Social Media Usage and Psychosomatic Issues in South Asia: An Appraisal of Youth in Pakistan

Abstract

Social media is playing both positive and negative role on the mental health of individuals. The core objective of the study was in twofold i.e. to investigate the relationship between social media, loneliness and depression among youth and to analyze the magnitude of effect of loneliness, depression and social media usage among youth. A cross sectional study was conducted on the students of three renown public universities of Southern Punjab, Pakistan and N=384 respondents were approached through simple random sampling technique. Data was collected through questionnaire based four distinct parts i.e. socio-demographic profile, UCLA loneliness scale by Russel, Peplau and Ferguson (1978), Young Internet Addiction Test Short Form (YIAT-SF) by Young (1998) and items of depression were retrieved from Symptom Check List (SCL-90-R) by Derogatis (1977). Data was analyzed through Statistical Package for social sciences SPSS-21 version. Basic profile of the respondents was demonstrated through frequency and percentage while relationship and magnitude of effect of loneliness, depression and social media usage was analyzed through Pearson correlation coefficient P<0.01<0.05 and linear regression analysis. Findings of the study showed a positive significant relationship between depression and social media and little significant relationship between loneliness and social media. While depression was highly effected by social media usage and loneliness was little affected through social media usage. This study concluded that social media not only give benefits to people but also produce loneliness and severe depression among youth.