Impact of Social Media on The Mental Health of Young Adults: A Gender Based Assessment

With the increased usage of social media, young adults are getting more and more inclined towards peer-to-peer evaluation. This is making them more and more susceptible to sensitivity about bodily image, financial status, followers, likes, comments, subscribers and followings that one holds in comparison to others. Males and females are both impacted (mental health) by social media, but the direction of impact and the amount of impact differs between both genders. Thus, it is imperative to assess this difference so that related strategies can be formulated by decision makers and stakeholders to deal with the issue of negative impact of social media on mental health of young adults. Escapism, worthlessness and sensitivity have been identified as the major outcomes of impact of social media on mental health. A pre defined questionnaire of impact of social media on mental health has been used to collect the data. Independent sample t-test has been used to assess the gender based difference of impact. It was found that there is a significant gender based difference on impact of social media on mental health of young adults. It was further found that males are more impacted by social media in comparison to females.