Negative Impact of Social Networks on Human Well-Being

Social media are websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. Social media statistics from 2019 indicate 3.2 billion active social media users worldwide which is equal to 42% of the current population. (Globalwebindex, 2018) states that an average person spends approximately 2 hours and 22 minutes on social networks per day. Subjective well-being is defined as “a broad category of phenomena that includes people’s emotional responses, domain satisfactions, and global judgments of life satisfaction”. A more recent definition describes that subjective well-being consists of three elements: life evaluation, affect, and eudaimonia.

Media use consumes a substantial amount of time sacrificing valuable activities such as face-to-face communication between friends, family and other peers without providing appropriate functions for facilitating social relations, thereby limiting actual social encounters. Such displacement leads users to a negative sense of subjective well-being. (Kim, LaRose, & Peng, 2009) states that lonely individuals who find media to combat their issue of social isolation often end up aggravating their isolation further. Direct human contact has long served as an important means of forming societies. So, the absence of this means an individual loses opportunities to approach rewards (connectedness) and fails to avoid threats (isolation).

Social networking sites (SNS) have revolutionized modern communication drastically and have become rapidly integrated into daily life, which has significantly changed the forms of communication, with more of individuals social lives taking place online than ever before. As previous studies have shown that social relationships are an important determinant of subjective well-being, it is important to understand the effect SNS use has on subjective well-being. Social networking sites are online environments which enable users to create a public profile and connect with other users. This connection allows SNS users to easily share information, messages, pictures and life events. Of the SNS available, Facebook is by far the most popular with 71% of all American adult internet users reporting that they have a Facebook account (Pew Research Center, 2014). While social connection is the main characteristic of all SNS, each SNS has its own additional feature which can impact how the site is used, therefore, each SNS may affect subjective well-being differently. An experimental study found that individuals assigned to passively scroll through Facebook (as opposed to those who actively post and comment) reported lower levels of well-being and more envy, indicating not only that Facebook impacts mental health however also the way in which individuals engage with Facebook matters.

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Previous studies which focused on social comparison on social media have investigated how it relates to subjective well-being, such as depressive symptoms, body image, as well as envy. These studies find that social comparison affects the user negatively. Social comparison has also been found to mediate the relationship between time spent on social media and depressive symptoms. Therefore, users who compare themselves to their peers on social media in a negative light will have lower subjective well-being than users who compare themselves in a positive light. This is validated within a recent study which investigated how the impact of social media use on life satisfaction declined over time (Kross et al., 2013). In a large population based study, Twenge and colleagues (Twenge, Joiner, Rogers, & Martin, 2017) found that time spent on screen activities was significantly correlated with more depressive symptoms. Therefore it is clear to state that it is possible that individuals with lower self-esteem or poorer self-image are more prone to engage in social comparison. This is supported by Young and Rodgers as they argued that a depressive person, with low self-esteem, a fear of rejection, low motivation, and a high need for acceptance by others, is more likely to use the Internet dysfunctionally. This is further shown throughout statistics which prove Facebook and Instagram usage link to symptoms of depression, both directly and indirectly. Higher usage of Facebook has been found to be associated with lower self-esteem and loneliness. Higher usage of Instagram is correlated with body image issues. This is deleterious upon individuals subjective well-being because people are known to use social media not just for communication but also as a way of seeking attention. For this reason, social media profiles tend to contain the positive or impressive aspects of people's lives. Profiles are mostly ‘highlight reels’ rather than accurate reflections of people's lives and, since there is no real-world interaction, users are unable to gauge non-verbal signals which might contradict the tone of posts, meaning users can be unaware that they are seeing a distorted version of the truth thus, comparing themselves to images that are unrealistic. Social media sites can encourage us to engage in negative or un-invited social comparisons which make us feel bad. One study showed that the longer someone has had a Facebook account for, the more likely they are to believe that life is unfair, and that other people's lives are better or happier than their own (Chou & Edge, 2012). Interestingly, there is a positive correlation between time spent on Facebook and levels of depression, regardless of whether users assess that they are doing ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than other people. These studies imply that people will have a more realistic view of other people if they reduce online communication and increase real-life interactions.

Recent research has suggested that high engagement in social networking is due to the ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO). FOMO is “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent”. Higher levels of FOMO have been associated with greater engagement with Facebook, lower mood/well-being/life satisfaction, mixed feelings when using social media, and dangerous SNS use (i.e., in university lectures, and or whilst driving). In addition to this, research suggests that FOMO predicts problematic SNS use and is associated with social media addiction, as measured with a scale adapted from the Internet Addiction Test.

The accessibility of smartphones has been identified as a key factor in excessive internet use (EIU) thereby, consistent social media usage. Compulsive engagement with a smartphone is likened to an array of behavioural addictions and has a detrimental effect on an individuals subjective wellbeing. It is associated with decreased academic performance, life satisfaction and academic success, heightened levels of perceived stress and decreased quality of sleep. One thematic analysis on social media use highlights a number of shared stressors, including negative emotions such as ‘aggravation’ caused by the onslaught of ‘unwanted content’, and feelings of ‘no privacy’, with users feeling unable to unsubscribe. Relationship stressors included arguments regarding who partners were speaking to online, while other negative outcomes included feelings of inferiority or jealousy, by users negatively comparing their lives to the online lives of others. These qualitative findings are supported by many quantitative research pieces showing that, for example, subjective wellbeing declines in both the short and the long term. In adolescents incidents of cyber-bullying, social isolation/comparison as well as depression are reported impacts of social online engagement on mental wellbeing.

Finally, throughout the repeated evidence stated above within numerous articles and journals, it is definitive to come to the conclusion that the negative effects which social media place onto an individuals subject well-being is crucial and detrimental to one’s emotional, physical and psychological state as well as their overall human behaviour (interactions). This is due to the effects which social media places upon oneself such as social comparison and social isolation leading to depression, loneliness and a lowered self-esteem.