Abstract
This study investigated social media use and handling of depression among youths in Toll Gate, Ibadan. Depression is a common mental disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration. Thus, understanding the impact of social media on young adults’ well-being has turn out to be a priority as a result of the simultaneous increase in mental health problems among individuals.
The research objectives were to; find out the various experiences of social media use among youths in selected area of study; highlight the causes of depression among youths in selected area of study; and to correlate the use of social media and handling of depression among youths in selected area of study. This research work made use of quantitative source of data, through which data were gathered using a self-structure questionnaire and administered to 200 youths in Lead City University, toll gate, Ibadan.
The findings showed that, the following are the causes of depression among youths which were; low self esteem, inadequate finance, deprivation of basic needs, emotional abuse, problems with academic performance, responsibilities that comes with growth, social class, drugs, alcohol and addiction, failed relationship, death of a loved one and experiencing the get rich quick syndrome were the identified causes of depression among the youths. The study as well showed that, social media usage leads to depression among the youths. The study showed that, 114 of the respondents representing (61.0%) strongly agreed and 39 representing (20.9%) agreed that they experience depression after using social media.
The study recommends that, counseling centers need to be provided in all institutions so as to give help to students battling with one issue or the other so as to avoid a high level of depression. In addition, youths should minimize the rate at which they make use of social media so as to stay away from content that will trigger depression in them. When making use of social media by youths, they should engage in content that will enhance their knowledge and keep them inspired and motivated
CHAPTER ONE
1.1. Background of the Study
Social media use is an increasingly popular activity for Internet users, (Filo et al., 2015). The advancement in technology and internet has exposed majority of the global population to a number of various interactive platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) through which the various types of information can be exchanged, (Armstrong, Delia & Giardina, 2014). In this contemporary epoch, social media is used by all types of Internet users; however, young adults especially students from the universities and colleges are the biggest percentage of active users, which constitute about 85percent, (Statista, 2020).
Ever since social media gained more popularity among internet users, its effect on youths and adults cannot be underestimated, (Curran et al., 2011), as social media use practically affects the way an Internet user interact, communicate and make decisions that concerns social, cultural, and political issues, (Falade, 2014). According to Merriam-Webster (2014), social media is defined as forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other contents. With the growing and expanding popularity of social media applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube, (Smith & Anderson, 2018), individuals are now able to view status updates of people they are following, which may generate feelings such as “fear of missing out” or becoming envious, (Zimmerman, n.d.). In addition, as Internet users can now use applications like photoshop, filters, beauty-cams, etc., to modify their pictures before posting on the Internet, therefore, social media does not always portray reality, (Holland & Tiggemann, 2016).
Depression is a common mental disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration, (American Psychistric Association, 2013). These problems can turn out to be chronic or recurrent and lead to substantial impairments in an individual's ability to take care of his or her day-to-day responsibilities. At its worst, depression can lead to suicide, a tragic fatality associated with the loss of about 850,000 lives every year, (WHO, 2018). Depression is the leading cause of disability across the globe, and is a major contributor to the overall universal burden of disease, (Depression, 2018b). Depression is a compound phenomenon with important clinical consequences, like suicide, (Beck, Steer, Beck, & Newman, 2013). According to Abramson, Alloy, and Metalsky (2012), depression is defined as the expectation that negative events will arise and/or positive events will not arise, along with the belief that an individual can do nothing to change this gloomy scenario. Such a negative attitude or belief toward the future is often reported in major psychopathological conditions, that is, depression and schizophrenia, (Beck, Steer, Lysaker, Davis, & Hunter, 2014), however it is as well present at clinical levels in the general population (i.e. 10percent; Haatainen, Tanskanen, Kylma, Honkalampi, Koivumaa-Honkanen, Hintikka, & Viinamaki, 2013).
Understanding the impact of social media on young adults’ well-being has turn out to be a priority as a result of the simultaneous increase in mental health problems, (Kim, 2017). Problematic behaviours related to internet use are often described in psychiatric terminology, such as ‘addiction’. Although a number of activities in younger people could be misinterpreted as anomalous. For instance, young people who regularly post images of themselves (‘selfies’) may appear narcissistic, however, such behaviour has emerged as a social norm in younger social networks, (McCrae, 2018). Nevertheless, psychologists and other experts have issued several words of warning on how younger individuals are engaging with social media and related impairment to personal and social development, (Greenfield, 2014).
Moreover, the associations between social media use and adolescents’ depression state might be more nuanced and dependent on a lot of individual differences between adolescents. For example, females have a tendency to use social media to connect with existing social networks, while males use social media for shared computer-based activities, such as online gaming, (Duggan, & Brenner, 2014). In addition, adolescents’ access to social media are bound up with structural inequalities in family’s socioeconomic status with adolescents from wealthier families having better digital skills and access to social networking sites than their peers with lower socioeconomic status, (Livingstone, & Helsper, 2014). Regarding depression state, female individuals usually experience higher levels of depressive symptoms compared to males from approximately age 13 onwards (Twenge, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2017), and adolescents with low socioeconomic status are likely to experience greater depressive symptoms across adolescence, (Gilman, Kawachi, Fitzmaurice, & Buka, 2015). These variables might modify the strength of the effect of social media use on a given outcome.
Despite these studies, there is a dearth of research on how other social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat contributes to an individual state of depression. Understanding the influence of social media on depression among young adults aged 18-34 years in Nigeria is essential as data showed that majority of findings have been on Facebook, which has necessitated this study. Hence, this study seeks to examine the influence of social media on depression among young adults aged 18-34 years in University of Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria.
1.2. Statement of Research Problems
Quite a lot of studies have examined the influence of social media platform on depression among youths, which will be stated below;
In a study carried out among youths in Croatian by Pantic (2012) showed that time spent by high school students on Facebook was positively correlated with depression. These findings were mirrored by Rosen, Whaling, Rab, Carrier, and Cheever, (2013), who revealed that participants who spent more time online and those who performed more Facebook image management showed more clinical symptoms of major depression. In another study of American university students indicated that, more intense Facebook use predicted increased loneliness, (Lou, Yan, Nickerson, & McMorris, 2012). According to Kalpidou, Costin, and Morris, (2011), college students who reported having higher numbers of Facebook friends experienced lower emotional adjustment to college life. Further, the same study found that college students who spent more time on Facebook reported having lower self-esteem than those who spent less time.
On this note, these studies have only focused Facebook as a social media platform, which is considered a gap and limitation which this study seek to fill by examining social media use and handling of depression among youths in Toll Gate, Ibadan. Therefore, this research seeks to consider the possible relationship existing between the use of these social media platforms and handling of depression among youths.
1.3. Research Objectives
The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the social media use and handling of depression among youths in Toll Gate, Ibadan. However, the specific objectives will be to;
- find out the various experiences of social media use among youths in selected area of study
- highlight the causes of depression among youths in selected area of study
- correlate the use of social media and handling of depression among youths in selected area of study.
1.4. Research Questions
Based on the above objectives, the following research questions will be posed.
- What are the various experiences of social media use among youths in selected area of study?
- What are the causes of depression among youths in selected area of study?
- Is there any correlation of the use of social media and handling of depression among youths in selected area of study?
1.5. Significance of the Study
To the Youths, the findings of this study would be significant to the youths especially as it will enable them understand and identify how the use of social media lead to depression, and to enlighten the youths on how to handle depression cases.
To the Government, the findings of this study will help government regulate the use of social media in order to tackle and reduce the rate of depression among youths in Nigeria.
Academic, this research will contribute to the body of literature in the area of social media use and handling of depression among youths in Nigeria, thereby enlarging the body of the empirical literature for future research in the subject area.
To the Researchers, the findings of this study will be useful to the researcher and scholars as it contributes to the body of knowledge in the area of social media use and handling of depression. And lastly, this study will assist other researchers to further their studies on areas of interest not yet exploited.
1.6. Scope of the Study
This study will examine the use of social media and handling of depression among youths in Toll Gate, Ibadan. The study is confined to youths in Lead City University, Toll Gate, Ibadan. The reason for the choice of youths in Lead City is because they are perceived to be knowledgeable on the subject area and as well make use of social media, and as a result, this will enable the researcher gather firsthand and accurate information that will be relevant to the use of social media and how they handle depression.
1.7. Operational Definition of Terms
Social Media: is the website and application that enables young adults to create and share content in social networking.
Depression: is the state of hopelessness of young adults caused by social media use.
Youths: refers to an individual between the ages of 18 and 34years who are able to make some decisions on their own regarding social media and depression.
Influence: refers to the way through which young adults are influenced by social media.
Handling: refers to how youths manage or handle depression arising from social media use.
Use of Social Media: refers to the frequency or pattern of use of social media by youths (that is, how often does youths make use of social media; always, sometimes, rarely, occasionally).
