Impact of Social Media on Mental Health of Adolescents

Social media has become a defining concept that has caused a revolution in modern day life. Adolescents are more likely to spend a significant amount of time exploring different social media platforms to expand their social network and remain updated on what is happening in society. Unfortunately, many of these adolescents are spending a lot of time on social media platforms without the recognition that social media can adversely affect their well-being (Khalaf, Alubied, Khalaf, & Rifaey, 2023). Unlike in the past, adolescents are more prone to negative mental health outcomes, which are evident through signs and symptoms of anxiety, depression, addiction, and the fear of missing out. Spending so much time on social media predisposes adolescents to developing negative mental health outcomes.
Exploring the impact of social media on the mental health of adolescents is of critical importance and is a timely project that will reveal realities of social media and the mechanisms involved in influencing the mental health of adolescents (Gupta, Jogdand, & Kumar, 2022). Specifically, embarking on this study will provide a better understanding of how varied factors associated with social media usage have continued to make young people vulnerable to developing mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. The findings from this study will provide parents, teachers, and the greater society with valuable information on how social media can compromise the mental health of adolescents (Khalaf et al., 2023). School counsellors will benefit from this project because they will begin to understand how social media fosters adverse mental health outcomes among adolescents.
For this study, a qualitative research design will be implemented, which will embark on understanding how social media affects the mental health of adolescents. A selection of about 10-20 adolescents that spend a lot of time on social media platforms and conduct interviews that seek to explore how spending a lot of time on social media has been affecting their mental health outcomes. The study will also rely on existing literature to understand the mechanisms involved in compromising the mental health of adolescents that spend a lot of time on social media platforms. Therefore, the researchers will conduct a systematic review in which they will identify both recent and relevant articles on the EBSCO website.
 
References
Gupta, C., Jogdand, Dr. S., & Kumar, M. (2022). Reviewing the impact of social media on the mental health of adolescents and young adults. Cureus, 14(10), e30143.
Khalaf, A. M., Alubied, A. A., Khalaf, A. M., & Rifaey, A. A. (2023). The impact of social media on the mental health of adolescents and young adults: A systematic review. Cureus, 15(8), e42990.