Author Biography

K’Lee Perry is currently a junior at Utah State University. She is the youngest of four children and enjoys being the favorite child. K’Lee loves reading, tending to her plants, and exploring the great outdoors. K’Lee is currently going to school full-time. Her goal is to receive a master’s degree in English and to publish her own book.

This essay was composed in April 2023 and uses MLA documentation.

Social media, although seen as a tool to connect people, can be dangerous when not used in moderation. Many people, especially teenagers and young adults, struggle with the overuse of social media. According to researcher Katie Funk, this overuse can lead to social media addiction, which she claims can be detrimental to one’s mental health by causing or exacerbating feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and depression (177). Katie Funk discusses this prevalent issue and the importance of combating it in her essay titled “Social Media Addiction: How It’s Leading to a Decline in Mental Health.” The purpose of her research is to teach about how these addictions lead to worsened mental health and how to overcome these addictions. She relates her argument to a broad audience by discussing the feeling of missing out, loneliness, and even how parents’ addictions can negatively affect their children’s well-being. Funk claims that we can overcome these issues by strengthening our in-person social interactions and lessening our use of social media.

What Funk fails to discuss, however, is the Covid-19 pandemic’s effects on social media overuse and addiction. If social media addiction exacerbates feelings of loneliness and isolation, leading to further mental health issues, then why does Funk fail to address the escalation of its use and how it furthered the mental suffering of those struggling through isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic? To fully address the deep ties of social media addiction and the potentially misconstrued beliefs that extreme use of it helped us to feel connected and unisolated during the COVID-19 pandemic, we must acknowledge and analyze how the pandemic affected these beliefs throughout the last three years. We also must pose the question, did social media actually have a positive effect on mental health during this time of isolation? The goal of this essay is to disprove any belief that excessive use of social media was in any way beneficial to the mental health of those suffering from feelings of loneliness during the lockdown.

COVID-19 has caused great pain and suffering in the world, but with the addition of a mandated lockdown, everything seemed to add to the issues of stress and mental health, and, most importantly, isolation. At the start of the pandemic, it seemed useful to have the help of social media to connect us to others going through the same thing. Many, like myself, had a personal experience of spending ample time watching videos and reading posts on their phones of others telling them the benefits of being able to stay together through these means. The belief that social media helped everyone feel less isolated during the pandemic became a strong one, and many online expressed gratitude for the tool it was. As well, many became addicted without realizing its adverse effects on their mental health. Many people harbored this false hope that social media was their light out of a dark tunnel. Twitter user Emma had a similar opinion toward social media during the pandemic, stating, “Clearly, social media platforms have some obvious educational benefits – especially during COVID-19 – like uniting students who may feel isolated. It can be helpful to be ‘in the know’ with your classmates digitally when you cannot connect with them in person.”  Her beliefs of beneficial social media usage during the pandemic were not alone, as Twitter user Sanchana states, “COVID definitely had an impact on my mental health, especially during self-isolation. Personally, I found social-media helpful, when it came to communication and most importantly killed time while being alone!” Little did Sanchana and Emma know, but those issues of mental health could very well have been exacerbated by the overuse of social media. Although social media may be a tool used for good in small doses, it can create or worsen feelings of loneliness and isolation if it gets abused or overused. The pandemic was not a different case.

Many studies have proven that mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic were affected negatively by the overuse of social media. These studies have also found that this use of social media increased in their subjects while dealing with the pandemic. One study used a phone survey at the start of the pandemic to interview residents of Wuhan, China, ages 18 and up, during the COVID-19 outbreak. This study, titled “Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak.” found through conclusive data that during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, “there is a high prevalence of mental health problems, which is positively associated with frequent SME (social media exposure) during the COVID-19 outbreak.” This conclusion was found after an examination of the data brought in from the research studies. Also, the conclusion stated that a need to care for mental health, with an emphasis on depression, was very urgent during COVID-19. This is not to say social media was purely unhelpful. In a study titled “Use of Social Network as a Coping Strategy for Depression among Young People During the COVID-19 Lockdown: Findings from the COMET Collaborative Study,” which can be found in the Annals of General Psychiatry, the conclusion made was that social media, in smaller usage and for the benefit of staying connected throughout the pandemic, has helped combat feelings of isolation. This study tested social media usage and its correlation to depression among Italian adults between the ages of 18-24. Through this test of young adults, the researchers found that “Social media use during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic could have a beneficial role in buffering negative consequences linked to social isolation due to quarantine measures.” While these two studies seem to be in contrast, they are in close agreement. When used sparingly and with a purpose in mind, they have found social media to be a connective, rather than a depressive, tool. But while this may seem like a happy outlook, addictive and prolonged use during the pandemic has been proven to lead to or worsen mental health issues.

During the lockdown brought on by the pandemic and since it, the issues correlating social media overuse to feelings of isolation have been easily overlooked, causing social media to seem like a safe mental space for many, as noted in the quoted tweets. It is important to know the negative impacts social media can have. This was especially true during the pandemic when the increased and mandated time alone made it easy for many to create bad social media habits. According to the information drawn from “COVID-19 Barometer: Consumer Attitudes, Media Habits, and Expectations,” as the Pandemic pressed on, “So media consumption increases across all in-home channels. In later stages of the pandemic, web browsing increases by 70%, followed by (traditional) TV viewing increasing by 63% and social media engagement increasing by 61% over normal usage rates.” It has been proven that social media use, especially in the lives of those ages 18-34, has increased drastically from before. It is concerning how easy it is to fail to recognize the negative attributes of social media overuse because of the narrative that it keeps us connected. What did, however, help keep many people grounded and connected during the pandemic was figured through a study done on university students in Indonesia. In the journal entry titled “Social Media Addiction and Mental Health Among University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia,” the researchers found that, although mental health issues are more prevalent in those with a social media addiction, strong ties were helpful in the fight against mental health issues during Covid. In concluding their findings, the researchers stated, “Confirming our hypothesis, we found that students who reported having good relationships with their parents and being religious had a lower risk of mental issues during the pandemic. These findings are consistent with those of other studies and suggest that a good family relationship helps reduce depression among students.” This study shows us that there are other means to combat loneliness in the most difficult or isolating moments of our lives. After receiving the information regarding the increase in social media patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic, we can see that many of us turned to the wrong substances in an attempt to relieve our mental health issues instead of turning to things like family and religion to help us through those problems.

In times of crisis, it might seem easy and beneficial to use social media as a means to escape feelings of hardship and isolation and to combat mental health issues. What research has shown, however, is that although using social media during issues like the COVID-19 pandemic is fine in small doses, larger quantities can lead us to the very problems we may be avoiding. Instead, we should reach out to our stronger ties, such as family and religion, to help lead us through dark times. Since the pandemic has calmed down and the lockdowns have lightened, it may be easy to ask the question: why is this important? It’s important because, although many social media addictions might have started during the pandemic, a lot of people still carry this addiction today. It is also important to come to terms with the fact that social media, when used outside of moderation, harms and exacerbates our mental health issues of loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and depression. It is only after recognizing that the social media habits created during the COVID-19 pandemic are unhealthy and invasive to our mental health that we can begin to change and overcome them.

Works Cited

“Covid-19 Barometer: Consumer Attitudes, Media Habits and Expectations.” Kantar, 3 Apr. 2020,https://www.kantar.com/Inspiration/Coronavirus/COVID-19-Barometer-Consumer-attitudes-media-habits-and-expectations.

Emma, [@Emma63261452]. “Clearly, social media platforms have some obvious educational benefits – especially during covid-time…” Twitter, 19 September 2021, https://twitter.com/Emma63261452/status/1439795445853794307

Funk, Katie. “Social Media Addiction: How It’s Leading to a Decline in Mental Health.” Voices of USU An Anthology of Student Writing, vol. 14, Utah State University Department of English, UT, 2021, pp. 176–186.

Gao, Junling, et al. “Mental Health Problems and Social Media Exposure during COVID-19 Outbreak.” PLoS ONE, vol. 15, no. 4, 16 Apr. 2020, pp. 1–10., https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231924.

Orsolini, Laura, et al. “Use of Social Network as a Coping Strategy for Depression among Young People during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Findings from the Comet Collaborative Study.” Annals of General Psychiatry, vol. 21, no. 1, 14 Nov. 2022, pp. 1–12., https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-022-00419-w

Sanchana, [@sanchanasiva24]. “COVID definitely had an impact on my mental health especially during self-isolation…” Twitter, 27 September 2021, https://twitter.com/Sanchanasiva24/status/1442413287321210882

Sujarwoto, et al. “Social Media Addiction and Mental Health Among University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia.” International Journal of Mental Health & Addiction, Vol. 21, no. 1, Feb. 2023, pp. 96–110., https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-021-00582-3.