The Effect of Social Media on Human Psychology

Part 1: Thesis and Introduction

My research question for the final project relates to “The Effect of Social Media on Human Psychology.” I chose this study topic since every aspect of a digital transition globally affects information dissemination, people’s interactions, and the creation a digital virtual space. Through social media, people tend to share more about their values, morals, beliefs, opinions, goods, and services, creating a lasting individual image reflection. Ironically, the constant sharing of personalized images, views, and ideas has caused an increased proliferation of individual perceptions and appearance, which results in the development of social comparison psychology, which has a negative mental well-being of the person in question. Therefore, the direct correlation between social media use and increased emotional problems added weight to my research problem. This final project narrowed down to ascertain how cyberbullying, frequency, and duration of social media use results in psychological problems for the online user.

This project used Taylor and Francis Online, Murray State Library academic search complete, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, and Frontiers for Psychology to gather sources such as journals, books, and other relevant sources for a literature review search related to how cyberbullying, frequency, and duration of social media use affects human psychology. These sources conducted searches of the effects of social media use on human psychology across all ages. They concluded that digital space usage directly relates to psychological problems experienced by the online user. Such emotional traumas include depressive symptoms such as anxiety, stress, low self-esteem, loneliness, and suicidal ideations. Others include phubbing, isolation, reduced performance, and psychosomatic problems like headache and body itching, among others.

This report will deal with various social media platforms, different age groups among online users, psychologists, and other individuals and organizations that will help complete this report. The report will use keywords like “social media,” “mental well-being,” “youths and social media use,” “adults and social media usage,” Cyberbullying and Mental problems,” and “Frequency and Duration of Social Media Use and Mental Problems.” Additionally, the report will use Boolean operators, Truncation, and search filters to provide precise literature review searches. Boolean operators will include “AND” and “OR,” where “AND” will help narrow down the search, while “OR” will assist in broadening my research topics.

Use of Truncation will adopt *, for example, “Psychological problems associated with cyberbullying*,” “Emotional traumas resulting from frequency and duration of social media use*” Narrowing my research to articles and studies done in America, this report will apply search filter to help in refining specific literature reviews. For example, “Psychological problems associated with cyberbullying*filter America” OR “Emotional traumas resulting from frequency and duration of social media use*filter America.” Applying such criteria assisted in creating a solid search strategy, resulting in numerous valuable articles and books related to my research question. I reached the reliability of my data sources through a deep, thorough search of articles’ sources and the author’s authority. These articles were published in American English and written and done between 2018. The present and the year of publication mattered a lot since they provided up-to-date information relevant to my research question.

Part 2: Annotated Bibliography

Article 1: Albdour, M., Hong, J. S., Lewin, L., & Yarandi, H. (2019). The impact of cyberbullying on the physical and psychological health of Arab American adolescents. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 21(4), 706-715. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-00850-w

This article talked about a study conducted in America involving the assessment of physical and mental problems associated with cyberbullying among adolescents of Arab American origin. The study adopted a community-based, cross-sectional design to help analyze the study variables. This article, therefore, passed the reliability criteria used in determining the journals to include in this final report. This research adopted a sample size of 150 respondents of Arab-American youths aged between 12 and sixteen who came from Southeast Michigan communities. This study analyzed the mode of technology and social media platforms used to bully online users, especially teenagers, for the last year. Another researchable variable included frequencies of social media use among adolescents.

Findings showed that more than 33 % of the respondents indicated cyberbullying victimization. Additionally, 26 percent of the adolescents confessed to experiencing cyberbullying perpetration more than two times in the last year. Gender disparities in cyber victimization and perpetrations showed that male respondents were more prone to these kinds of online harassment compared with female counterparts. Consistently, Facebook, Instagram, and Text messaging were commonly used social media platforms and technologies used to cause cyberbullying. Among the respondents, those who experienced perpetration indicated physical complaints, while victims of online harassment confessed and showed signs of emotional problems and distress. Perpetrators, therefore, experienced more physical discomfort, while cyber victims showed mental anguish. This study helped to revert future implications associated with cyberbullying through the adoption of strategies that could help end this online harassment among adolescents.

Article 2: Alonzo, R., Hussain, J., Stranges, S., & Anderson, K. K. (2021). The interplay between social media use, sleep quality, and mental health in youth: A systematic review. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 56, 101414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2020.101414

This study was reliable since it passed all reliability tests, which is helpful for this final report. The study was conducted to ascertain the connection between social media use, quality of sleep, and associated psychological disorders like depression, anxiety, and emotional distress, among others in America. This study researched teenagers raging between 16 and 25 years of age. The literature reviewed during this research involved observational searches of MEDLINE, Psych INFO, EMBASE, and Scopus to give a deep analysis of various studies done to investigate psychological disorders related to social media usage among adolescents in America. Based on this methodology, this study arrived at 36 cross-sectional studies that met this inclusion criteria. The frequency and duration of social media use directly impacted sleep quality and emotional well-being. In a nutshell, too much exposure to social media results in poor sleep quality and psychological problems. The study indicated that evidence of poor sleep quality and emotional traumas related to excessive social media usage was of great public health concern to help deal with such social media implications.

Article 3: Kwan, I., Dickson, K., Richardson, M., MacDowall, W., Burchett, H., Stansfield, C., Brunton, G., Sutcliffe, K., & Thomas, J. (2020). Cyberbullying and children and young people’s mental health: A systematic map of systematic reviews. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 23(2), 72-82. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2019.0370

This article tried to review the correlation between cyberbullying and negative mental health consequences among young adults due to social media usage in America. This systematic review showed that cyberbullying was associated with detrimental effects on the emotional well-being of the user, especially teens who had tendencies to use social media. This impact of online harassment results in a severe public health issue, raising significant concerns among the affected. This study adopted a systematic review of the relationship between cyberbullying and psychological problems among the users to help garner much evidence concerning the study variables. Therefore, the methodology adopted involved bibliographic databases of online sources done and published since 2007 on relevant topics concerning the research question.

After identifying such searches, data was extracted using a coding tool developed and adapted specifically for this study, and data viability, reliability, and quality were reviewed using AMSTAR criteria. Based on all the reviewed searches, only nineteen of them passed the inclusion criteria, and they reported a strong association between cyberbullying and mental problems among young adult online users. This study performed a meta-analysis of eleven reviews and a narrative synthesis of eight inspections. This step helped derive data through a cross-sectional study to establish a causal relationship between the research variables. Most of the included reviews were reported to have unclear quality, given that they need a proper assessment of the primary research included in the reviews. The thoughts of those searches revealed that a literature gap exists concerning the topic of the study. Future research on the effects of cyberbullying on the emotional well-being of youth on social media platforms can help in bringing forth programs and frameworks that would help mitigate the adverse effects associated with online harassment among teens.

Article 4: Mishna, F., Regehr, C., Lacombe-Duncan, A., Daciuk, J., Fearing, G., & Van Wert, M. (2018). Social media, cyber-aggression, and student mental health on a university campus. Journal of Mental Health, 27(3), 222-229. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2018.1437607

This article passed the reliability test and inclusion criteria; hence, it was adopted to contribute to the literature review of this final report. The aim of this study relied on the fact that Information and Communication Technologies contribute to considerable benefits to social media users among university students. These online networking sites enhance interconnectedness, self-redirecting, and interactive learning among a specific online community. Such interaction poses a challenge of online aggression among the users. Therefore, this report examines the relationship between social media use, cyber attacks, and university students’ psychological wellness. The methodology adopted for this research was a survey through internet forums involving more than 5000 university students examining the instances, frequency, and outcomes associated with cyber-aggression. Among the researched individuals, more than 1,349 responded to the online survey.

Further data validation and reliability adopted nine focus groups and eight online interviews of the individual students. Findings indicated that a quarter of the individual respondents outlined that private videos and photos of themselves were shared through online platforms without their consent. Additionally, over 27% of the respondents received threatening messages containing abusive and agitated content on these social networking sites. The perpetrators of such incidents were colleagues, friends, or online strangers. These actions resulted in mental distress among the affected university students. In conclusion, cyberbullying through cyber aggression affects mainly a minority of university students, affecting their psychological well-being.

Article 5: Robinson, L., & Smith, M. (2020, January 16). Social media and mental health. HelpGuide.org. https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm

This online article by Robbinson and Smith has passed all the reliability and inclusion criteria and is suitable for my final project. The report addresses social media and mental health. It suggests that despite the enjoyment that comes with interconnectedness through social media, too much exposure to these online networking sites can result in loneliness, isolation, depression, social media addiction, anxiety, and fear of missing out. The article suggests that people act as social creatures, hence the need to stay connected with other beings. Since social media provides enjoyment, stress relief, improved sense of self-worth, comfort, and prevention of loneliness, people tend to stay connected on these online platforms.

Accessibility of social media platforms, the need to share one’s attention, the urge to stay online, connectivity, availability of daily updates force people to keep using social media platforms. However, excessive social media use has an association with suicidal ideation, self-harm, and depressive symptoms. In addition, through social media comparison, people tend to feel inadequate about their appearances compared to peers. Ironically, these articles indicated that social media use increases loneliness among users rather than reducing this aspect of loneliness.

In totality, excessive social media use has a positive correlation with an increase in the self-centeredness of the online user attributed to excessive sharing of one’s self through selfies and pictures through social media. Various signs like neglecting other roles to be in social media, instances of cyberbullying, the distraction of learning sessions, and neglect of self-reflection, among others, indicate that online cyberspaces have impacted one’s psychological well-being. The article concludes by sharing various ways, such as a change in focus and spending more time with offline friends as ways of regulating too much use of social media.

Article 6: Twenge, J. M. (2019). More time on technology, less happiness? Associations between digital-media use and psychological well-being. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(4), 372-379. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419838244

This study by Twenge suggests that excessive technological exposure results in less happiness. This article indicated that many studies have collectively concluded that individuals who frequently use social media platforms display low emotional wellness compared to those with minimal online cyberspaces. Heavy users, therefore, have double effects compared to light online users. The article reached all levels of digital users to help raise statistics that show associations between the use of digital media and the mental well-being of the user.

Ideally, social media use does not help measure other factors that influence individual psychological well-being, such as genes and post-traumas. Notably, unlike the duration and frequency of social media use, such factors cannot be controlled when addressing the impacts of digital media use on the emotional well-being of individuals. Despite light users showing lower psychological effects of digital media use when compared with heavy users, such category of cyberspace users has a higher degree of mental effects compared to non-users of online social media platforms. Cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys portray beneficial mechanisms such as quality sleep and face-to-face talks for improved well-being when substituted with cyberbullying, FOMO, social comparison, and envy, which causes negative impacts on individual psychological well-being.

Part 3: Reflection

This final report incorporated six sources to conduct a literature review on the research topic of how social media use affects human psychology. The sources, hence, analyzed valuable information relating to social and digital media use affecting the emotional well-being of people in the United States of America. These sources, through the literature review, have agreed that there is a positive correlation between excessive social media use and increased adverse effects on a person’s psychological well-being. These sources provide concise and up-to-date information regarding social media use and its impacts on human psychology since they were published within the last five years in America.

Consistently, these sources have agreed that the frequency and duration of social media have a positive correlation with the impacts on the mental well-being of the individual (Alonzo et al., 2021). Additionally, these sources have shown empirical evidence that the frequency and duration of digital media use create vulnerabilities and stressors that hurt specific gender ((Mishna et al., 2018). Notably, Mishna et al. (2018) indicated that girls who happen to be in their adolescent stage have a high degree of vulnerability to social media use compared to their counterparts’ teenage boys. All along, the source alluded that both the extent and frequency of social media use have a high probability of resulting in addiction to online cyberspaces. More so, the habit associated with social networking sites negatively impacts the psychological wellness of the user. Most importantly, these sources indicated that excessive use of smartphones results in phubbing and deprives one of a chance to form physical and social interaction ties with other offline individuals (Twenge, 2019). This tendency by most people contributes to greater chances of social comparison, envy, sense of loneliness, suicidal ideations, and depressive symptoms such as anxiety and stress that contribute significantly to a decrease in the mental well-being of that person (Robbinson & Smith, 2020).

Theoretical assumptions based on these sources highlighted that rapid growth and increased sharing of information through social networking sites have contributed significantly to online harassment and instances of cyberbullying (Albdour et al., 2019). Furthermore, the absence of social media monitoring by parents, guardians, or relevant authorities has also played a big part in propelling cyberbullying among social media users. Additionally, the sources have shown how cyberbullying happens in various ways, such as the use of vulgar language, sharing of falsehood information about a particular person, body shaming, and intimidation, among others. Such practices have shown how cyberbullying has taken a new shape in the current digital space as opposed to traditional methods of bullying.

Cyberbullying has a direct correlation with negative impacts on individual well-being (Kwan et al., 2020). Mostly, the affected, especially young adults, portray fear in voicing out their encounters with cyberbullies since they fear losing their gadgets like phones and laptops. These vulnerable individuals continue to suffer alone, which may result in cases of depression, suicidal ideations, stress, anxiety, and loneliness, among others (Kwan et al., 2020). The point to note is that cyberbullying happens repeatedly, cuts across all ages, and indicates a higher degree of reoccurring, contributing to a massive challenge for users of social networking sites. The sources have agreed that cyberbullying correlates with negative mental well-being. For example, cyber victimization among youths has resulted in depressive symptoms and creates a sense of hopelessness and loneliness. There is an indication of suicidal ideation between the perpetrators of online harassment and victims of cyberbullying.

This final project will target social media users, both youths and adults in America, and their habits of digital media use. The report will examine how social media usage affects human psychology across all ages. It will, therefore, be narrowed down to researchable variables like frequency and duration of social media use, cyberbullying, and online harassment to help better understand the correlation between psychological well-being and social media usage. The articles for data collection through online surveys and literature reviews should be published within the last five years and involve studies conducted in America. There will be an online screening of these sources and the application of psychiatrists’ reports to validate the extent of mental problems associated with social media use by the individual.

References

1. Albdour, M., Hong, J. S., Lewin, L., & Yarandi, H. (2019). The impact of cyberbullying on the physical and psychological health of Arab American adolescents. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 21(4), 706-715. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-00850-w
2. Alonzo, R., Hussain, J., Stranges, S., & Anderson, K. K. (2021). The interplay between social media use, sleep quality, and mental health in youth: A systematic review. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 56, 101414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2020.101414
3. Kwan, I., Dickson, K., Richardson, M., MacDowall, W., Burchett, H., Stansfield, C., Brunton, G., Sutcliffe, K., & Thomas, J. (2020). Cyberbullying and children and young people’s mental health: A systematic map of systematic reviews. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 23(2), 72-82. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2019.0370
4. Mishna, F., Regehr, C., Lacombe-Duncan, A., Daciuk, J., Fearing, G., & Van Wert, M. (2018). Social media, cyber-aggression, and student mental health on a university campus. Journal of Mental Health, 27(3), 222-229. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2018.1437607
5. Robinson, L., & Smith, M. (2020, January 16). Social media and mental health. HelpGuide.org. https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm
6. Twenge, J. M. (2019). More time on technology, less happiness? Associations between digital-media use and psychological well-being. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(4), 372-379. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419838244