Research paper on "How social media effects the mental health of teenagers"
Jason Lee LIB3065 Annotated Bibliography 1. NARCISSISM AND LIFE SATISFACTION IN COLLEGE STUDENTS: MEDIATING ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION. By: Adeeb, Muhammad; Waris, Sana; Asmat, Alia; Rafiq, Saria; Hafeez, Sadaf. Journal of Pakistan Psychiatric Society. Jul-Sep2020, Vol. 17 Issue 3, p10-13. 4p. This study, as the title suggests, dives into the relationship between social media and narcissism and life satisfaction. As mentioned in the study, the term “social media addiction” has been heavily criticized as it is said to be too unspecific. The study was conducted on a sample of college students (from undergraduate to graduate level). This is an important age range to focus the study on because it is young adults who are using social media the most and are most likely the ones who will be impacted the heaviest by social media addiction. The study found that the participants who tended to be more narcissistic also tended to be on social media more often. On the other hand, the ones who were also on social media more often, also tended to score lower on the life satisfaction scale as well. 2. Gemma White. "The damaging effects of social media addiction: 'A generation that shows itself, but doesn't know itself'". The National, October 25, 2020 Sunday. advance-lexis-com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:614V-NFD1-JDJN-61XH-00000-00&context=1516831. Accessed April 6, 2021. In this article, the author reports on the effects of social media addiction. Sean Parker, founder of Napster and Facebook investor, says “God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.” So even as a tech mogul himself, he is aware of the negative effects social media has on the population. One part of the article that really stood out to me was where Dr. Saliha Afridi says that “social media affects identity formation.” She continues by saying that identity formation is one of the parts of childhood that determines who you really are and who you want to become. But with the increasing usage of social media, children are being fed what their personalities and identities should be, such as what they should wear, what they should sound like, what they should look like, etc. 3. Hou, Yubo, et al. “Social Media Addiction: Its Impact, Mediation, and Intervention.” Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, vol. 13, no. 1, 2019. Crossref, doi:10.5817/cp2019-1-4. This study is interesting because it consists of two different studies. The first study exhibited the negative correlation between social media and mental health and academic performance. The second study consisted of preselected participants who showed higher levels of social media addiction and were asked to participate in a social media intervention. Overall, the social media intervention provided positive results as participants reported to have improved mental health, better self-esteem, as well as better sleep quality. The study seemed to prove the direct negative impacts of social media on the users mental health as participants with higher social media use reported to have more mental health instability as well as lower academic grades. However, through the one-week intervention program, there were improvements on the participants mental as well as physical well-being. 4. Richtel, Matt. “Children’s Screen Time Has Soared in the Pandemic, Alarming Parents and Researchers.” The New York Times, 18 Jan. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/health/covid-kids-tech-use.html?searchResultPosition=1. I chose this article as it was recent and more applicable to the reality we are living in right now, which is amid a pandemic. Although the article is not specifically directed at social media, it does describe the effects of too much screen time. It is relevant because during the climax of the pandemic, people were forced to stay indoors, leaving them with nothing to do but to resort to their screens for entertainment. I know that I have personally fallen victim to this as well, as my weekly screen time reports from my iPhone has more than doubled when compared to life before the pandemic. Even if it is not a phone/tablet screen, it could be a computer or TV screen that a pair of eyes could be attached to. 5. Mazhar, Nauman, et al. “A Study of Components of Behavioral Addiction to Social Media Use in Current Generation of Pakistani Youth.” Professional Medical Journal, vol. 27, no. 8, Nov. 2020, pp. 1680–1685. EBSCOhost, doi:10.29309/TPMJ/2020.27.08.4494. In this study, the researchers directly compare the effects of social media to behavioral addiction. The researchers found that almost half of the participants knew and were aware of their overuse of social media and could potentially be addicted to it. The researchers concluded that the sample population reported positive in components that also resemble addiction, and that the participants are aware of it as well. This is shocking to hear because so many people use social media, and they are even aware of their overuse. In a certain light, social media could be compared to substance abuse. 6. Mahamid, Fayez Azez, and Denise Ziya Berte. “Social Media Addiction in Geopolitically At-Risk Youth.” International Journal of Mental Health & Addiction, vol. 17, no. 1, Feb. 2019, pp. 102–111. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s11469-017-9870-8. I chose this article because from the start, the title drew my attention. The keyword that stood out to me was “at-risk youth”. These kids are considered to be “geopolitically at-risk” because they live in the West Bank of Palestine, notoriously known for political tensions with Israel. 47% of the youth exhibited addictive behavior, which is considered high when compared to studies conducted in other societies. After reading this study, I realized that this study could be applied to our lives as well. Of course, the US does not have the same amount or type of geopolitical tensions like it is in the West Bank. However, there are still a lot of political tensions within the US, especially in recent times. Political candidates have taken the fight onto social media, some even partnering with meme accounts to help spread their campaign with the younger generation. So it was interesting to see the similarities and differences. 7. Singh, Anjali, et al. “Stress and Social Networking Addiction among Adolescents in Bihar.” IAHRW International Journal of Social Sciences Review, vol. 8, no. 4–6, June 2020, pp. 182–187. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=146987429&site=ehost-live. This study is another confirmation for the correlation between social media and stress. An interesting aspect of this study was that it was conducted on participants aged 13 to 19, mostly high school students. This is a very vulnerable age for teenagers, as previously mentioned in another annotation. This is usually the age range where people find themselves and begin building a personality that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. So having yet another study confirm the relationship between stress and social media, especially in such a delicate age range, it is quite alarming. 8. Simsek, Ali, et al. “A Comparative Study on Social Media Addiction of High School and University Students.” Contemporary Educational Technology, vol. 10, no. 2, Apr. 2019, pp. 106–119. EBSCOhost, doi:10.30935/cet.554452. This study compares social media addiction between high school students and college students. Adding on to my previous annotation, the study was conducted on high school students. I chose this study in hope of finding a difference between the high school student’s development and a college student’s development. The study found that high school students have higher levels of social media addiction compared to college students. This goes hand-in-hand with the previous study I found, as high school students are in a very vulnerable age. As a result, they are likely resorting to social media for how they should develop as a person, and maybe even seeking approval from the internet on their own development.