Mental Health and Social Media

In most recent years, social media has had a mixed relationship with mental health and wellbeing. In an article written for medicalnewstoday.com, it takes a look on how social media affecting us. It says that there are 1.2 billion users who use a social network each month. Social media addiction is becoming more and more a real addiction. The article says “recent statistics show that 63% of American Facebook users log on to the site daily, while 40% of users log on multiple times a day.” Facebook addiction has been closely related to someone who has a drug addiction. I personally think that is crazy how if a person has to look at Facebook at least once a day for that reward to the brain, otherwise they go through withdrawals. Being on social media also affects our emotions. We could be scrolling through our news feeds and experience sadness, happiness, anger, and jealous within five minutes. This article also suggest an idea that I never thought of. Social media can actually improve mental health. “In fact, the researchers believe that this viral spread of happiness is so strong that if magnified, it could trigger an ‘epidemic of well-being.’” Those who have strong social anxiety can use social media to connect with people and still feel social behind a screen.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.php