Studying the impact of Social Media, Mediatisation and Cyber-Psychology of Youngsters

Background: The questions arises whether the emergence of social-cyberspace had eased the relationships between one another or the virtual space had literally distanced the youth from his/her environment resulting in reduction of empathy towards others while seeking one’s own identity through the images of the self. Currently the national suicide rate is 11.2 per lakh, whereas all the southern states have more than 16. It was also observed that the maximum number of suicides occurred between 15 and 29years of age. The extensive use of cell phones and peer pressures obtained through the messages play an important role in the above. Objective: This paper seeks to understand through various psychological and communication theories and methods the role of social and cyber media in the day today lives of youngsters and the affects thereby.  Methods: As per uses and gratification theory (Blumer and Katz, 1974), an individual seeks out a specific media to satisfy his/her specific needs. As it is an audience-centered approach, this paper focuses on the teenage users of the digital media and their behavioral progress from need to addiction.  The assumptions that the audience members are not passive consumers of media creates concerns about the mental health. This paper attempts to look in to the three pronged psychological approaches which are, towards the source (competence and warmth), normative influence (reciprocity), and affective influence (mood).