Social media lead to the development of mental health issues

Nayaka Ratu Faisha H.
3 min readMay 29, 2021

In this day and age there are 4.2 billion social media user in the world and the 4.15

billion mainly access social media from mobile phone, which is the part of life things in modern

society therefore social media gets a huge part of human daily lives nowadays. During last

decade, the rapid growth of social media platform such as Instagram, TikTok, twitter, Whatsapp

etc. can make several changes in the way of people interact and communicate. The usage of

social media has a lot of advantages, such as for communication, information, advertisement,

etc. However, social media also can lead human to the development of mental health issues

such as addiction, anxiety and depression.

Mindlessly checking account or updates on social media periodically or spend for hours

on it without clear intentions indicates that someone get a social media addiction.

Consequently, social media addiction harms the emotional well-being and mental health of

human. The reason behind it is because the after effect of consume social media is not very

rewarding. Hence, it leads to increase a stress hormone called cortisol and dopamine in human

body. So, it can trigger the feeling of dissatisfaction and desperate.

Furthermore, Negative interactions and social comparisons such as stalking or finding

out too much someone by the social media accounts also can lead to increase the anxiety.

Spend for hours on social media with stalking someone, scroll timeline or the other things

someone unplanned to do in social media, cause the loss of interest in other activities and

make someone unproductive and related to feeling useless/ low self-esteem. For this reason,

the individual who get an anxiety tend to hard for expressing themselves that appealing with

others and making the others having less intentions to connecting with them.

Another causes to consider is, that social media also link to the depression and social

isolation. The greater someone using social media, they have no direct communication with

their friends or family. It’s because they are seeing through a mobile screen while everyone

taking part in diverse social activities in the real world. That triggers human as social creatures

may feel empty and lonely and leading lower confidence also decrease motivation to engage in

social interactions.

In conclusion, the usage of social media can lead human to the development of mental

health issues such as addiction, anxiety and depression, although it also has the advantages.

The social media addicted caused the feeling of desperate because the social media after effect

triggers the stress hormone. Someone also feeling anxious when they fear of missing out the

information in social media or mindlessly do the comparations with other, it affecting to their

self-esteem and relating to social isolation. However, someone can prevent or overcome these

mental issues with apply the mindfulness method in their daily life.

Reference:

Relationship between social media and mental health. (nd). Retrieved April 30, 2021, from

http://www.ukessays.com/essays/media/relationship-between-social-media-and-mental￾health.php

YourEssayHelper. (November 2017). Does Social Media Use Contribute to Depression?

Retrieved from https://youressayhelper.com/samples/does-social-media-use-contribute-to￾depression.html

SOCIAL MEDIA ON MENTAL HEALTH. (2019, Aug 20). Retrieved from

http://studymoose.com/social-media-on-mental-health-essay

Relationship between social media and mental health. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2021, from

http://www.ukessays.com/essays/media/relationship-between-social-media-and-mental￾health

Research essay: Social media addiction. (2016, June 06). Retrieved April 30, 2021, from

https://www.itechcode.com/2016/06/06/research-essay-social-media-addiction/

Picture source: https://pin.it/1xNU58f

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