Negative Impact of Social Media on College Students
How Social Media can affect Higher Students and their Mental Health
When you retrieve of "social media," what practice you think of? Facebook? Social networking? A distraction? What about college students and mental health?
One of the biggest challenges college students face today is struggling with mental wellness. Higher is a time to explore and learn new things. Just every bit college students, it can exist hard sometimes to rest school, work, and being social while likewise trying to accept care of our physical and mental wellness. According to mentalhealth.gov, mental wellness includes our "emotional, psychological, and social well-being." Information technology affects how we call up, feel, and deed and helps to determine how nosotros handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.
On elevation of all the stress from studying, writing papers, and involvements on campus, we are constantly distracted past our phones merely more specifically social media. We alive in a digital age where almost everything is available online and when information technology comes to social media usage among college students, one thing is clear: it has become apart of our everyday life and has immune u.s. to be more connected than ever. But, is using it besides much bad for the states and does it further affect our mental wellness?
Negative effects on Mental Health
Many studies have been done related to the negative and positive effects social media may accept on college students and their mental wellness.
The most common problems associated with college students mental wellness and social media use is low, feet, low self-esteem, trunk image, sleeping problems, social isolation, and emotional difficulties. About 41.half dozen% of college students accept stated that anxiety is a height concern. In an article by The Conversation, i in 5 college students have anxiety or depression and excessive usage of social media may be a leading cistron in symptoms.
Some other common outcome within the scopes of social media is comparing ourselves to what we see on others people'south profiles online and creating "unrealistic expectations" as to how we should look, act, or experience. For example, if we see someone on Instagram or Snapchat enjoying themselves and having the "perfect life," it may create feelings of jealousy or green-eyed. By viewing other profiles, nosotros develop impressions that others are living a meliorate life. In fact, nosotros may sometimes meet "edited versions" of people's lives, significant that the content they postal service may not be an authentic reflection of how they feel. This can often lead to idealized versions and "competitions" between one'southward real life and one'south virtual life.
In an article by the Huffington Post, Dr. Anne Marie Albano, director of the Columbia University Dispensary For Anxiety and Related Disorders explained that social media can act every bit a "apocryphal reality" for students who are unable to cope with their circumstances.
"Social media and other technologies can give an individual a simulated sense of having truthful relationships, which can go far the way of developing peer support and mentor relationships," Albano said. "In actuality, they never cross over to make an engaging human relationship with such people in the existent world."
In the same article, Dr. Gary Glass, the associate director of counseling and psychological services at Duke notes that the classroom is no longer the only environs that demands perfection.
"People tend to publish the most impressive, entertaining, and/or attractive versions of themselves on social media platforms," Drinking glass said. "This can create a false impression of how much happier or more successful others are."
Effects on Academics
When it comes to academics, studies have shown that educatee are more than likely to participate in drinking and doing drugs, not studying for exams or working on assignments or paying attention in form, and lower grades and GPAs*
*Notwithstanding, there have been other studies showing no correlations between social media usage and its effects on grades.
I spoke to a few University of Minnesota — Duluth students to determine if some of this applies to college students. One student believed that social media may take a slight impact on her mental health especially with comparing herself to others merely overall information technology is generally a distraction.
"As a college student, it'due south really difficult to proceed upwards with everything from school to work to family and so I call back social media is a bang-up tool to take. Sometimes I'll see my friends having fun and think I wish I was in that location or I'll even compare myself to 'other higher students' on Instagram. Social media also helps me to express my frustrations sometimes virtually school especially on sites like Twitter. But, it is definitely a lark peculiarly when I am trying to get my work washed."
Another said, "I merely apply it if I take to and mostly to connect with classmates and family and when I am bored or need a break from school. I really try not to proceed information technology when I am working on assignments because I know once I go on it, information technology'll exist awhile earlier I become back to piece of work."
Although these response may non utilize to the vast bulk of college students, it does give an insight as to what some college students face when using social media.
The Positive Furnishings
Social media does not have to be a bad thing for our mental health because along with the negatives, there are many positives. It allows the states to share and connect with others in making it a little bit easier to participate in college life to larn about social events on campus and create social networks. While there may be certain problems associated with using social media, it also has the potential to help people, especially those struggling with mental health bug. Information technology can be a place that provides peer-to-peer and emotional support and validate usa if nosotros tend to share something that is vulnerable for us to share in real life specially if it involves our mental wellness.
And then what exercise y'all do if you feel like social media is impacting your mental health and academics and what can you lot do to not necessarily eliminate social media from your life but utilize it in a more positive way?
During times when you are feeling down or anxious, it is all-time to try to avoid using social media to eliminate the comparison gene. Too, consider taking a social media interruption or "detox," for a few hours or even days especially when it comes to mental health and academics.
Social media is obviously a great tool and has both negatives and positives upshot on our emotional well-being. It's touch on our mental health can depend on a number of factors including how nosotros employ information technology. It is hard for college students to avoid social media sometimes but knowing how information technology may have an bear upon on mental health can aid us brand improve decisions on how we use information technology.
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