The effects of excessive social medial use on social and mental development in adolescents

The effects of excessive social medial use on social and mental development in adolescents

Introduction

Social media has become an integral part of modern life and it is used in different capacities such as education, business, and health (Siddiqui & Singh, 2016). Despite the many advantages of social media some of its disadvantages may adversely affect the well-being of individuals and this includes mental health problems that stem from negative social media interactions that result in issues such as depression (Bashir & Bhat, 2017). This study will focus on the greatest adverse impact of social media which it argues is the negative impact it has on the mental and social development of adolescents. Adolescence is a critical phase of human development as it begins at the start of puberty and ends at the age where individuals gain social independence (Curtis, 2015). Individuals that fail to fully develop their social and mental capacities will face many challenges such as becoming independent adults and navigating personal and professional relationships.

Research question

Does excessive social media use stunt mental and social development in adolescents

Adolescents are some of the most frequent users of social media which they primarily use as a communication tool. The most common social media platform used by adolescents are online social networking (OSN) websites. Addition to OSN websites is common among adolescents who spend a significant amount of their day on OSN websites such as Twitter (Raju, Valsaraj, & Noronha, 2015). The results of a study carried out by Raju et al., 2015 on the effects of social media use in adolescents reached the conclusion that there was an increase in the number of adolescents who were physiological dependent on OSN websites. Evidence pointed to the easy accessibility to these OSN websites as the driving factor in the increase in this dependency with individuals visiting OSN website more than 30 times a day. As such, these adolescents are addicted to OSN websites as their pattern of behavior indicated that they visited these sites throughout the day even during serious activities such as driving and operating machinery.

Best et al, (2012) explored the adverse mental effects of social media use in adolescents and reached the conclusion apart from depression which is the result of negative interactions evidence pointed to no effects of OSN websites on adolescents (Best, Manktelow, & Taylor, 2014). This study will, therefore, attempt to reach a conclusion on whether OSN websites have an effect on metal and social development in adolescents.

Hypothesis

Excessive social media use adversely affects social and mental development in adolescents

Study Methodology

The most appropriate research design for the hypothesis ‘excessive social media use adversely affects social and mental development in adolescents’ is a survey design which will adopt the questionnaire method to collect data. The data will be collected from college freshmen from a local college that will be picked at random. The research sample will consist of 30 freshmen who will be picked at random. The questionnaire format will consist of close-ended questions that will focus on the variables that affect the social and mental development in adolescents. The variables will be the number of time individuals spends on OSN websites, the number of times that an individual visits these OSN websites, the history of the individual’s academic performance from the first time that they used OSN sites (this is mostly going to be early in the adolescent phase). In addition, the variables that will be used to determine the impact of OSN sites on the social development of individuals are if the individual has difficulty in both personal and professional relationships in relation to their historic use of OSN websites and if they experience loneliness or any other social challenge as a result of excessive OSN website use.

 

Ethical Issues Facing the Use of Social Media in Adolescents

OSN websites make large amounts of profits from advertisements that are run on their websites. As a result, these OSN organizations spend a large number of funds on research aimed at understanding the psychology and behavior of users to find methods to ensure that they spend as much time as possible on these websites (Nalwa & Anand, 2003). The use of attractive user interfaces, pop-up messages with user recommendations and messages and online games are some the methods that OSN websites employ to increase the frequency of visits to their sites which usually leads to individuals becoming addicted to OSN websites. As such, the main ethical issue is if OSN websites should be regulated by the government to protect adolescents who have not fully matured to prevent OSN addition and the adverse social and metal impact they have on adolescents.

References

 

Bashir, H., & Bhat, S. A. (2017). Effects of social media on mental health: A review. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 4(3), 125-131.

Best, P., Manktelow, R., & Taylor, B. (2014). Online communication, social media and adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review. Children and Youth Services Review, 41, 27-36.

Curtis, A. C. (2015). Defining adolescence. Journal of Adolescent and Family Health, 7(2), 2.

Nalwa, K., & Anand, A. P. (2003). Internet addiction in students: A cause of concern. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 6(6), 653-656.

Raju, N. J., Valsaraj, B. P., & Noronha, J. (2015). Online Social Networking: Usage in Adolescents. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(22), 80-84.

Siddiqui, S., & Singh, T. (2016). Social media its impact with positive and negative aspects. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research, 5(2), 071-075.