Graduation Year

2024

Date of Submission

4-2024

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Reader 1

Ronald Riggio

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2024 Connor M. Printz

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the positive and negative effects of social media on the well-being and mental health of people. The emergence of social media platforms has transformed the landscape of human interaction and communication, revolutionizing the way individuals connect, share information, and engage with the world around them. With the rapidly increasing popularity of platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, and more, people now have unprecedented access to virtual networks, enabling instantaneous communication and global connectivity. While social media and these apps have without a doubt brought about numerous benefits, including enhanced social connectedness, access to any information at any time, creativity, community formation, networking opportunities, business creation opportunities, and more, they have also raised profound questions and concerns regarding their potential impact on individuals' well-being and mental health, including anxiety, depression, and more. Through reviewing many forms of literature, results show that social media use is positively correlated with increased levels of depression and anxiety. This was due to factors like FOMO, cyberbullying, and social comparison. Results also showed that social media had positive effects on mental health because of connection, entertainment, and creativity. For the future, social media use needs to be decreased and education about its negative effects needs to be raised. While there are benefits, there are many other ways to connect, be entertained, and be creative without having mental health affected negatively. Anxiety and depression are killing and hurting people in the world each and every second, and it is imperative that we address possible ways of lowering anxiety and depression levels, and decreasing social media use could be a start.

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