes to have an online presence where their lives can be assessed and scrutinized. This has brought about numerous challenges in the recent past for players and has been shown to deleteriously affect their mental health (Hayes, 2022). This literature review will examine an overview of social media and its essence in the modern world, how it resonates with athletes, and why it has become popular with athletes. These disadvantages come with social media, and finally, an assessment of social media’s direct mental impacts on athletes.
Modernity and Social Media use
The inception of technology and the internet tremendously revolutionized society and civilization. It transformed one of human life’s most fundamental elements and aspects: communication. Communication was made easier but also faster and in real-time for different people regardless of their location and geographical position. Different uses have emerged for social media, including communication, news sharing, business marketing, and education.
News is shared on different social media platforms and formulates a primary source of information for most people. However, they are also not the most reliable news source because news ends up altered and breached in different ways. Social media platforms formulate a basis for business marketing and business ideas. Businesses use Twitter extensively for advertisements (Méndez-Diaz et al., 2021). Facebook has provisions called Facebook Ads, which accompany other consumed content on Facebook and facilitate information transfer and marketing of products and services. Social media sites have formulated a platform for education and activism, as in the case of Twitter (Méndez-Diaz et al., 2021). The majority of the roles in the different platforms generally overlap from platform to platform, although each platform seems to be specialized in a specific niche (Méndez-Diaz et al., 2021)
One critical use of social media, however, that has been the most potent, specifically to celebrities, is its aspect of connecting different people. The invention of social media especially brought about tremendous revolutions in how communication is made, with platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Snapchat all designed to enhance connections between people. Social media allows people of specific relational statuses to connect. According to Kapoor et al. (2017), social media was initially designed to connect friends and family members, in the case of Facebook. Later on, it was designed to connect colleagues and workmates, as was the case of Linked In. In a very short while, social media was revolutionized to connect individuals with their idols. This was especially the case with Instagram, which allowed for a connection between celebrities and their idols. While the primary precursors for the inception of the different social media sites have been shown to remain relatively frequent, the platforms have extremely evolved (Kapoor et al., 2017). Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram platforms, for instance, are continually used by celebrities to connect with their fans. In this case category, Instagram remains the most potent platform for such endeavors (Kapoor et al., 2017). These celebrities have primarily come to include athletes such as LeBron James.
Social Media and Athletes
The primary beneficiaries of these connections provided by social media have been sports athletes. Modern-day athletes value social media and incorporate it in their careers. An assessment by Fiedler et al. (2023) revealed that average athlete students in the US spend 4.5 hours on social media, building their brand and exposing their talents. Social media use for athletes is motivated by fan engagement, support, connections, brand endorsement exposure, and control of self-image and persona narrative.
Athletes engage and use social media primarily to connect with their fans, who most often idolize them. A study by Purcell et al. (2019) revealed that most athletes utilize social media to share their experiences in the game, training, and general life to bolster a more personalized bond with their fans. It gives them a different face that the supporters and athletes can access and marvel at. Social media platforms formulate communities that allow for engagement (Purcell et al., 2019). For instance, one of the most critical inventions of social media was the live-streaming option (Purcell et al., 2019). This option allows athletes to share their lives with their athletes in real-time,e allowing their followers to resonate with them and share their experiences and interactions. The connections between fans and their athletes or sports heroes have been shown to formulate a set of continued interactions in which the fans and the sports personnel share perceptions storied. Some even share gifts and encouragement as well as criticisms from rival fans.
Engagements also come in the form of posting pictures and sharing locations or activities such as training, home with family, or on vacation (Ng et al., 2023). A study by Faustin et al. (2022) demonstrated that the level of engagement of athletes and fans was 5.6%, which is higher than that of other normal influencers, whose average engagements are at 2.4 %. Social media allows the athletes to form a community and allow for engagement between the fans and their idols.
Athletes also utilize social media for financial purposes. The majority of these finances emanate from sponsorships and brand promotions. They use their social media platforms to promote the brands of specific companies, certain websites, and organizations. The athletic prowess and personalities of athletes make them excellent targets for marketing purposes by different brands and large corporations (Faustin et al., 2022). As such, they tend to be targeted and used in promotions. A study by Ng et al. (2023) revealed that at least 76% of professional athletes have endorsed a brand. These partnerships allow the athletes to have an alternative source of income. However, a study by Faustin et al. (2022) revealed that athletes tend to be valued depending on their levels of engagement with fans about their branding and endorsement values. The more engaging one is and the more followers, the more likely they are to be endorsed. This tends to motivate more and more athletes to get deeper into social media, engaging more with their fanbase and becomes the first element of challenge as they get deeper into engagements with their fans and followers.
Athletes also use social media to formulate a narrative and protect their images and colleagues. Numerous things happen in the peace, given the extreme emotions emanating (Brougham, 2021). These occurrences, while small and in short bursts, can affect the narrative and perception of a player to their supporters and the public. However, social media provides a place free from their clubs where they can freely share their perceptions and control narratives about themselves and their images (Brougham, 2021). Athletes’ at the professional level become strong brands, according to (Brougham, 2021). As a brand, they now have even more responsibilities, including being able to protect their self-image, which comes with immense pressure to be a continued figure to narrate their narratives and stories and drive their narrations (Sansanelli, 2022). Assessments by Fiedler et al., (2023) demonstrate that news on athletes’ end is more reliable and believable when they emanates from athletes. To control this narrative, they have to be center stage, telling the stories and rectifying whatever rumors emanate. Assessments have produced several Athletes that have been impeccable in maintaining their images long even after their careers have been over. LeBron James and Shaq O Neill serve as clear proof of the brand image that comes with being an exceptional professional athlete (Fiedler et al., 2023)
Benefits and drawbacks of social media Use to Athletes
The connections, brand promotions, and control of self-image narrations have been of tremendous benefit to the athlete, which further fuel their continued presence and domination in social media platforms. Athletes end up benefitting from larger and stronger support systems. Most athletes enjoy the tremendous support they receive from their fans as it gives them a drive and hope. A different study by Kapoor et al. (2017) also demonstrated that fans tend to support their idols on various social justice issues that the idols engage in, which allows athletes to make better impacts in society that can influence the lives of other people. This support base becomes intriguing and interesting to most athletes in the long run. Social media platforms benefit athletes with exposure, linking them to opportunities and making their talent visible to the larger world. Instagram, for instance, has been seen to increase the exposure of most male and female athletes. This opens opportunities for career advancements as other clubs can notice them and are likely to be noticed by brands for financial benefits (Kapoor et al., 2017). Other benefits include networking with other spot personnel, knowledge sharing, entertainment, and advocacy.
On the other hand, social media has also resulted in tremendous and deleterious impacts. These impacts are depicted in form of low self-esteem, emotional imbalances, emotional dysregulations, and at times, could even depict itself depression. An assessment by Chancellor & and De Choudhury, (2020) revealed that social media has been associated with loneliness, regimen, and poor performance. Social media, while beneficial, comes with tremendous baggage that might be deleterious to most athletes. Social media comes with extreme criticism. Not all fans who follow an athlete are their supporters. It is common for rival supporters to follow a player only to troll them and degrade their capacities. Social media allows an intrusion into the personalized life of players. The different aspects, including the players’ relationships and daily conduct, are often examined and scrutinized, which can be stressful. A study by Sansanelli (2022) demonstrated that cases of cyberbullying have been demonstrated against athletes around the world. Harassment, abuse, and racial discrimination are also potent factors and elements expressed through social media.
Mental Health and Social Media Use among Athletes
There are numerous positive and deleterious impacts of social media. However, an assessment of the deleterious impacts reveals that the resultant impacts of the deleterious aspect of social media often rests in mental health concerns for athletes. Numerous studies and assessments have demonstrated the impacts of social media on mental health. Over 59% of adult persons who use social media have confessed that it has deleteriously affected their mental wellbeing (Vasireddi et al., 2022). 25% 25-year-olds that constantly use social media have mental illnesses associated with their use of social media. A different assessment by (Vasireddi et al., 2022) demonstrated that “children and adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media are twice as likely to experience mental health issues, including depression and anxiety”, which demonstrates the concrete impact of social media use on mental heat of individuals. The majority of the mental health concerns emanate from the impacts of social media on one’s self-esteem, self-image, levels of anxiety which hen culminate in worse outcomes such as anxiety and depression.
Anxiety and Depression
Anxiety is one of the most potent mental health concerns that is faced by athletes courtesy of their social media time and engagement. 32% of adolescents have developed anxiety in the United States courtesy of extensive social media utilization. There are numerous criticisms of the performance of different players on the pitch. Continued criticisms of players have been sown to enhance their levels of anxiety and directly impacting their on-pitch performance (Kalin, 2020). Anxiety tends to be depicted by extensive worry regarding their performance and a lack of composure and confidence on the pitch. Sometimes, it depicts irritability and a lack of concentration. It has been shown that sometimes players avoid social media prior to games compared to holiday seasons because of how much anxiety it generates and the impact that it has on their on-pitch performance.
Anxiety as a mental health impact is often associated with depression, which comes when the anxiety grows and becomes worse, having direct impacts on the activities of Daily living of an individual (Kalin, 2020). Depression tends to emanate primarily as a result of extended anxiety or low self-esteem, which increases the levels of depression among the players and self-pity as well. A study by Kalin, (2020) demonstrates that social media stresscan lead to extreme stress levelss. Extreme levels of criticism in social media can reach brutal levels that end up affecting the mental health of a person, leading to extensive isolation and extreme cases of depression.
Social media addiction and Emotional Dysregulation
Another major impact of social media on the mental health of athletes manifests in the form of extreme emotional dysregulation. One of the most potent impacts of social media on mental health is manifested through emotional dysregulation. However, this is the superficial exposure of an underlying dysregulation of the dopamine mediated reward-based pathways of the body that inform motivation (Vasireddi et al., 2022). Scrolling through social media has been shown to lead to small spikes of dopamine, and the consistent spikes of this dopamine can lead to reduced sensitivity, dampening morale and motivation among individuals. Athletes have demonstrated this effect in several studies. One such study was an experimental study by Vasireddi et al., (2022) which demonstrated a link between “Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMs) and social media use”. The study demonstrated that SARMS abuse among athletes was potent and that it could result in addiction and extreme emotional dysregulations in some instances. Sentiments made by athletes on social media often lead to interpersonal conflicts that lead to extensive addictions and emotional dysregulation among the users.
Social media addiction is a major mental health crisis for those that are affected. According to Social Media & Mental Health Statistics: Top Negative Effects (2023), it is most often instituted and perpetrated by the fear of missing out. Teenagers, for instance, suffer from FOMO on social media and end up getting on it purely out of peer pressure, resulting in deleterious mental impacts. Over 40% of teenagers in the US admit being addicted to social media. Athletes similarly have been shown to be affected by FOMO when it comes to social media matters. Addictions for celebrities often come courtesy of the need to engage with fans and followers on social media.
With athletes over twice and engaging as ordinary influencers, their likelihood of being addicted to social media doubles. A study by Okudan & Fatih Karakullukçu, (2021) revealed that there is an association between social media addiction and overs use and menta health challenges and that “among them, at least three are commonly found in elite athletes…depression, anxiety, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)”. The only chance of having ADHD, depression and anxiety curtsy of social media is when one is highly addicted to social media. The fact that athletes have 3 of these prevalence disorders would indicate that they are most likely to be addicted to social media. Assessments reveal that given the extent of social media addiction among athletes, interventions have been developed. One of the most potent interventions is sports education, which tends to make sports personnel aware of their risks for social media diction and provides them with skills to help avoid such addictions (Okudan & Fatih Karakullukçu, 2021). Social media addiction is highly prevalent and potent among sports personnel and requires critical attention from each athlete to be able to stay off of social media or utilize it moderately.
Gaps in Literature
There are intimations in literature regarding the direct link and association between mental health and social media use among athletes. However, most studies only provide suggestions regarding these associations without accurate and concrete linkages borrowed from data and research/. A study by Chancellor & De Choudhury, (2020) demonstrates that while there is continued interest aimed at assessing the validity of concernsands providing direct links between social media and the various mental health concerns, the current datastill wantsr such a conclusion to be made. The lack of sufficient data provides an opening and an overview of the areas wheregaps in literature musto be filled. A different study by Wongkoblap et al., (2017) demonstrated that there are gaps in sufficiency of data that could be used to pronounce the link and association between mental halt and social media use among athletes. This study focused on specific mental health issues and whether they can be associated with potent mental health concerns and factors such as depression, anxiety and addiction that have been independently examined. Furthermore, a systematic review by Wongkoblap et al., (2017) demonstrated that a majority of researches on mental health and athletes are undermined by a lack of sufficient literature in their systematic review. They found that a majority of the studies that they focused on regarding the association between mental health and athletes were found to have challenges in their sampling methodologies.
Conclusions
This review assessed available literature on social media use and mental health. It has gone through the inception of social media and its use in modern day life. It has then examined the interactions between athletes and social media use and described hot impactful social media is to the lives of athletes and how the linkages come to be. It has identified some of the benefits of social media and athletes, including the financial benefits and the connection it provides between athletes and ands. It then examined the other side of social media among athletes, which was revealed to be expressed in the form of mental health concerns. Literature assessment has revealed anxiety and depression, as well as addiction and emotional dysregulation, as potent mental health issues suffered by athletes on social media. It has identified potent gaps in literature on the matter to include a lack of sufficient data, a lack of sufficient randomized control trials and a lack of sufficient studies focusing on specific mental health issues in association with athletes. The next section seeks to examine how these gaps can be breached and examined by providing a methodology to fill out gaps in present-day literature.
References
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