Sociala medier och tonåringars och unga vuxnas psykiska ohälsa
Social media and the mental health of teenagers and young adults
Abstract
Social media is a phenomenon that has been steadily growing since its inception.
Sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are widely used, especially
amongst younger people. Previous research has shown that there might be a
connection between social media use and mental health issues such as eating
disorders and depression. Thus the purpose of this study is to cast light on the
relationship between social media use and mental illness amongst teenagers and
young adults. To this end, a literature study using a systematic search across
multiple academic databases was conducted. Data was gathered from scientific
articles no more than five years old. The results of these articles were compiled and
analyzed in an attempt to find common themes among them. The results revealed
that there is a connection between social media use and depression or anxiety and
social media use and eating disorders. The way one uses social media has a large
impact on its effect on one's mental health. One study also concluded that there is no
correlation between social media use and mental health. Our conclusions from this is
that social media on its own has very little effect on mental health. However, social
media as a medium through which you can experience feelings of envy, or where
you can compare yourself negatively to others does have a negative effect on the
mental health of young adults and adolescents. This can have clinical implications
where nurses working with mental health can help patients identify which parts of
their social media use is unhealthy.
Degree
Student essay
View/ Open
Date
2019-08-01Author
Alatalo, Lisa
Munther, Noa
Keywords
Social media
depression
anxiety
eating disorder
youth