engleski

Times of Depression and Anxiety: The Link Between Social Media Use, Anxiety and Depression

Purpose: Smartphones and broadband Internet have sparked the growth of social networks. Triggered by cues people tend to spend a considerable amount of time on social networks. Some of the cues are boredom, gratification impulse, but also anxiety and depressiveness. Authors argue, and based on contemporary research, that extensive time and dependance on social network content at least keep people already moderately anxious and depressed, but also may fuel further mental health degradation. Methodology: Using validated scales: Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS-SF), anxiety scale (GAD-7) and depression scale (PHQ-9) the authors compiled a survey to detect correlation between extensive social media use, anxiety and depression. The survey collected 335 responses dominantly from student population in Croatia. The survey was distributed using an instrument of Google Forms online and consisted of 44 items in total. Results: The paper shows the direction and intensity of relationship between depressiveness, anxiety and extensive social media use. This research provides clues that depressiveness, anxiety and extensive social media use are moderately related. 27th CROMAR CONGRESS | LET THE MASKS FALL – NEW CONSUMER IN BUSINESS RESEARCH 189 Conclusion: Degraded mental wellbeing in a form of depressiveness and anxiety are moderately correlated with intensity of social media use and go along together. Further studies have to be made to try to determine causality between independent variable – social media use and dependent variables of anxiety and depression.

Social media, depression, anxiety, mental health

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