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Thesis Statement: As useful as social media may be for establishing relationships
and deriving information, its broad influence on the individual’s psychological

well-being is generally destructive because it contributes to elevated levels of
stress, emotions of depression, and inferiority.
Introduction
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and many similar platforms are nowadays the
crown jewels of digital society that millions of individuals use daily. These
platforms guarantee interaction, sometimes fun, other times knowledge and all
within a click of a button. However, there has been emerging concern, criticism or
concern regarding the effect or the utilization of the social media in influencing
the mental health of people. This paper will explore the social media mains of
concern and assert that while it may have positive effects, it is in fact mostly
detrimental to one’s mental health by worsening such conditions as anxiety,
depression, and low self-esteem. Through a careful analysis of the research data
and by taking into account the reasons that some other authors might deliver to
deny the negative impact of social media on psychological health, this essay will
aim to show the negative effects of social media.
Articles published in the dailies of late reveals that the negative impact of
social media is highly commendable.
Anxiety and Depression
In this article, one of the most present and strong arguments against social media
usage is the link between social media usage and anxiety and depression rates.
literature review showed many investigations to demonstrate this relationship. For
instance, a research done by a health body organization which is the Royal Society
for Public Health (RSPH) in England states that social media is likely to cause
anxiety and depression especially among the youngsters. Hence, the accessibility to
role models and expectations in the form of IG images and lives make it easy for
people to convince themselves that they do not measure up and therefore they should
adhere to these images and the lives they portray. Further, the dependency on the
social media and the urgency of getting the ‘likes’ or the comments on the posts or
the pictures posted often leads to the feeling of anxiety when there is none
coming. Dopamine stimulates much of human behaviour and when one gets used to the
constant barrage of notifications, likes, and comments via social media then he
develops a sort of dependence for this stimulus and thus feels stressed when he
does not get new stimuli to feed off.
Isolation and Emotions of Inadequacy and Comparison
Social media promotes competitiveness in that people tend to compare themselves

with others. People are subjected to images and updates that present lives that
seem to be perfect hence the social comparison effect. A study done by Esteves, et
al., and published in Computers in Human Behavior shows that frequent users of
social media are more likely to engage in social comparison which has negative
impacts on personal accomplishment, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. This
perpetual comparison can be particularly damaging on the lives of young people,
especially on their developing self-esteem and identity. This is because most of
the content people post on such platforms is only the best part of their lives,
thus giving a skewed reality to the audience. This kind of distorted view of
reality may lead to poor self-esteeming feelings of ineffectiveness and
dissatisfaction with one’s life.
Cyberbullying and Online Harassment
The other drawback that most people come across when using social media platforms
is that the instances of cyber bullying and harassment have soared. Cyber bullying
may also be defined as electronic bullying and is more general because it is doable
from anywhere at any time with anonymity and the effect may also extend to a larger
population. The effects attributed to cyberbullying in the psychological well-being
of people are emotionally horrifying as it escalates psychological health
complications such as loneliness, depression, and even suicides in the process.
Based on survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, it is found that 59% of the
teenagers in the U.S. undergo cyberbullying. As mentioned, based on the fact the
relative anonymity of the person behind the social media account, they feel at ease
to pretend and go ahead and do things they would not do in face to face
interaction; this tends to worsen the situation for the victim. However, since the
problem of the presence of social media, people can post something shameful or
repost a terrible message from another account, All these attempts to block or
unsubscribe from an aggressor create only more suffering.
Counterarguments and Rebuttals
Positive Connections and Support
Critics of social media affirm that in as much as hate speech is propagated on

social media platforms, love and social relations are also supported in social
media. For instance, people, who can experience loneliness in real live, can make
friends and find friends with the same problems as them online. This is especially
desirable concerning the vulnerable categories of the population, like the queer
community, which can encounter constant stigma and seldom find understanding from
peers. Of course, the positive impact of social media may include the opportunities
to make new friends and build strong relationships but the negative sides of using
such sites are much more significant. Many of the interactions people have on the
internet lack the depth of observation that allows for the close emotional ties;
much of the material even made for support often becomes toxic to the minds
consuming it. Furthermore, sometimes, the value derived is not terribly high due to
the specificity of the affiliate connections and the fact that cyberspace
interactions are typically transient and qualitatively inferior to face-to-face
interactions.
Educational and Informational Benefits
The following justification goes under the assumption that social media is a good
tool for example in influencing education and for sharing information. S colourful
social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn are helpful for the acquaintance with
colleagues and to find something in the Web. However, the credibility of
information that is shared on Social media remains questionable due to the issue of
fake news that prevail, and individual are advised to be cautious any time they
come across something that was posted on Social media. Besides, as it was discussed
in the previous section of this analysis, there are still chances for the
application to adversely affect the users’ state of mind and cause psychologically
negative outcomes, no matter whether Killer Applications have a number of possible
educational advantages mentioned above. The problem of fake news is getting even
worse and therefore their spread may worsen the problem identified above of
stressing and anxiety caused by lack of differentiating between real and fake news.
Additionally, in imprisonment of such virtual worlds through which one is actually
not communicated with other people, pessimistic perceptions and stances are
magnified and a declining psychological well-being is observed.
Conclusion
Thus, if one must conduct social media, he or she should be informed of the
detrimental effects that social media has to offer and attempt to lessen the amount
of time he or she spends logged into the various social networks in order to reduce
the imprint they bring to bear on the overall well-being of an individual. Thus,
alarming statistics indicate that social media usage contributes to anxiety,
depression, or feelings of inefficiency, or something as terrible as cyberbullying.
One might discover gains from social media; however, it would be important to admit
that harm that has always been witnessed on social media towards the psychological
health of the customers. We shall still be residing in the world, which still has
several demerits when it comes to technological development, and it is high time
that, the impacts of social media on the mental health of people should be noted,
and fought against. Some of the negative effects include those listed below: By
sensitizing the people with the negative impacts of such effects and or developing
means of implementing the solutions such as highlighted above, it is possible to
emulate the positive outcomes that comes with social media usage while at the same
time averting the negative ramifications. In this manner, people optimally and
voluntarily are able to avoid the negative impacts of social media and the effects
it has on mental health as a result of advancement in digital technology.

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Thesis Statement: As useful as social media may be for establishing relationships

and deriving information, its broad influence on the individual’s psychological

Anxiety and Depression

Isolation and Emotions of Inadequacy and Comparison

Social media promotes competitiveness in that people tend to compare themselves

Cyberbullying and Online Harassment

Counterarguments and Rebuttals

Positive Connections and Support

Critics of social media affirm that in as much as hate speech is propagated on

Educational and Informational Benefits

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