How Social Media Is Directly Affecting Your Mental Health

Relationships

In an ever-connected world, as much as it might increase connectivity amongst family and friends, social media is also the culprit responsible for creating separation between people. A phone’s presence can interfere with social interactions between human beings, especially when engaging in stimulating conversation about something meaningful, as researchers have found with one study.

Researchers for the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships paired thirty-four strangers to have a ten-minute conversation with each other, with half of the participants having their mobile phones present during the interaction. Those with their phone present were less positive remembering the interaction and felt a disconnect to their partner when engaging with them. Romantic relationships are also affected by social media, as researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada surveyed three-hundred people, ranging in ages seventeen to twenty-four, and discovered women spent more time on Facebook than men and experienced the emotions of jealousy and envy more often when doing so. The researchers believed Facebook’s environment created these feelings of insecurity and enhanced a female’s concern about the quality of her romantic relationships.

Read on for the overall impact on emotional well-being.

Emotional Well-Being

Social media has also been linked to stimulating the emotions of envy, jealousy, and loneliness when used. Researchers at the University of California have reported a positive or negative mood amongst users on social media can spread like wildfire, depending on the emotional content of the posting. They concluded positive content shared on social media was a more powerful influencer rather than negative posts. However, it remains unsolved if positive posts truly boost the mood of the user.

Envy is another common emotion users can feel when interacting with social media. In one study involving six-hundred adults, one-third of social media made them feel negative emotions, specifically frustration and envy due to users comparing their lives to others’. However, envy is not necessarily destructive but rather can make an individual work harder to achieve the same level of perceived success as their counterparts. Continue reading to discover how social media impacts loneliness and isolation.