SOCIAL MEDIA USE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION

A Senior Seminar Paper

Presented to Faculty of the Department of English School of Arts & Humanities Ferrum College Ferrum, Virginia

In Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts

By

Micaela Alexandria Reddick

May 2018

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APPROVAL SHEET

This senior seminar paper is submitted in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Bachelor of Arts

Micaela Alexandria Reddick

Approved, December 2017

Lana A. Whited, Ph.D., Senior Seminar Professor

M. Katherine Grimes, Ph.D., English Program Coordinator

Angie Dahl, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology

______Mingxiao Sui, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Media and Communication

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HONOR BOARD POLICY COMPLIANCE STATEMENT

This senior seminar paper is submitted in compliance with the policies of the Ferrum College Honor Board.

Author (Full name)

Date

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ACKKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I’d like to express my deepest appreciation to my mother, Karin McKinney. My mother has been my rock every since I can remember and I’m so thankful for her.

Through the tough times we endured, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel and

I’m so happy God chose you to be my mother. To my grandmother who has been the light of my life ever since I can remember, I hope I am making you proud and I can’t wait to hand you my degree and remind you of how much you have meant to me throughout my life. To my Senior thesis committee, Dr. Grimes, Dr. Sui, and Dr. Dahl, thank you for your hard work and patience in working with me on my project.

I also would like to thank Dr. Whited for providing me so much help outside of the classroom and always thinking outside of the box with everything and anything that you do. To my professor, Dr. Grimes, thank you for making me second guess majoring in English and telling me that it will be the hardest but the best major all in the same sentence. I’m extremely grateful for the way you teach the classroom; the passion you have for all of your students succeed is something that warms my heart every time I walk into a classroom of yours. Your passion for including your family and your children into lessons are always a joy to listen too. and makes me feel like you are my professor at first, but then a friend as well. Words can’t express how much love I have for Ferrum College and the community. Ferrum is home and I’m glad Ferrum has molded me into the person I am today.

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to showcase how social media usage influences users’ anxiety and depression. Through research, social media has impacted users psychologically and made them question their identity. To some extent, social media users employ the Internet to communicate and socialize with their “friends.” The social media platforms to be researched includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and dating sites. By synthesizing scholarly research though this research paper, the paper highlights the importance of social media usage and it’s effect through some of the user’s eyes.

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SOCIAL MEDIA USE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION

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Introduction

In 2012, MTV dedicated a reality television show about people who impersonate other people due to fear of being themselves because they are unhappy with their real-life identities. The show is called Catfish Nev Schulman and Max Joesph are two males who created this show to catch people who pretend to be someone else on social media sites. “Catfish” is a term used for someone who uses a fake identity on social network sites to hide their real identity.

The idea of distorting an individual’s identity to some degree in hope of receiving or be accepted by very common, mainly because everyone wants to be accepted in either a person or a group of people. This is true for people who suffer from situational depression, a phenomenon that Barbara B. Meyer and Jack E. Hokanson says refers to “withdrawal and socially unresponsive expresses statements of negative content and tone, including sadness, pessimism, helplessness, and self-devaluation”

(29). The need for self-esteem often motivates them to reconstruct or redefine their social identity on social media sites to make users seem more attractive.

Social media sites make it easier and more convenient to hide behind a computer screen; however, it increases social anxiety and the fear of going out to meet people. Social media users are more likely to fabricate or alter their images, profiles, interests, and other characteristics to create a completely new identity. In this way, the construction of a virtual identity on social media arises because of the obsessiveness of needing to be on the Internet to connect to people and cope with situational depression and social anxiety. 8

The effect of constructing a virtual identity via social media on depression is not yet well examined. This study examines why and how social media and to demonstrate that social media users are more likely to fabricate or alter their image on social media to cope with their situational depression and social anxiety. Specifically, it asks are social media users better off using social media to cope with their issues or completely exiting the Internet instead? My findings and conclusion are based on why people with depression are drawn to social media and how social media impacts their issues.

Situational Depression

Situational Depression, according to Elements Behavioral Health, is an event that overwhelms your normal life such as “surviving a serious accident, experiencing a major illness, or even marriage or the birth of a child” (1). It is common for people with situational depression to not have adapted to the changes in their life, however; instead eventually changes their “mental state for a certain time roughly 90 days” (1).

Situational depression varies for every individual; some common symptoms can include listlessness, feelings of hopelessness, sleeping difficulties, sadness, unfocused anxiety, loss of concentration, and in some cases a person might develop suicidal thoughts.

Though closely related, situational and clinical depression is two different things. According to Elements Behavioral Health, “individuals with clinical depression are more mentally or psychologically “ill” than situational depression” (1). For example, clinical depression has at least five depression symptoms simultaneously, which disables people to participate in their normal routines. Clinical depression patients’ brains are also imbalanced and are easily influenced to heavy drug use and 9 alcohol. By contrast Elements Behavioral Health says, “situational depression often disappears on it’s own if in mild cases, or if steps are taken to ensure wellness of the individual” (1). For example, an episode of Catfish, in season six, episode three involves Danny and Rosa. Danny was interested in a beautiful Puerto Rican princess named Rosa, the two met on Facebook. Danny and Rosa talks everyday for six months, and Danny soon realizes he wants to start a life and build a family with Rosa. However, he does not have any face-to-face interaction with Rosa until he reaches out to Nev and

Max wanting answers. Nev and Max unveil that Rosa is really Jose, a gay Hispanic male who used his fake profile and pictures to help with his depression and bullying.

Although, Danny and “Rosa” talk on the phone, Jose disguises his voice to sound like a female.

As a result, Jose needed someone to talk to and instead of talking to him using his own picture, he created Rosa because he knew men would be attracted to someone so beautiful. Jose felt like he was inadequate to attract anyone and even contemplated killing himself because he is gay and felt alone. In their article, “Online and Social

Media Suicide Prevention Interventions for Young People,” Simon Rice and other researchers, argue “social media does have an impact on young people: Recent systematic re-views have highlighted the potential effectiveness of online and social media-based interventions for young people at risk of suicide” (Rice et al., 2014a;

Robinson et al., 2015b).

Jose struggled with situational depression and used social media sites like

Facebook to cope with his depression. Elements Behavioral Health has steps on their website to help people get through their situational depression, such as exercising 10 regularly, eating a well-balanced diet, and having a regular sleeping schedule. At the end of Jose’s episode of Catfish, Nev and Max give a two-month update on Jose, and he tells them that he has been working out and comes out of his home more often.

Study of Social Media and It’s Influence on Depression

Liu et. al did a study on “Association Between Social Media Use and

Depression Among U.S. Young Adults.” Liu and his colleagues surveyed 1,787 adults ages 19 to 32 about their use of their social media and their depression levels. These researchers measured their participants’ social media use by looking at their visits per week on their social media sites. The participation depression levels were used on a 4- item scale developed by the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information

System (PROMIS). Liu et. al says, “Use of social media sites such as Facebook and

Twitter has particularly increased among young adults, who are at critical junctures surrounding developmental tasks such as identity development and establishment of social norms” (324). In their study, they found that “90% of teenagers and young adults use these social media accounts either on their personal computers or on their cell phones for easier access” (1).

Researchers had participants complete an online survey including questions dealing with depression and social media use. They asked questions such as, in the past week how have participants felt after social media usage did they experience any depression including feeling hopeless, worthless, or depressed. Participants were scored on a 5- point scale to responses such as “Never,” “Rarely,” “Sometimes,” “Often,” and

“Always.” Participants were revealed to be 50.3% female, 57.5% white, 13.0% African

American, 20.6% Hispanic, and 8.9% biracial/multiracial or other. 44.5% of the 11 participants reported no indicators of depression and were placed in a “low” group, but

26.3% of the participants were classified as “high” and 29.2% were classified as

“medium” group. 55.5% of the participants are slightly to medium depressed because of social media use.

The study proved increased in social media usage does effect teenagers and young adults of their moods and perhaps their daily lives. Liu et. al findings showed

“the substantial rise in the amount of time young individuals spend on the Internet, particularly on social media has led some ‘internet addition’” (328). The increased

Internet time can be related to cyber-bullying or conversations between a crush that can increase depression depending on how conversations are going. Acceptance is something everyone wants, whether it is from a group or a person. Unfortunately, some of the flaws may lead to suicidal thoughts, and during severe times, even death. Lin and others argue that, “Other studies. . . indicate that frequent use of social media may be associated with declines in subjective well-being, life satisfaction, and real life community” (342).

Social media has become an outlet for young adults and teenagers to express themselves instead, in some cases, of harming themselves in certain situations. Social media users’ depression levels are tested daily with the amount of time they are on these sites. Depression is a serious issue; clinically, this study proves to be effective in social media usage.

Study of Social Media and It’s Influence on Social Anxiety

Julia Levitan did a study on “Social Media Use as a Predictor of Personality”

Her study examined the relationship between social media use and personality. The link 12 exists between social media use and distinct facts of personality, such as social anxiety.

Her participants were fifty-eight percent male and female students at a Canadian university completed a questionnaire that was completely voluntary.

This study sought to analyze social media use and three factors: extraversion, social anxiety, and social engagement. The type of questions asked were like, “Do you have a Facebook account,” etc. Levitan’s results concluded that overall participants displayed relatively high social engagement. Although, Levitan’s study couldn’t detect social anxiety connected with social media because social media continues to evolve.

However, social media sites like Facebook and Instagram have become major tools for users to become obsessed with image, and social anxiety could play a factor. Levitan says, “In the meantime, the world of social media has become more invasive and more susceptible for the same pressures” (82). She concluded with her advice that further research needs to be done about social media use and social anxiety to find answers or possible leads to finding the answer.

Lastly, the study discussed the topic of always being competitive on social media sites with social media users always needing to “up each other.” For example, if two females post a picture in their swim suit with cleavage and full makeup, each girl competes to see who will receive the most likes. Although Levitan’s study didn’t conclude with a solution to social media usage linked to social anxiety; the study did conclude that social media has a factor in social anxiety in image obsessiveness.

Lee Farquhar and Theresa Davidson did a study specifically on social media site Facebook, “Facebook Frets: The Role of Social Media Use in Predicting Social and

Facebook-Specific Anxiety.” Farquhar and Davidson measured Facebook users 13 experience anxiety due to self-presentations to their network. These researchers examined specifically if Facebook increases anxiety by intensity use of the social media site and the conflict experienced during Facebook use.

In December 2013, Facebook reportedly had 1.23 billion users; and a lot of these users were college students. Facebook has impacted users’ social lives either positively or negatively, influencing cyber-bullying which increases anxiety or uploading pictures to influence confidence within the user. Social anxiety has been connected to lower-well being, and Facebook is a social media site to encourage users to meet other people. However, Farquhar and Davidson said nasty comments online may increase substance abuse and “for a college student who may be away from home for the first time, experiencing new friend and new activities, and already working to adjust to the general stresses of college life” (9). Throughout research, researchers have concluded that social anxiety increases Internet use because users want to avoid face- to-face interaction. Using the Internet to replace interaction physically makes users who have anxiety feel better.

Anxiety has a better chance of becoming recognized on Facebook because of the quickness to responding to other users. Another habit is obsessively users posting pictures and feeling depressed or invisible if there is no feedback on a picture or a post.

Facebook users often post pictures with their friends, or family, which creates a more anxiety towards other users who don’t have friends or family. Users who have social anxiety often feel that they are on the outside and that leads to some users to be someone else or fabricate themselves to make them seem more outgoing. Facebook displays a platform that pictures are everything, which increases your friend’s list. 14

Users feel pressured to social groups and compete with other users to feel in especially in.

Farquhar and Davidson’s study concluded social anxiety and Facebook anxiety reported moderate levels of each. Participants scored an average of 1.65 with a range of

1.0 - 3.29. The average of participants spends over four hours per day on the Internet, and their studies show that specifically social anxiety isn’t a major cause on social media although it is a deciding factor.

Catfish The Television Show

According to some Catfish episodes, these social media users keep these fake profiles so long they believe there is nothing wrong with pretending to be someone else.

Social media users use the Internet as a way to build a virtual identity because they can’t be themselves in the real world. Psychologically, they think what they’re doing is a game and it’s the person’s fault for engaging in conversation with them if they haven’t seen them in person or Facetimed them.

Nelson, Cyone, Howard, and Clifford did a study in 2016 to examine the longitudinally between subtypes of social withdrawal, connective media, and problematic media use and the behavior affected by these types. In their article,

“Withdrawing to a Virtual World: Associations Between Subtypes of Withdrawal,

Media Use, and Malaadjustment in Emerging Adults:” the participants range from 18 to

29 of 204 undergraduate students (58% female) from two large public universities in the United States. This study found that shy individuals who used media to connect felt that they gained confidence online that might gain the user more opportunities to develop social skills. Nelson et. al say, “The term social withdrawal is considered an 15

‘umbrella construct’ capturing internal motivations for removing oneself from social interaction (Coplan & Rubin, 2010)” (1). The study conducted emerging adulthood issues connected with media usage. Both shy and avoidant men and women experience problems in their relationships because of media interaction. Social media users like the virtual world encourage people to fabricate images or their personalities to build friendships or sometimes relationships.

In relation to the Nelson et. al’s study, in an episode on Catfish, a woman named Zoie pretended to be a YouTube star, Andrea Russett, and her family members and some of her closest friends. Zoie even went to the lengths of receiving information from Andrea’s YouTube videos to get certain information to create fake profiles for her family members. She created fake profile pages for Andrea’s friends as well. Incidents like this happen on the show Catfish all the time because of the circle of friends and the support she receives from her family. The social media user, Zoie, wants to feel that same love. Eventually, she was caught and confronted by Andrea and she expressed how sorry she was. Zoie’s reasoning was she was extremely shy to meet people in person and felt more comfortable being someone else behind a computer screen.

Zoie’s way of building her virtual world including creating fake profiles for her

“imaginary” family and friends explains social media being used to build that world.

She wanted that connection from people so bad, she impersonated them and their loved ones to feel that void that she wasn’t receiving from the real world; thus she created a world for herself on the Internet.

Social Media Site Examples 16

Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are taking over the media world by storm. Social self-identity is important because it defines who a person is, their interests, likes and dislikes. However, the effect of social networking sites and communicating and trusting people who users talk to has changed completely. If a user is messaging a person online, he or she trusts that the person who they are communicating with is the person who they say they are. In “Show Us You Are Real:

The Effect of Human-Versus-Organizational Presence on Online Relationship Building

Through Social Networking Sites,” authors Park and Lee agree that “Twitter has been one of the fast-growing social media sites over the past few years” (265).

Social media has advanced how people communicate and share information among each other. Online communication benefits companies who want to interact and get more people interested in their products or business. Relationship wise, social media takes out human voice completely and uses emoji’s, gifs, and other tools to interact through personal messages or commenting under another social media user. In addition to communicating online using words, users communicate in other ways to either make conversations more interesting or change the seriousness in topics.

Facebook is the number one social media site used on the show Catfish Nev and

Max show the user’s friends and their “about me” section to see how old they are and to look to see where they are located. It’s easier to fabricate yourself on Facebook because users can have so many friends with mutual people and other users might think they know the person because of the mutual friends. Also, putting your location on your

“about me” section lets other users know that they live in the same area, so individuals can probably meet and hang out. 17

Social media as a whole, is all about being included by an individual’s peers or even by people individuals don’t even know. For example, when looking through an individual’s social media sites and the friends or followers that they have how many of those friends or followers do they really know? Some social media users are so unhappy with themselves and their lives they pretend to be someone who they aren’t.

The idea of hiding behind a computer screen and being someone completely different is very popular in today’s society. Some social media users fear face-to-face interaction and develop social anxiety; they miss out on the natural style of communication in engaging in conversations and conversational human voice interaction.

Other social media sites like Twitter are more opinion and emotion-based. Users

“tweet” what is on their mind, problems, song lyrics, or sometimes polls and people reply by “tweeting” back. Recently, Twitter was the number one social media app to go to during the 2016 Presidential election. Twitter received so much attention during this time because social media users doug up old tweets that Donald Trump made and used it against him during the election. Twitter isn’t so much based on distorting your picture identity but perhaps your thoughts and your opinions. Some social media users will tweet something that they don’t agree with at all, but because they want to be “liked” or known by their followers on Twitter, they will tweet something out of their character to receive re-tweets by other people. Social media users get excited when they post something on their profile and people comment and conversations or debates start to flourish. It allows some individuals to make themselves feel important or paid attention too. Specifically, on Twitter its all about who retweets your tweet as if the other social media account user is in agreeance with what the individual posted. 18

Instagram has increased over the last five years. Instagram is a social media site where users post their best picture of themselves and the user receives likes. Celebrities like Beyonce, Kendall Jenner, and Kim Kardashian West receive millions of likes and a lot of people want that “acceptance” that they look good and everyone likes them or wants to be them. Social media users, either fake or real will post a picture and want to receive a good amount of likes to ensure that they are wanted or accepted. When posting a picture, users get approval from their friends on either what filter looks best or the famous question, “Do you think I’ll get a lot of likes?” Celebrities like Kylie

Jenner, DJ Khaled, and Blac Chyna, have used Instagram for business purposes, drama, and just to entertain fans. Socially, it’s a great way for fans to see what their favorite celebrities do everyday.

Lastly, dating sites like EHarmony and Christian Mingles are built strictly for love and relationships. These dating sites are built to help singles whom can’t interact or perhaps are socially awkward still have a shot at love; online they can relax and look through profiles to see which candidate best fits them. Xia, Peng, et. al looked at a recent survey and found that, “40 million single people out of 54 million in the US have signed up with various online dating sites, and around 20% of currently committed romantic relationships began online, which is more than any means other than meeting through friends” (2). People who are on dating sites may alter their profile to match the person whom they are trying to impress. Also, specifically, men are labeled by society to be taller than their spouse or the same height. If a male is 5’8, chances are men might put 6’1 on their profile page just to seem taller than they actually are.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, the idea of distorting an individual’s identity is a factor in situational depression and how users use social media as a way to build their virtual identity, examples are seen in from the television show Catfish, social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and dating sites, the study of social media and influence of depression and social anxiety. However, studies showed that social media evolves so much that there is no factor on why social media users have social anxiety or depression to a certain extent. The effect of constructing virtual identity via social media has not been examined yet through research findings. Through these findings, conclusions have come to users fabricating things about themselves such as images, personalities, to arise more “friends” on users social media accounts.

Social media sites make it easier and more convenient to hide behind a computer screen; however, it increases social anxiety and the fear of going out to meet people. Social media users are more likely to fabricate or alter their images, profiles, interests, and other characteristics to create a completely new identity. In this way, the people who struggle with depression, either situational depression or clinical depression, use their social media sites to get them through it. People like Jose and Zoie struggled with their identity and used social media sites like Facebook to get through their issues.

This study aimed to determine if social media users are better off using social media to cope with their issues or should these users stay off their Internet. Through my findings, I have found that depending on the person’s mental state, social media might be helpful to them. Due to the study found by Levitan, she concluded with social media 20 evolving so much there is no probable cause on why users turn to social media. In cases such as Jose in bettering himself after he was caught for “catfishing” someone, he learned that lesson from being on social media. However, for cases like Zoie in

“catfishing” multiple people, I believe she needs psychological help because her situation was more severe. The studies of social anxiety have concluded no answer but users should seek other coping mechanisms before resulting to the Internet. However, depression is a leading cause on why social media users turn to the Internet, it’s a cry for help to be heard and feel important to someone.

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