Perks of social media:
- helps maintain relationships with family, friends, and or peers despite where they live
- sense of acceptance and belonging; decrease loneliness
- social outlet to create or market your brand; find opportunities
- meeting people (relationship, networking, recreational activities)
- communication method for socially anxious and shy individuals
- remain informed of news locally or globally
Social media use can result in a multitude of consequences; outcomes may vary from negative to positive. We are not implying that social media is the root of evil or is the direct cause of human distress. However, we wanted to open channels of new angles of thinking and insight in regards to the correlations between social media and mental health. According to a peer-reviewed systematic review and meta-analysis, though problematic social network sites or applications tends to influence psychological well-being of users over time, it may also be that mental illness' like depression and anxiety are what leads some folks into problematic use of social media (Marino, Gini, Vieno, and Spada, 2017, p. 280).
