Adolescents perception of social media as a source of information and its influence on mental health
Keywords:
Mental Health, Social Media, Adolescents, Information Resources.Abstract
Social media has become a major source of information for teens, but exposure to unfiltered content has the potential to affect mental health. It is feared that this will have psychological impacts, both positive and negative, experienced by adolescents in their daily lives. This study aims to describe adolescents' perception of social media as a source of information and its influence on mental health. The research uses a qualitative method with a field study approach. Data were collected through interviews and observations of 18-year-old adolescents who were active in social media, with purposive sampling techniques to select relevant informants. The study sample consisted of 150 adolescents in a high school setting, selected based on variations in the intensity of social media use and different social backgrounds. The results show that most teens view social media as a quick and easily accessible source of information, but doubt its credibility. The positive impact felt includes increased insight, ease of communication, and motivation to learn. However, negative impacts were also found in the form of anxiety, feelings of depression due to social comparisons, and sleep disturbances due to excessive use of social media. In conclusion, adolescents' perceptions of social media are strongly influenced by personal experiences and social environments, with significant impacts on mental health. The implications of this research encourage the need for digital literacy and psychosocial assistance so that adolescents can use social media in a healthy and wise way.
Keywords: Mental Health, Social Media, Adolescents, Information Resources.
Downloads
References
Andrade, E. D., Bolaños, R. R., Carmona, A. R., Palacios, P. R., Santillán, E. A., Gutiérrez, I. B., Pérez, D. V., & Thrasher, J. F. (2024). Factors Associated with Interpersonal Violence and Depression Symptoms in Adolescent Students from Jalisco during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Salud Mental, 47(5), 249–257. https://doi.org/10.17711/SM.0185-3325.2024.029
Bolinski, F., Kleiboer, A., Neijenhuijs, K., Karyotaki, E., Wiers, R., de Koning, L., Jacobi, C., Zarski, A. C., Weisel, K. K., Cuijpers, P., & Riper, H. (2022). Challenges in Recruiting University Students for Web-Based Indicated Prevention of Depression and Anxiety: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial (ICare Prevent). Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(12). https://doi.org/10.2196/40892
Chowdhury, A. H., Rad, D., & Rahman, M. S. (2024). Predicting anxiety, depression, and insomnia among Bangladeshi university students using tree-based machine learning models. Health Science Reports, 7(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.2037
Cuc, M. C. (2014). The Influence of Media on Formal and Informal Education. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 143, 68–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.359
Ehsan, H., Ramakee, A. W., Barakati, T., Yosufi, A., Azimi, S., Aminpoor, H., Eshraqi, A. M., Kamal, F., Ghazanfari, F., Ibrahimkhil, M. A., Nikyar, M. E., & Karimi, A. S. (2024). The Impact of Social Media in Afghanistan: A Multi-Disciplinary Study. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 17(July), 3121–3139. https://doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S468845
Fountoulakis, K. N., Karakatsoulis, G., Abraham, S., Adorjan, K., Ahmed, H. U., Alarcón, R. D., Arai, K., Auwal, S. S., Berk, M., Levaj, S., Bobes, J., Bobes-Bascaran, T., Bourgin-Duchesnay, J., Bredicean, C. A., Bukelskis, L., Burkadze, A., Abud, I. I. C., Castilla-Puentes, R., Cetkovich, M., … Smirnova, D. (2025). Treatment and long-term outcome of mental disorders: The grim picture from a quasi-epidemiological investigation in 54,826 subjects from 40 countries. Psychiatry Research, 348(March). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2025.116459
Hanor, J. (1991). Effects of technology on early art development. Education & Computing, 7(3–4), 167–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-9287(09)90004-8
Hordemann, G., & Chao, J. (2012). Design and implementation challenges to an interactive social media based learning environment. Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management, 7, 91–107. https://doi.org/10.28945/1579
Knihs de Camargo, C., Falkstedt, D., Pan, K. Y., Almroth, M., & Nevriana, A. (2024). Diagnoses of common mental disorders among social workers in Sweden: A register-based cohort study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 355(November 2023), 415–421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.03.170
Mental, G. B. D., & Collaborators, D. (2022). Global, regional, and national burden of 12 mental disorders in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. The Lancet Psychiatry, 9(2), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00395-3
Miranda, J., Navarrete, C., Noguez, J., Molina-Espinosa, J. M., Ramírez-Montoya, M. S., Navarro-Tuch, S. A., Bustamante-Bello, M. R., Rosas-Fernández, J. B., & Molina, A. (2021). The core components of education 4.0 in higher education: Three case studies in engineering education. Computers and Electrical Engineering, 93(June). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2021.107278
Misut, M., & Pribilova, K. (2015). Measuring of Quality in the Context of e-Learning. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 177(July 2014), 312–319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.02.347
Mohamad, I. N. F., Mubin, N. N. A., & Jusoh, A. J. (2024). The Role of Instagram in Promoting Mental Health Awareness and Help-Seeking Attitudes Among Malaysian University Students. Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication, 40(3), 417–433. https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2024-4003-24
Neuman, W. L. (2014). Pearson New International Edition Social research methods: Qualitative and Quantitative approaches. In Pearson. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Social-Research-Methods-Quantitative/dp/0205786839/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461496914&sr=1-5&keywords=social+research+methods+qualitative+and+quantitative+approaches
Nicolas Alarcón, C., Urrutia Sepúlveda, A., Valenzuela-Fernández, L., & Gil-Lafuente, J. (2018). Systematic mapping on social media and its relation to business. European Research on Management and Business Economics, 24(2), 104–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iedeen.2018.01.002
Nu Htay, M. N., Parial, L. L., Tolabing, M. C., Dadaczynski, K., Okan, O., Man Leung, A. Y., & Su, T. T. (2022). Digital health literacy, online information-seeking behaviour, and satisfaction of Covid-19 information among the university students of East and South-East Asia. PLoS ONE, 17(4 April), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266276
Roefs, A., Fried, E. I., Kindt, M., Martijn, C., Elzinga, B., Evers, A. W. M., Wiers, R. W., Borsboom, D., & Jansen, A. (2022a). A new science of mental disorders: Using personalised, transdiagnostic, dynamical systems to understand, model, diagnose and treat psychopathology. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 153(March), 104096. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2022.104096
Roefs, A., Fried, E. I., Kindt, M., Martijn, C., Elzinga, B., Evers, A. W. M., Wiers, R. W., Borsboom, D., & Jansen, A. (2022b). A new science of mental disorders: Using personalised, transdiagnostic, dynamical systems to understand, model, diagnose and treat psychopathology. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 153(April), 104096. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2022.104096
Sunday, O. J., Adesope, O. O., & Maarhuis, P. L. (2021). The effects of smartphone addiction on learning: A meta-analysis. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 4(December 2021), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100114
Ummah, M. S. (2019). No 主観的健康感を中心とした在宅高齢者における 健康関連指標に関する共分散構造分析Title. In Sustainability (Switzerland) (Vol. 11, Issue 1). http://scioteca.caf.com/bitstream/handle/123456789/1091/RED2017-Eng-8ene.pdf?sequence=12&isAllowed=y%0Ahttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2008.06.005%0Ahttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/305320484_SISTEM_PEMBETUNGAN_TERPUSAT_STRATEGI_MELESTARI
van der Mheen, M., Zijlmans, J., van der Doelen, D. M., Klip, H., van der Lans, R. M., Ruisch, I. H., Anna de Vries, Y., Tieskens, J. M., Wildschut, M., Buitelaar, J. K., Hoekstra, P. J., Lindauer, R. J. L., Popma, A., Vermeiren, R., Broek, E. M., Dekkers, T. J., Dietrich, A., Hein, I. M., Luman, M., … Polderman, T. J. C. (2024). Patterns of Mental Disorders in a Large Child Psychiatric Sample (65,363): A DREAMS Study. JAACAP Open, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaacop.2024.06.007
Walliman, N. (n.d.). Research_Methods_The_Basics_Nicholas.
