My Inquiry question this semester is “How does continuous engagement with social media platforms, without regular breaks, influence the mental health and academic performance of high school students?” I look forward to discovering how social media impacts the mental health and academic performance of students.
Research Step 1: Among high school students, what mental health issues are most commonly associated with excessive social media use?
This sub-question may seem quite obvious to some people, but it is a very important question to ask when researching about this specific Inquiry project. One simple mental health issue caused by frequent social media use is Anxiety. Continuous social media use can lead to an increase of social anxiety, and the fear of missing out (FOMO) which may be caused from viewing other people’s social outings, not being included. Depression is another component that correlates to excessive social media use. Symptoms of depression may increase when one scrolls through social media for long periods of time. This can be due to cyberbullying or unrealistic negative comparisons. Attention Issues may also spark up when scrolling through social media frequently. The constant notifications and fast-paced nature of social media can contribute to decreased attention spans and lack of focus. Watching fifteen second videos one may find on various platforms can reduce the attention span and disturb the focus of a student significantly.
Research Step 2: In what ways does social media use correlate with academic performance metrics like grades, attendance, and focus?
Social media can correlate with academic performance measures in a variety of different ways. It can correlate with grades as continuous social media use connects with lower academic performance. Many students spend their spare time scrolling on different social media platforms, taking away time that could be used in a better manner such as completing homework or studying. This procrastination leads to lower grades as many students would rather scroll tirelessly instead of complete their homework as it takes much less effort. Attendance is another factor that may overlap with frequent social media use. Quite a few students may experience disrupted sleep schedules due to late night usage. Consuming all of this blue-light so late at night disrupts the sleep pattern of a student which is very harmful in terms of academic performance as studies show the ideal amount of sleep for a student is between 8-10 hours. Teachers may find that a great deal of their students are late for Block 1 classes as many students slept in, having an unstable sleep schedule. I’ve already covered the focus component, but the constant notifications and fast-paced videos can really deteriorate a student’s attention span.
Research Step 3: How does social media influence high school students’ social interactions and relationships, and how does that impact their overall well-being?
This question can go two ways; positive and negative. One positive about social media is that it can connect students with other peers, creating friendships and providing people a sense of community when they feel alone. It can also create many support networks in which students can learn more about a topic they might not understand by their teacher during a lesson. On the flip side, social media can reduce social interactions as more and more people create a following online, and tend to develop an increased amount of social anxiety. Numerous platforms can also be very distracting, interfering with real life interactions. This can reduce face-to-face communication skills and opportunities for deeper connections. Overall, this can impact a student’s well being mentally as one can deal with anxiety, low self esteem, or depression. Social media may also be a coping mechanism for some students, finding a way to avoid their real life problems and emotions.
These three sub-topic questions provide me with more information for my overall Inquiry question as they allow me to dive deeper into this complicated topic.
How will this Inquiry question have implications to other individuals?
Everybody has their own opinion about certain things, and during this project I would encourage others to speak up about what they think about social media affecting the mental health and academic performance of high school students. Personally, I believe that social media contains more negative aspects to the world than positive, but others may disagree which is totally okay. Everybody perceives information differently, so the way I display my project may be in a way that another person disagrees with. During this project, I will try to look at certain aspects in different perspectives, and encourage other opinions as it will provide more insight into my project.
Thank you very much for reading my blog post, I hope you obtained some new information!
— Vanessa Vukovic
Sources:
Sun, L. (2023, October 31). Social media usage and students’ social anxiety, loneliness and well-being: Does Digital Mindfulness-based intervention effectively work? – BMC psychology. BioMed Central. https://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40359-023-01398-7
Katella, K. (2024, June 17). How social media affects your teen’s mental health: A parent’s guide. Yale Medicine. https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/social-media-teen-mental-health-a-parents-guide
Gupta, S. (2024, February 20). Social Media Harms Teens’ mental health, mounting evidence shows. what now? Science News. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/social-media-teens-mental-health
The University of Queensland. (n.d.). How does social media affect teenagers?. Study. https://study.uq.edu.au/stories/how-social-media-affects-teenagers
Office of the Surgeon General (OSG). (1970, January 1). Social media has both positive and negative impacts on children and adolescents. Social Media and Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory [Internet]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK594763/
The information you have presented within the research steps are very interesting as I did not know how deeply social media can affect mental health. I also did not realize that social media can also be beneficial as I have always assumed social media to be negative to mental health. One question I have is how would you define social media? Is YouTube social media? and is every site or app where you can share information social media?