Student’s Name

Professor’s Name

Course

Date

The psychological effects of social media

1.0  Introduction

The harmful influence of the continued utilization of social networking sites is well documented, with various studies pointing out that social networks such as Facebook pose a risk to the users’ mental and emotional state (Bell, 63). According to a survey conducted by Greitemeyer (251), there is a correlation between the prolonged use of social media networks and the development of psychological disorders. This argument is supported by Bell (63) who acknowledges that various studies have linked the rise in symptoms of eating, depression and anxiety disorders to online connections. The research on the psychological effects of social media is still in the early stages because online connections are continually evolving and changing resulting in the incompletion of long-term studies. However, based on the already conducted research there is enough data to depict how online connections occur in the development of psychological disorders. For example, social media users who spent prolonged time on the different platforms are susceptible to the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

2.0  Psychological disorders associated with prolonged use of social media

2.1 Social media anxiety disorder

This is one of the most common psychological disorders affecting social media users. According to Greitemeyer (251), technology advancement is accompanied by instances of increased stress to its users, for example, Facebook and Twitter users get anxious any moment they fail to access their accounts. Social anxiety is among the most common psychological disorders affecting American citizens. Bell (65) asserts that various experts have explained that more than 20% of social media users fail to go more than three hours without accessing their accounts on the different social networking sites. Majority of social media users can go for more than five minutes without checking for notifications on their social media accounts and fail to feel nervous or stressed out. Nonetheless, this is not the case among social media users with a social media anxiety disorder who experience severe anxiety for failing to access their social media accounts even for a few minutes. The following are notable symptoms of social media anxiety disorder:

i.        Severe anxiety upon failure to check for notifications on social media accounts.

ii.      Conversations interruptions for one to check their social media accounts.

GET THE WHOLE PAPER!