CMST 2RA3 Deliverable 2 - Podcast on Adult Social Media Use in Correlation to Adult Mental Wellness

Social media has both positive and negative effects on adult mental wellness. It can promote insecurity, especially through the pressure to keep up with trends and portray a perfect life. Many adults, especially people of color, experience racial discrimination on social media, which negatively impacts their mental wellness. Social media addiction is also prevalent and affects productivity and life quality. Studies support these findings, showing that exposure to ideal body images on social media leads to body dissatisfaction, and excessive social media use is linked to negative self-perception and cyberbullying. The effects of social media on mental wellness are significant and need to be addressed. Hello and welcome to the podcast. Today we're going to be talking about social media in regards to adult mental wellness. So social media has become a common part of modern life with billions of people around the world using platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Twitter to connect with others, share information and express themselves. While social media has many positive aspects such as providing connection and providing a platform for creativity, there is a growing evidence that it can also have a negative effect on mental wellness. Today's podcast will explore the correlation between social media use and adult mental wellness and my research project on this subject. I will be analyzing and speaking about research in regards to this topic. I have conducted a survey which asked 54 adults who use social media how it has impacted their mental wellness. I have also analyzed five academic sources in regards to social media and adult mental wellness. While conducting this research project, my question was, how have social media apps contributed to or worsened general mental well-being in adults? Through this research project, I dived into this question and what I found has been very interesting. Through my findings and analysis of research, I find there are three major ways that social media use in adults 18 and up is contributing to or worsening general adult mental well-being. Firstly, social media promotes insecurity in adults and is a breeding ground for it, which in turn dramatically impacts adult mental wellness. Secondly, many adults experience racial discrimination on social media versus content which showcases this. This directly impacts mental wellness of adults who are people of color. Lastly, social media addiction is prevalent and it impacts youth productivity and the life quality of adults, which in turn impacts their mental wellness. Mental illness of adults is important and the issue we will be exploring in today's podcast is also important. The use of social media will only grow as we are becoming more and more technology-based in society as the years progress. It is important we shed light on this issue of social media use and the correlation it has with the negative decline in adult mental wellness because the more we know about an issue, the more we can do to resolve it. So let's get into breaking down what I have found. I conducted a survey to see if adults responded to the survey. The survey was titled, if you are an adult who uses social media, how has it impacted your mental wellness? To be specific, the survey asked adults who use social media the following questions. A. A long answer question asking, how has using social media impacted your mental wellness? B. A yes or no question asking, have you felt discriminated against on social media due to your race and or culture and did this impact your mental wellness negatively? C. A multiple choice question with the options positively or negatively asking, has social media impacted your mental wellness more negatively or positively? D. A multiple choice question with the options Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook asking, which popular social media platform impacts your mental wellness the most? And lastly, E. A long answer question asking, is there anything else you would like to add? What I found from the answers to the first question, how has using social media impacted your mental wellness, provided from the survey, was that people's mental wellness has been significantly impacted by social media. Adults answering the survey reported that the constant pressure to keep up with trends and to portray a cool life has also drained their visuals, creating feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. Scrolling through feeds of perfect lives, filtered photos, and unrealistic expectations has left many feeling overwhelmed and insecure with decreased self-esteem. Notifications and the constant need for validation has created insecurity and anxiety. Also, distracting individuals from important tasks or relationships. Comparing oneself to others has also left many feeling like they are constantly behind or not doing enough, negatively impacting their mental wellness and self-esteem, according to the survey. This primary research is similar to what I found from my secondary research. Specifically, the article, Media Exposure of the Ideal Physique on Women's Body Dissatisfaction and Mood, the Moderating Effects of Ethnicity. This was published in the Journal of Black Studies in 2010. Authors are Nirmala Sivagangsa and Heather A. Hasenblatt. The study in this article talks about the relationship between media exposure to the ideal physique and women's body dissatisfaction and mood, and the potential moderating effects of ethnicity. The author proposes that the societal ideal of a thin and toned physique has portrayed in the media may contribute to negative body image and mood among women. The study discovered that exposure to images of the perfect body in the media was positively correlated with body dissatisfaction and defective symptoms, Sivagangsa, Hasenblatt, 2010. Additionally, an academic journal article titled, Association of Social Media Use with Social Well-Being, Positive Mental Health, and Self-Related Health, Disentangling Routine Use from Emotional Connection to Use. The article was published in the Journal of Health Education and Behavior in 2019. The study discussed in the article examines the connection between social well-being and good mental health and self-related health and usage of social media. The survey found that social media can be harmful to adult mental wellness by creating more social comparison, cyberbullying, distorted realities, exposure to discrimination, and negative self-perception, DiCarlo, et al., 2019. The survey also suggested many experience negative effects on their mental wellness due to social media's anonymous nature. It is easier for cruel and abusive remarks to be made which can be detrimental to adult mental wellness. It was also reported that seeing content which showed discrimination against people of color negatively affected their mental health. Some have reported being openly discriminated against on the grounds of race and have been told that their ethnic features or body type do not match the beauty standard. This tied into a theory we learned in class called Orientalism. The term Orientalism was coined by Edward Said in a 1978 book, Orientalism. The theme describes the historical representation and construction of the East by the West, primarily through cultural, political, and economic dominance. According to Said, Orientalism is a tool of knowledge and power that upholds the West's superiority over the East. A lot of the experiences that, from what I can presume from these answers, people of color have reported that their experience on social media in relation to mental wellness tells me that Orientalism is still prevalent to this day. The superiority of the West over the East has a negative impact on the mental wellness of people of color, adults, because constantly being told a certain group of individuals is better than you through derogatory comments or even because of a made-up beauty standard promotes feelings of depression and even anxiety. A scholarly source I analyzed for research which matched these findings was the article, Social Integration and the Mental Health of Black Adolescents, which was published in the journal Child Development in 2014. The authors of the study are Tawanda Rose, Son Cho, Joseph Shields, and Cleopatra H. Caldwell. Although I am researching adults, I analyzed this topic because the youth being affected would become adults too, and these effects will continue to play out into their adulthood. The article speaks on how there is a high link between mental health in black adolescents and social integration. As we know, social media is a huge part of the social lives of young people. The social integration of black youth definitely becomes hindered when they see discrimination and experience discrimination on these obscenities and reasons mentioned above. This directly impacts their mental wellness, even into adulthood. The study conducted in the article found that higher levels of social integration were associated with better mental health outcomes for black adolescents. With reported experiences of people of color in my survey and adults saying that discrimination on social media has negatively impacted their mental wellness, information aligns with what I found in this source, because most adults using social media have been using it since childhood. Additionally, adults reported that social media can be a constant source of distraction and some even feel addicted, leading to decreased productivity and disruptive sleep patterns which made them feel more upset and irritated throughout their day. In a secondary source, I analyzed an article called Excessive Dependence on Mobile Social Apps, a Rational Addiction Perspective. It was published on the journal Information Systems Research in 2016. The authors of the study are Hugh Eager-Kwong, Han-Seo Seo, Seng Pil-Han, and Won-Seok Oh. This work speaks on social media addiction in adults and the authors of the study. From the standpoint of a rational addict, the study dives into the over-dependence on mobile social apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. According to the authors, rational addiction is a condition in which people repeatedly choose to use a substance or engage in certain behaviors despite knowing that doing so will have unfavorable effects on them. According to the study, rational addiction was positively connected with excessive reliance on mobile social apps. Particularly, people who believed using social media apps would be more beneficial were more likely to show excessive dependency even when there were negative effects. The answers to the multiple choice questions were in support of the experience adult users of social media shared in the first long answers. The information that I gathered from my question C, a yes or no question asking, Have you felt discriminated against on social media due to your race, gender, culture, and did this impact your mental wellness negatively, was at 53% of survey takers answered yes. The information that I gathered from question C, a multiple choice question with the options positively or negatively asking, Has social media impacted your mental wellness more negatively or positively, was at 79.6% answered negatively. From question D, a multiple choice question with the options Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook asking, Which popular social media platform impacts your mental wellness the most? I gathered that 44.4% answered Instagram, 31.5% answered TikTok, 13% Twitter, 9.3% YouTube, and 1.9% Facebook. Lastly, with question E, a long answer question asking, Is there anything else you would like to add? I gathered similar answers to the first long answer question, with adults mentioning that social media can be very addicting, fear-mongering, show lack of representation for Asian women, and that it can heavily influence their thoughts and beliefs on topics and even lead them to feeling that they have to conform to those thoughts and beliefs being pushed out. To conclude this podcast, I just want to say that everything gathered from the survey I conducted and from my secondary research I collected. My research question, How have social media apps contributed to or worsened general mental well-being in adults, has been answered. Social media has contributed to and worsened general mental well-being in adults by creating insecurity, through racial discrimination experience, slash witness by people of color, and through the addictive factor of these apps leading to social media addiction and overuse. Thank you for listening, and I hope you all have a great day and take some time to think about what we talked about today. Goodbye.