The Effects of Social Media

Social media use has shown to effect college student’s mental health and time management, in ways such as self-esteem, depression, study habits and sleep. Over 90% of college students use social media on a daily basis (Morgan, Snelson, & Elsion-Bowers, 2010). Social media has become a tool for universities to communicate events, news, and alerts. Past research has shown that students are using social media sites to extreme amounts and this use is causing repercussions in their mental health and time management. The goal of the present student is to determine if students are frequently using social media and are experiencing a negative result in their mental health and time management. Participants were approximately 40 individuals from a small liberal arts university in northern California. Participants were given the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and the University Student Depression Inventory (Khawaja & Bryden, 2006), as well as questions pertaining to sleep habits, study habits, social media habits, and brief demographic questions. An independent samples t-test is expected to demonstrate that social media use does have a negative effect on time management and mental health. This research is expected to further prove previous research showing the correlation between social media use and sleep habits, study habits, self-esteem, and depression. Social media is increasingly important in our society and daily lives, thus it is important to understand the effect of it on society. This research gives students insights into how their social media use may be affecting them and will give them the opportunity to make a change if found necessary