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Psych Research Paper - Social Media

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Kyla Cohenlesley
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24 views3 pages

Psych Research Paper - Social Media

Uploaded by

Kyla Cohenlesley
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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SOCIAL MEDIA

General Psychology 101

Kyla Cohen-Lesley
Boston University
December 2022
Once Covid hit in 2020, I hit rock bottom and decided to take a break from social media
and it’s been the best decision I ever made. I feel like I was able to focus on myself more and be
more present in my daily life since we had to quarantine for a long time. Before taking a break
from social media, I would say I was an active person on media but then I realized that social
media started to become toxic. I started to compare myself alot to other girls and I wouldn’t say I
was depressed but I definitely was more moody. I also felt like I had to be at a certain point in
my life by a certain age for me to be successful and that was because social media influenced me
to think that way. Why does social media influence the way we think? If you ask me I think part
of it is because we're trying to find purpose in our life. But if we look at it from a psychological
standpoint, human beings are social creatures that require the companionship of others to make
progress in life. Thus, being socially connected with other people can relieve stress, anxiety, and
sadness, but lack of social connection can pose serious risks to mental health.1 Because social
media is a part of socializing this means it allows us to make progress in life. Which I never
thought about before. It could help us grow into a better person for ourselves and others or it can
progress to something unhealthy. I think the big question is then how could we distinguish
healthy socialization. Socialization that is beneficial for our mental health and all aspects of our
lives? Is it even possible considering FOMO is a thing. The fear of missing out—with excessive
social media use increases inflammation and correspondingly can exacerbate depression.2 Why
and who said missing out on the internet is a bad thing? I think being too tuned into social media
makes me sad because there’s a lot of negativity and terrible things that are going on around the
world. There are only 24 hours in a day and for at least 12 hrs most people are working or in
school so technically we are missing out on something all the time without realizing it. But just
because we miss out on something doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world and that there’s not
going to be future opportunities to be involved in social interactions. It’s also interesting that
there’s a possibility for people to be depressed due to Fomo and depressed due to what they see
on social media and how it makes them feel negatively. People fear missing out and that can lead
to depression but even when people are socially active there’s still a possibility of them being
negatively affected. It’s difficult to know which came first: if spending time online causes
anxiety and depression or if young people who are depressed and anxious are more likely to be
isolated, less active and spending time on social media.3 As much as social connections are
important I think internal connections are just as important. It should be everyone’s first priority
to look within ourselves rather than to look within others on social media and rely on social
media or socializing in general to fulfill the void of not knowing what to think for ourselves.

1
Karim, F., Oyewande, A. A., Abdalla, L. F., Chaudhry Ehsanullah, R., & Khan, S. (2020, June 15). Social media
use and its connection to Mental Health: A Systematic Review. Cureus. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7364393/
2
Hearsch, D. (2019, May 20). Mindful social media use for mental health recovery. Skyland Trail. Retrieved
December 7, 2022, from
https://www.skylandtrail.org/mindful-social-media-use-for-mental-health-recovery/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAkMGcBhCSA
RIsAIW6d0A6XUdgR-OtTF-UFDrR8JbJz5vBzT4T7S5LNZdhi1V19twDXejrBEQaAo6CEALw_wcB
3
Social Media and Mental Health. NAMI. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2022, from
https://www.nami.org/Your-Journey/Kids-Teens-and-Young-Adults/Teens/Social-Media-and-Mental-Health

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