Being on social media - Does it affect our mood or self-esteem?

Abstract 

Social media today is deeply embedded into our everyday lives. Because social media is still a recent phenomenon to humanity, we have yet to fully understand what it does to our mental health. One thing is obvious that as more people continue using social media frequently in their lives there is an increase of mental health issues in society. It has become a growing concern as more news about its potential effects on mental health is produced, proving that it is a popular topic. Humans are social creatures, so it makes sense why it is easy to indulge connecting with each other virtually at almost any time of day. In this review a quantitative and qualitative analysis will be done on the amount of time spent on social media for young adults ages 20-25 to see if it has any connection to signs of mental health or affects self-esteem. 

Introduction and background 

Research has shown that the average person touches their phone an average of 2,617 times a day and for a heavy user the number can be 5,000 times. If you think about it that means that the average person has more interaction with their phone than they do with people around them. Phones seem to fill the void that humans have for connection to others. The whole premise behind social media is due to the human desire to connect to other humans. However, we have developed a habit of indulging in the convenience of being able to connect through the little device in our pocket. What we don't understand is what all that time we spend connecting on the internet can do to our minds, it is yet to be fully understood. 

The data that was collected has been done through a survey made via google forms. This review will be analyzing the data collected in both qualitative forms, that was collected via short answers, and quantitative forms, that was collected based off responses to specific questions. In this post the data will be observed piece by piece to have an overall idea about the types of questions that were asked and review what the data collected in an effort to understand if social media does negatively impact mood and self-esteem. 

How often and how much 

During this analysis I reviewed surveys done by 10 people, all of whom were between the ages of 20 and 25. This age group was chosen because of their understanding and use of social media. It was made unclear if those that took the survey know about the harmful effects that social media could have on them or if it was thought to be something positive. The people in this survey were asked how many followers each of them had and through their answers it was determined that no one fell under the social media influencer category and that most of them were just posting to connect with friends. The assumption was that people in their twenties most likely spend more time on social media. Studies have shown that people in their twenties spend a lot of time on platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. However, data that was collected in these surveys found that the majority of the young adults that took this survey spent less time on social media than the average user. In fact, 50% of the people in this age group used social media platforms 3-4 hours a day. It is important to note that the number of times that they posted online was less than what was expected but it was still more time than what research recommends. According to an article on statista.com the global average amount of time spent on social media is about 2 hours and 24 minutes, but the average person spends about 6 hours a day on the internet. This means that people in this study used social media more than the average amount of time people spend on social media. 50% of people spent more than 7 times the amount of time recommended a day on social media. In this survey the other 20% spent less time on social media at 1-2 hours a day. Figure 1 below is a pie chart that shows how many hours a day the young adults that took this survey spend on social media.  

(Figure 1) 

On the contrary, a healthy amount of social media use is important to mental health. The Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology recommends 30 minutes of social media a day to maintain mental health but more than half of young adults in this survey spend more than what is considered a healthy amount of time on social media. In this survey it was assessed to see if people thought that the amount of time that they spent on social media was healthy or not from their perspective. Half of the young adults in this survey felt that they spent a healthy amount of time on social media while the other half felt they did not. Their answers can be seen clearly in figure 2. 

(Figure 2)

Social media has become a common and frequent occurrence in people’s lives. Not much though is given into how often people log on. To determine if social media use was an everyday occurrence the people in this survey were asked if they check social media in the morning and before bed. Checking social media before bed has been known to negatively affect sleep and sleep is important to maintaining mental health. By analyzing if people used social media before bed and after waking up, we can determine that social media does indeed have a constant presence in people's lives. Figures 3 and 4 show that over 90% of people in this survey do in fact maintain a consistent use of social media.

 

(Figure 3)

(Figure 4)

Why use social media

 

Social media has been used to connect with others for a long time now. The 1st social media network appeared in 1979 but it wasn’t until the creation of Facebook that it became a commonality in the lives of everyone. It is human nature to want to connect with others but ironically as we continue to connect online with people around the world, we have lost connection to the people who are around us. To determine why young adults who participated in this survey use social media qualitative data was gathered. 

(Figure 5)

In figure 5 above you can see that the following reasons that people posted on social media fell into the following categories: life, beliefs, things they liked, and fun. A chart (figure 6) was created to convey these key categories more easily. 

(Figure 6)

Many of these users posted to share things about their life and their interests. The next popular reason people used social media was for fun. This goes to show that people post online to connect to others who share common interests with them or keep a connection going with the people they follow. Social media is a form of communication so it makes sense that people would post according to these categories that help form connections to others. Figure 7 proves that the reason why many people use social media is to connect with other people. 

(Figure 7)

Through these comments it can be seen that social media creates an intimate space that influences connections to friends, family, and even strangers. The danger behind social media is that without limiting use it can also disconnect us as well. 

  How social media affects Mood 

Social media and mental health seem to have been all the rave in newly published studies and journals. Mood disorders have been under question to see if social media, in all its popularity, is the cause. More Specifically studies focus on its relationship to the rise in depression and anxiety. Some researchers believe that social media might affect mood because people spend more time on their phones which leads to less time for face-to-face interactions. The same study mentioned earlier done by the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology also found that when people monitored the amount of time, they spent on social media to 30 minutes that they felt less lonely and depressed. Figure 8 shows the average mood of people in this survey. 

(Figure 8)

The data collected in this survey shows that most young adults associated their average mood as anxious or lonely. The rest responded that they normally felt relaxed, grateful, and happy. Looking at this data we can see that a majority of people have an overall negative mood. The data collected in this survey found that 30% of social media users felt that their mood increased after posting on social media while 70% answered that posting on social media had both a positive and negative impact on them as shown in figure 9. This means that 70% of users felt that social media negatively impacted their mood. 

(Figure 9)

How social media affects Self-Esteem

Using social media can lower self-esteem. A study done by a team of researchers at the University of Toronto analyzed 121 studies and found that social media causes more harm than good to self-esteem. A part of the reason is because when people are on social media it can be easy to experience the fear of missing out in connection to how one is living their life, what the next viral trend is, or even something as simple as a DM (direct message) that your best friend sent. The fear of missing out also creates an increase in anxiety and creates the need to check social media more often. It can also be a factor as to why people gain a sense of lower self-esteem while scrolling. When people post on social media it tends to be the highlights of their life not necessarily when they are going through low moments, creating a false perception that they are always happy. In addition, the data collected in this survey revealed that most people who reported that they felt lonely did so because they compared themselves to what other people were doing and felt they were missing out. The other half claimed that the amount of time they spent on social media made them feel bad for being on social media in the first place. Their comments are shown in figure 10. 

(Figure 10)

The survey also asked questions to determine the self-esteem of people before and after posting on social media. In figure 11 you can see that a majority of people felt confident before posting on social media. Figure 12 shows that after posting almost half of the users shifted to having lower self-esteem. 

(Figure 11)

(Figure 12)

Conclusion

Social media has positive benefits, but it seems that it may cause more harm than it does good. Social media can be a useful way to connect with others but without limiting the amount of time spent it negatively affects health. Important findings in this analysis suggest that most young adults spend 3-4 hours a week on social media. The amount of time they spend posting online shows that there is a regular use of social media in young adults' lives. In fact, social media is so embedded into everyday life that it is the first thing that people do when waking up and going to bed. Though people in this survey found that social media helped them stay connected to other people, it was obvious that it did affect their mood positively. Most young adults stated that they usually felt anxious and data shows that social media did not have a role in boosting the mood of the users. Social media caused a shift from users feeling confident before using social media to having lower self-esteem after. The results prove that social media does play a role in lowering self-esteem and impacting the mood of its users.