There are many positive and negative attributes about how social media affects our emotional wellness. Social media has been a great platform for young adults and youth to showcase their interests and has made communication so much easier and quicker. According to the Mental Health Foundation, social media “has helped young people to explore new ideas as well as to build resilience as they learn to recognize and manage risks.” Social media allows for possibly socially awkward or shy youth to interact and find people with similar interests as themselves. Social media could increase our self-confidence in this way. Academic and anthropology researchers have discovered the positive and negative factors of the phycological affect that social media has played in our lives. According to http://www.webfly.com, some pros discovered include; several bloggers feel closer to their online friends,people feel more connected which could contribute to overall happiness and social media could also bring us together by making communities of similar interests. Social media also provides a platform for citizens to voice their opinions and easily share information. This could be a positive or negative effect. Other negative phycological factors could be the overuse of social media which could cause narcissistic tendencies in users, decreasing social skills in person, and studies have shown that social networks can have a negative impact on learning due to distractions and frequent use.
For more information and statistics of the uprising negatives and positive effects of social media, you can visit the websites below for more information:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4183915/
Even newspapers have recognized the effects of social media and presented them to the public:
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/16/social-media-mental-health-teenagers-government-pshe-lessons
The National Post: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/is-social-media-harming-our-mental-health-researchers-wonder
Emotional Wellness 