Social Media Addiction Among Young People and Its Negative Effects

Social Media Addiction among Young People and Its Negative Effects
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Social Media Addiction among Young People and Its Negative Effects
In the contemporary digital landscape, social media platforms have become the omnipresent companions of modern life. With the popularity of technology, people are paying more attention to social media. In contrast to conventional social communication methods like emails, text messages, and phone calls, social media offers a change and entices users with the novelty brought by its diverse features. Therefore, emerging social media platforms are steadily gaining a presence in people's lives, such as Twitter, Facebook, WeChat, TikTok, etc. In April 2023, the global count of internet users reached 5.18 billion, representing 64.6 percent of the world's population. Among them, 4.8 billion individuals, equivalent to 59.9 percent of the global populace, are actively engaged with social media platforms. (Petrosyan, 2023). “Teens aged 13 to 18 years old spend the most time on social media, with an average of 3 hours and 1 minute per day (Peterson, 2023).” Social media has brought many conveniences, but its negative effects have also become increasingly prominent. Nonetheless, teenagers' engagement with social media can have adverse consequences, diverting their attention, disturbing their sleep patterns, subjecting them to bullying and the propagation of rumors, fostering unrealistic perceptions of others' lives, and inducing peer pressure. (Pruthi, 2022). Furthermore, there are concerns among parents about the potential for social media to either cause or worsen mental health issues, posing associated risks. (George & Odgers, 2015).
The significance of understanding and dealing with social media addiction is something to ponder. This phenomenon carries significant implications for mental health, relationships, and society at large. To confront this challenge effectively, 3 people across various domains could harness the insights provided by this research brief. Mental health professionals can use these findings to develop interventions for those suffering from social media addiction. Educational institutions can incorporate these insights into their curricula and offer lectures on the dangers of social addiction to prevent further harm. Social media platforms themselves should be responsible for implementing measures that promote healthier usage, and findings can be used to develop strategies accordingly.
Literature Review
In particular, this brief literature review emphasizes four primary sections: the negative impact of social media on young people, the effects of adolescents’ social media addiction, the reasons adolescents are more vulnerable to social media addiction, and the solution to Internet addiction. Notably, social media addiction refers to the repetitive and unreasonable usage of the Internet, which disrupts various aspects of an individual’s daily life (Masoed et al., 2021).
Negative Impact of Social Media
An important concern these days is social media addiction among high school students. This wa...