Methodology
A survey was done by using Google Forms. The form was made and circulated over Facebook pages, WhatsApp Groups, and Twitter. This study's sample consisted of social media users aged 18 to 30. From November 1 to 30, 2021. Everyone who wanted to participate was welcome to do so. The sample size for this study was 100 people, with 71 completing the survey.
The following questions were asked:
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Section A:
This section consisted of questions related to one’s self-esteem. One had to respond by selecting a number on a scale of 1 – 5; with 5 being affirmative and 1 being negative.
- I believe that I am a valuable person, at least on an equal footing with others.
- I believe I possess several positive characteristics.
- Overall, I am inclined to believe that I am a failure.
- I can accomplish most things as well as most other individuals.
- I don't think I have much to be proud of
- I have a positive attitude toward myself
- I am generally satisfied with myself
- I wish I could have more respect for myself
- I surely feel useless at times
- At times, I believe I am no good at all
Section B:
This section consisted of short response questions regarding one’s relationships.
- How well do people cater to your requirements?
- How pleased are you with your relationships in general?
- How frequently do you wish you hadn't become involved with the people in your social circle?
- Do you have any issues in your relationships?
- Are you able to open up to people very easily?
- Do you have at least one true non-exploitative relationship?
- Do you feel jealous of other people’s achievements?
- Do you have negative emotions towards the posts or content put out by people in your social circle on social media?
Section C:
This section consisted of short response questions regarding one’s social media usage.
- Why do you utilize social media?
- How much time do you spend on social media every day?
- How much time do you spend on social media in one go?
- Do you find yourself unnecessarily scrolling your feed in a very subconscious or passive manner? If yes, why do you think you do so?
- Does your use of social media influence your emotions? If so, how?
- How does your use of social media affect your relationships? If so, how?
- Describe what it would be like to go a week without using your cell phone or accessing any social networking sites.
Results and Discussion
This study had a sample size of 71 people. Few questions were objective but most questions were short responses or subjective We had two hypotheses in our minds before going through the responses and deducing the results. They were:
- More time spent on social media results in a decline in the overall quality of the user’s interpersonal interactions.
- Greater time spent on social media will result in a decline in the user's overall emotional well-being.
- We went through all the responses and tried to deduce conclusions that either supported our hypotheses or rejected them.
The responses we got confirmed that people who spent more time on social media had lower-quality interpersonal interactions, therefore indicating that the 1st hypothesis was fully supported. The more time an individual spends on social media, the lower the quality of their connections This complements the findings of Kerkhof et al. (2011), who discovered that those with high compulsive Internet use had lower offline relationship quality. In our study, people who had a social media use of more than 2 hours reported having unfulfilling relationships. Another interesting thing that we deduced from the responses was that very few people (irrespective of their social media usage), to be precise - just 2 out of 71 claimed to have a true non-exploitative relationship. This was quite shocking and troubling considering humans being social animals are not able to have a single true relationship.
The responses that we got also confirmed that social media does play a role in the user's unfavorable feelings and moods. This supported our 2nd hypothesis. This demonstrated that individuals who spent more time on social media had a lower level of emotional well-being.
Participants who spent 30 minutes or more on social media at a go showed the highest drop in emotional well-being.
Coming to the responses to the question “ Describe what it would be like to go a week without using your cell phone or accessing any social networking sites”, the majority of participants, roughly 67 percent had responses which more or less said that they would love to experience a digital detox of this form, but they aren’t ready and experience FOMO before taking such decisions.
From our study, we can observe that when a person spends an inordinate amount of time on social media, they are likely to suffer diminished emotional well-being, which contributes to a deterioration in the quality of their relationships. Long lengths of time spent on social media hurt a person's emotions. After a person has finished using social media, they take their unpleasant emotions with them, which influences how the user interacts with others offline. This encounter is not always bad, but the quality of that interaction is lower than it could have been because the user's negative emotions from their social media use influenced that interaction. Seo et al. (2016) discovered comparable findings in their study, demonstrating that a person who developed a cell phone addiction suffered higher despair, which hurt their social ties with friends.
Conclusion
This study looked at how the use of social media affects the user's emotional well-being as well as their interpersonal interactions. It is natural for us as social beings to want to interact with those around us, and social media has certainly made this simpler. However, as this study has demonstrated, social networking is not without its drawbacks. The qualitative findings of this study, which are supported by quantitative data, give persuasive evidence that social media use has more negative repercussions than benefits. The data suggest that unless we take appropriate steps to become more aware of how our social media use affects us and what we can do to address those issues, we will likely develop negative habits and plunge ourselves into a state of deeper emotional distress by passively allowing our health and relationships to deteriorate.
This study verifies recent research on uses and gratifications theory, social media effects, and relationship difficulties, but it also provides additional data that may extend previous research beyond previous bounds to demonstrate that social media play a part in the development of addictive behaviors. Social media is likely generating a society of junkies. The question that every social media user should ask is, 'How can we determine if our social media use is excessive, or if it has become an addiction for us?' This may necessitate taking a break from social media for a short period and taking stock of our lives to better see what needs social media has been gratifying and then deciding whether to continue using social media to fill those needs or to seek out alternative sources of gratification that are more lasting.
Future research should look into how addictive behaviors are formed or reinforced as a result of excessive social media use. Future studies should look into the optimal amount of time spent on social media. Is there a healthy balance between using social media excessively and not using it at all? If there is, what is it, and can limiting the amount of time we spend on social media influence whether or not it becomes an addiction?
One final perspective for this research study is that social media are still relatively new to the world, and as this phenomenon develops, only ongoing research and time will be able to discern what is genuinely happening to mankind in the next few years.
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