A Comparative Study on effects of Social Media Addiction on Menta Health among Young and Middle-aged Adults
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63671/ijsssr.v4i1.583Keywords:
social media addiction, problematic social media use, mental health, young adults, middle-aged adultsAbstract
Social media addiction refers to behavioural addiction to excessive use of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok etc. which is driven by an uncontrollable urge to stay connected virtually. Mental health refers to a person’s emotional, psychological and social well-being. The present study compared social media addiction and mental health among young adults and middle-aged adults. Sixty participants were divided equally into young adults aged 18–25 years (n = 30) and middle-aged adults aged 30–50 years (n = 30). Young adults obtained M = 58.87, SD = 6.78, while middle-aged adults obtained M = 54.83, SD = 11.07. An independent-samples t test showed that the observed difference was not statistically significant, t (58) = 1.70, p = .094, 95% CI [−0.71, 8.78], d = 0.44. Thus, the t sscore of the data did not provide sufficient evidence of a difference between the two age groups, but the difference is shown in mean of the two groups.
References
Best, P., Manktelow, R., & Taylor, B. (2014). Online communication, social media and adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review. Children and Youth Services Review, 41, 27–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.03.001
Fardouly, J., Diedrichs, P. C., Vartanian, L. R., & Halliwell, E. (2015). Social comparisons on social media: The impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood. Body Image, 13, 38–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.12.002
Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). Social networking sites and addiction: Ten lessons learned. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(3), 311. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14030311
Naslund, J. A., Bondre, A., Torous, J., & Aschbrenner, K. A. (2020). Social media and mental health: Benefits, risks, and opportunities for research and practice. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, 5(3), 245–257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-020-00134-x
Nesi, J., & Prinstein, M. J. (2015). Using social media for social comparison and feedback-seeking: Gender and popularity moderate associations with depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 43(8), 1427–1438. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0020-0
Nesi, J. (2020). The impact of social media on youth mental health: Challenges and opportunities. North Carolina Medical Journal, 81(2), 116–121. https://doi.org/10.18043/ncm.81.2.116
Przybylski, A. K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C. R., & Gladwell, V. (2013). Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(4), 1841–1848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.02.014
Shannon, H., Bush, K., Villeneuve, P. J., Hellemans, K. G., & Guimond, S. (2022). Problematic social media use in adolescents and young adults: Systematic review and meta-analysis. JMIR Mental Health, 9(4), e33450. https://doi.org/10.2196/33450
Zsila, Á., & Reyes, M. E. S. (2023). Pros & cons: Impacts of social media on mental health. BMC Psychology, 11, 201. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01243-x
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Science and Social Science Research
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
