Free Essay Example on Social Media Addiction: Impact on Mental Health & Habits

Introduction

Social media causes addiction of individuals since one tends to get glued to the phone all day long, thinking about it or checking up on the social media platforms (Hu et al. 2017, p.335). It causes one to get depressed or get a feeling of rejection when one unfollows a person on social media. Also, after one is addicted to using social media, one develops a feeling of anxiety. Internet addiction also tends to cause unhealthy sleep patterns, and it brings about addiction to alcohol and substance use. It also affects how one relates to others, such as close friends and even family members. It also encourages one to inflict pain on others or even oneself.

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Behavioural Effects

Social media may affect one`s behaviour in that it is responsible for the leaking of pornographic content, which is unhealthy for teens or even college students. The leaking of pornography has some effect on one since it brings about increased sexual behaviour, encourages one to have multiple partners, or even engage in promiscuous sex activities (Hu et al. 2017, p.340). When one watches pornography based on violent content, one tends to develop aggressiveness, and, thus, one tends to inflict pain on others while having sex; this tends to be a mental disorder always referred to as masochism.

Social media has also enhanced human interaction in that it has brought about the invention of online dating through mobile applications or websites. The websites tend to give strict rules that one does not have to share personal information, but persons tend to ignore these rules. Online dating causes persons to explore their sexual interests online daily (Hu et al. 2017, p.340). These have brought about increased sexual behaviours among teenagers and also lead to increased risk of getting sexually transmitted infections because most of them practice unprotected sex when they meet up with strangers.

Negative Impacts

Persons who are generally obsessed with social media tend to develop suicidal thoughts, depression, obesity, and that they perform poorly in schools. Also, studies conducted show that the light that is generally emitted by the screens results in disruption of one's sleep patterns (Arendt, Scherr & Romer 2019, p.2423). To avoid the use of phones and get enough sleep to avoid developing any forms of depression or complications that may arise from obesity.

Social Media may have diverse effects on humans; therefore, one may need to develop and implement ways on how to advice individuals on how to cope up with these issues. It involves limiting the time taken in using social media and also involving other positive techniques to solve this issue.

One needs to limit the time they spend using social media. For example, some applications such as Instagram can come in handy with settings that show one how many times one has used the application daily (Ryan et al. 2017, p.76). One can also set simple rules such as no use of social media for a given hour (Gibson & Trnka 2020, p.241). One also can put away the phone when eating with all persons since it is a form of table etiquette (Gibson & Trnka 2020, p.245). Through this, one will build an ethical boundary with the use of social media.

One can use social media for developmental and inspirational purposes, such as involving oneself with business groups, support groups, and also create healthy relationships with strict boundaries (Szolnoki et al. 2018, p.109). Through it, one will always feel connected and have a purpose in life and, thus, quickly push out persons bringing about negativity in one's life.

One needs to unfollow persons on social media, especially those that spend most of their time bullying someone and make them hate themselves. Social media tends to affect one's behaviour and also self-esteem levels (Hu et al. 2017, p.340). Therefore, the elimination of bad accounts can be a way of self-empowerment, and, thus, one can never feel better about oneself.

One needs to be more careful and control how to uses social media. One should also consider social media use patterns and limit the time used when using social media (Gibson & Trnka 2020, p.241). The moment one knows all these, one can easily manage the bad comments and adverse effects that arise when one uses social media.

Conclusion

Switching off social media is an option. Since social media tends to depend on one's moral uprightness, for example, and some persons tend to switch off from social media to reduce anxiety and also depression. At the same time, some use social media for something constructive such as conducting businesses.

Bibliography

Arendt, F, Scherr, S & Romer, D 2019, "Effects of exposure to self-harm on social media: Evidence from a two-wave panel study among young adults", New Media & Society, vol. 21, no. 11-12, pp. 2422-2442.

Chon, M & Park, H 2019, "Social Media Activism in the Digital Age: Testing an Integrative Model of Activism on Contentious Issues", Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 97, no. 1, pp. 72-97.

Cooley, D & Parks-Yancy, R 2019, "The Effect of Social Media on Perceived Information Credibility and Decision Making", Journal of Internet Commerce, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 249-269.

Gibson, K & Trnka, S 2020, "Young people's priorities for support on social media: "It takes trust to talk about these issues"", Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 102, pp. 238-247.

Hemsley, J, Jacobson, J, Gruzd, A & Mai, P 2018, "Social Media for Social Good or Evil: An Introduction", Social Media + Society, vol. 4, no. 3, p. 205630511878671.

Hu, T, Stafford, T, Kettinger, W, Zhang, X & Dai, H 2017, "Formation and Effect of Social Media Usage Habit", Journal of Computer Information Systems, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 334-343.

Rehman, Z, Baharun, R & Salleh, N 2019, "Antecedents, consequences, and reducers of perceived risk in social media: A systematic literature review and directions for further research", Psychology & Marketing, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 74-86.

Ryan, T, Allen, K, Gray, D & McInerney, D 2017, "How Social Are Social Media? A Review of Online Social Behaviour and Connectedness", Journal of Relationships Research, vol. 8.

Szolnoki, G, Dolan, R, Forbes, S, Thach, L & Goodman, S 2018, "Using social media for consumer interaction: An international comparison of winery adoption and activity", Wine Economics and Policy, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 109-119.