By: Bailey Tate
How many UTC students utilize social media? According to studies, ages 10-24 utilize social media which would also include college aged students. According to Instagram, the account “utchattanooga” has 30,000 followers, along with “utcnewmocs” following with 8,432 followers. I believe that it is safe to say that many UTC students utilize social media. It is important to be aware of the negative effects that come along with utilizing social media such as higher levels of stress, anxiety, self-esteem issues, and feelings of loneliness. I conducted a poll on my personal Instagram and asked my followers if they believed that social media effected them in a negative or positive way. The results speak for themselves.
There were 153 participants in this study. Of 153 participants, 15 people said that social media effects their mental health in a positive way, 130 people said that social media affects their mental health in a negative way, and 8 people said that social media does not affect their mental in a positive or negative way. (results of the poll are shown below). I also got direct responses from individuals such as, “I think it effects people in both ways. Females I feel like compare themselves a lot which is a negative they see all the dolls in makeup and surgery and expect to look like that or compete with people like that. I think for me though its positivity because it helps me stay woke with stuff going on around the world. Keeps me updated with things negative and positive but doesn’t take a toll on my energy. I can close an app and continue with my day” (23 year old male student). I also got another direct message that said, “I’d say negative just because I feel like it’s kind of what people focus on at this point. They’re worried about how many likes they get instead of reality. Also social media has fake perspectives of people which makes you compare yourself to influencers who don’t even look like that in real life. I also think it affects kids in a negative way because they’re being introduced to many negative things at a young age” (23 year old female student).
Instagram Poll from baileytate17 regarding negative effects of social media.
UTC Instagram and the followers that it has.
YouTube: Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health?-Bailey Parnell- TEDxRyersonU
Sources:
https://www.instagram.com/utcnewmocs/
https://www.elitedaily.com/news/how-tiktok-affects-your-brain-algorithm-personalized-videos