Social Media Addiction and its Impacts on Psychological well being

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to unravel correlation between the extent of social media addiction and its effects on some student’s psychological health and overall satisfaction with their lives. The questionnaire of social media addiction, psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction was filled by 200 students of university. The participants were required to fill the social media addiction scale (SMAS), the satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) and psychological wellbeing scale (PWS). Regression and correlations analyses showed that there was therefore strong negative association between social media addictionerrated and psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction at 01 level, and positive correlation between psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction at 01 level. Analysis of the results provided indicated that social media addiction was positively correlated with low psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction of university students. More specifically, a measure of social media use in the last week correlated significantly with Becks’ Depression Inventory, the State Anxiety, and the Perceived Stress Scale scores, as well as life satisfaction. Based on these research results a direct conclusion can be made that social network addiction is equally harmful to mental health and wellbeing of university students. The findings also hold crucial implications for university mental health services, policymakers, and students themselves, the need for education and information, and interventions that would prevent of improper use of social media platforms, and the effects of social media addiction.