Effects of social media
It is becoming clear that the results of social media have been far-reaching and multifaceted. It is almost impossible to determine what the exact effects are, since we are seeing them happening so rapidly and intensely. Most people agree though that the negative effects of social media are beginning to outweigh the positive ones.
The results of social media use on mental health vary widely. A recent study found that only 24 percent of teenagers feel that social media has a negative effect on their lives, while 30 percent say its positive and only 45 percent think its effect is negative. Only 7 percent said that it increased their stress level and less than one percent said it made them feel more popular or successful. The rest were uncertain or didn’t know.
The results for adults are more mixed. An astounding one in four adults admitted that they spent several hours each day using Facebook and MySpace, and nearly half of these said that their psychological well-being was suffering as a result. Only 5 percent said their mental health was actually improving, but many of them admitted to feel happier because of it. Only 13 percent of Facebook and MySpace users said they had developed real world business relationships, and only 6 percent said that they were building strong social ties in real life. Clearly, these are not the results you are looking for if you are trying to develop lasting social ties and improving your quality of life. This lack of real world business and human connection ties means that Facebook and other sites like it will not have much of an effect on increasing your employability or happiness, or enhancing your love life.
Also, when researchers looked at the overall effects of this media, they noticed that they really didn’t have much of an effect on one’s job performance or happiness. A study looked at thousands of employees who participated in various forms of social media use and found no significant difference in terms of their work productivity or their level of happiness. The most common results were that employees using the most social media tended to be less productive and less happy overall than those who did not. It is true that this media can be a major force in shaping how we feel about ourselves, but the research looked only at the immediate effects of media, not its long term effects.
One study found that there may be some positive effects of media on heart health and well-being. However, when participants were asked about how well-liked and respected they were on Facebook, it turned out that the most popular social network in the world was not particularly helpful for promoting wellness. Of course, this particular study looked only at people’s perceptions of themselves, which means that there may be other psychological effects that we haven’t been able to see. What do you think? Are these results accurate?
In this post, we explored the potential psychological effects of social media use for avoiding stress, promoting productivity and maintaining job satisfaction. Although we cannot say for sure that media makes people depressed, studies have shown links between media and negative mental health. However, the best way to combat the negative effects of media use is to avoid media at all costs if you are unable to avoid it altogether. Besides, what’s the point of having a good relationship with other people in your social life is plagued by stress?