Impact on mental health
So, accepting that social media clearly plays an important part in our lives, how does it affect us and impact on our mental health?
According to Professor Jessica Vitak of the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, the relationship between social media and mental health is far too complex to suggest that it has blanket effects across users.
“We need to look at the context of use and individual factors such as existing mental state to begin to understand whether one’s use of social media will have a more positive or more negative effect,” she explains.
Regarded as an expert on social-media usage and its effect on people’s relationships, Dr Vitak’s master’s thesis entailed a survey of more than 600 Georgetown University undergraduates regarding their uses of various technologies, including Facebook, to interact with different members of their social networks.