The effect of social media uses on mental health: study among health vocational student at Universitas Esa Unggul, Jakarta, Indonesia

INTRODUCTION

Merriam-Webster describes social media as “forms of electronic communication such as websites for social networking and microblogging through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content.” Recently, social media has experienced sporadic growth in terms of quality, consumption, and quantity. Social media consumers have made online social communication an important part of their daily lives, as evidenced by the increasing number of daily users.¹ According to Facebook’s own data, there were approximately 1 billion active users as of August 27, 2015. Other major social media platforms with large user bases include Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and others. It can be said that the current generation is one that has been greatly influenced by excessive use of social media.²

Mental health is characterized as a state of well-being in which individuals realize their capacities, successfully navigate through daily challenges, work well, and significantly enhance the quality of life in their communities. The advantages and disadvantages of social media for mental health are currently being discussed.

Social media is a key component of mental health protection. Mental health, behavioural health, physical health, and the risk of mortality are all influenced by the quantity and quality of social contacts.³ The link between social media and mental health can be explained by behavioural theory. Numerous studies on the effects of social media have been conducted, and it has been found that frequent use of sites like Facebook can be linked to negative symptoms and indicators of depression, anxiety, and stress.⁴ Social media can also place significant pressure on users to project stereotypes that others want to see and to gain as much popularity as possible.

Social media has a profound influence on daily activities in the current era, from communication, health, marketing, education, and politics, to many other areas. It has also been associated with damage and long-term side effects on human behaviour. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of social media use on the mental health of vocational students at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Universitas Esa Unggul.

METHODS

This study is quantitative research using a cross-sectional design. The study was conducted from September 2023 until March 2024. The Independent variables are number of applications used and the duration of social media use. The dependent variable is the level of mental health.

The population in this study are vocational students from the Faculty of Health Sciences, Universitas Esa Unggul. The number of respondents involved in the study was 108. Inclusion criteria of respondents are: 1. Students from health vocational department, 2. Students have at least one social media account. Exclusion criteria of respondents are: 1. Student in the first semester of the program, 2. Student are not willing to be a respondent. There was no ethical approval in this research.

Data were collected using the General Health Questionnaire 12 (GHQ-12) to assess the level of mental health. Data on characteristics and social media usage behaviour were gathered by asking a series of questions through a questionnaire. Mental health levels were measured using a Likert scale. A score of “0” was given if respondents answered “better than usual,” a score of “1” if they answered “same as usual,” a score of “2” if they answered “less than usual,” and a score of “3” if they answered “much less than usual”.⁵ Mental health levels were categorized into three: “normal” if the score was 0-12, “showing symptoms of mental distress” if the score was 13-20, and “high mental distress” if the score was >20.⁶

Descriptive analysis by describe the frequency distribution of each variable, and analytic analysis to identify the relationship between the independent and dependent variables.

RESULTS

The characteristics of the respondents can be described as follows: more than half of the respondents were aged 18-20 years (54.6%). Overall, the age group of 18-23 years constituted 97.2% of the respondents. In terms of gender, the majority of respondents were female, with a percentage of 75.9% (Table 1).

The social media platforms used by the respondents were highly varied. Based on the data in Table 1, the most widely used applications by the respondents were WhatsApp (100%), Instagram (96.3%), and TikTok (88.9%). Meanwhile, the least used applications were Facebook (16.7%) and other applications (5.5%).

Regarding social media usage behavior, more than half of the respondents (60.2%) used 3-4 social media applications. Only 7.4% of respondents used 1-2 social media applications. A total of 47.2% of respondents accessed social media for more than 4 hours per day, while only 22.2% of respondents accessed social media for less than 2 hours per day (Table 2 and 3).

Mental health levels were found that more than half (50.9%) of the respondents exhibited symptoms of mental distress. This indicates that a significant portion of the respondents may experience symptoms of mental distress, but these do not interfere with their daily activities. Meanwhile, 6.5% of the total respondents had high levels of mental distress (Table 4).

More than half (53.8%) of the respondents who used 3-4 applications were in the “Evidence of distress” level. Meanwhile, 51.4% of respondents who used ≥5 applications were in the “normal” level. Based on the chi-square test results, p value was 0.475, indicating that there is no significant relationship between the number of applications used and mental health levels at the 0.05 significance level (Table 4).

More than half (64.7%) of respondents who accessed social media for more than 4 hours per day were in the “Evidence of distress” level. Additionally, 54.5% of respondents who accessed social media for 2-4 hours per day were also in the “Evidence of distress” level. Based on the chi-square test results, p-value was 0.001, indicating that there is a significant relationship between the duration of social media use and mental health levels at the 0.05 significance level (Table 5).

DISCUSSION

The study showed that 59 respondents (54.6%) were in the age group of 18-20 years. The majority of respondents were in the age range of 18-23 years, with a total of 105 people (75.9%). The largest group of respondents were late adolescents. According to Wilson & Hockenberry, adolescence is a period when individuals want to grow without being controlled by their parents, but at the same time, they are also anxious about understanding the responsibilities associated with independence. According to Hamzah, the higher a person’s age, the lower the stress level, as stress management improves with age.⁷

The majority of respondents were in the age range of 18-23 years because they were students who directly continued their education to university after graduating from high school, leading to a relatively close age range.

The age distribution would be more varied if the respondents included employees, as they come from diverse age groups.

In terms of gender characteristics, the majority of respondents were female, with a percentage of 75.9%. In the overall population of the Faculty of Health Sciences, the majority of students are female, which influenced the number of respondents obtained.

The types of social media used by the respondents were highly diverse. The most widely used applications were WhatsApp (100%), Instagram (96.3%), and TikTok (88.9%). Meanwhile, the least used applications were Facebook (16.7%) and other applications (5.5%). According to the researcher's assumption, these three applications are the most popular among young people in Indonesia today. The primary function of WhatsApp is for conversations and sharing information and ideas, both in academic and non-academic contexts. Meanwhile, Instagram and TikTok are primarily used for self-expression, interaction, and obtaining the latest information.

The study showed that more than half of the respondents (60.2%) used 3-4 social media applications. This indicates that the majority of respondents feel comfortable and that their needs are met with 3-4 applications. On the other hand, only 8 respondents (7.4%) used 1-2 social media applications, indicating that limited social media usage is uncommon among students. Meanwhile, 35 respondents (32.4%) used 5 or more social media applications, indicating a high level of dependency on these applications.

The study also found that 51 respondents (47.2%) spent more than 4 hours per day accessing social media, indicating that respondents were very active in using social media. In contrast, only 24 respondents (22.4%) used social media for less than 2 hours per day.

The study results showed that more than half (50.9%) of the respondents exhibited symptoms of mental distress, though not severe enough to interfere with daily activities. A total of 6.5% of respondents experienced high levels of mental distress. Although this is the smallest group, it is important to note as they may require more intensive intervention or support from professionals.

The study also showed that the number of applications used was not related to mental health levels, with a p value of 0.475 (>0.05). This finding does not align with previous research, which found that anxiety, depression, and feelings of loneliness are influenced by the number of social media applications used. The overstimulation from using multiple social media platforms can lead to addictive behaviour.

The researcher's assumption regarding this finding is that even if many applications are used, if the duration of use is short or the frequency of accessing these applications is low, it will not affect mental health.

The study results showed that there was a relationship between the duration of social media use and mental health levels, with a p-value of 0.001 (<0.05). This finding is consistent with Esti's (2021) research, which found a relationship between social media use and mental health, with a p value of 0.000 (<0.05). The relationship between these two variables is positive and of moderate strength, meaning that the higher the social media usage, the more problematic the mental health becomes.⁸

Social media is a platform that allows people to interact with each other online within the application. These interactions can take the form of conversations, conferences, videos, images, sounds, ideas, and information.⁹ Social media is one of the external factors that affect mental health. Excessive exposure to social media can have negative impacts on mental health, including anxiety and depression by Rosmalina et al.¹⁰ Anxiety arises from an individual’s inability to meet their desire to create a perfect image on social media. The mismatch between expectations and reality can lead to anxiety. Meanwhile, depression can be triggered by envy that arises from seeing others' achievements, lifestyles, or frequent displays of activities on social media. Another trigger for depression is the desire to appear perfect in front of the opposite sex, leading to a loss of self-identity by Rosmalina et al.¹⁰

The abundance of information available through various social media channels can lead to feelings of overwhelm and potential negative consequences for well-being. When individuals interact with various platforms and accounts, continuous exposure to curated content and comparisons with others can exacerbate feelings of inadequacy and jealousy, further contributing to mental health issues.¹¹ Therefore, it is crucial for users to manage their social media usage, engage in positive activities, and prioritize mental health to mitigate the risks associated with overstimulation.

There was a limitation in conducting this study. Many factors can affect someone’s mental condition such as academic load, relationship related to family and friend, economic, etc. But in this study, the target variable was behaviour in using social media. It is recommended to future research to study the effect of others variable to mental health, so that we can determine what variables have more contributions in mental health, especially in college student.

CONCLUSION

Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the duration of social media use is related to mental health levels, but the number of different types of social media used is not. Therefore, as students, it is important to set boundaries on the duration of social media use and to be selective about the content on social media to avoid negative impacts on both physical and mental health.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Research dan Community Service Department Esa Unggul University, as well as all of those who have assisted in the implementation of this research.

Funding: This study funded by Research dan Community Service Department Esa Unggul University

Conflict of interest: None declared

Ethical approval: Not required

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