The Interplay between

Emotional Well-being and Social

Media
Krisna Napier
Arizona State University
PSY 586: Emotion
Carrie Lloyd,PhD
February 20, 2024
 Introduction

• Social media has revolutionized virtual interaction, with 80% of their day using platforms like Instagram,
Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube.

• Social disorder arises when offline existence is replaced by online, virtual lives.

• Many people feel driven to disconnect from the actual world when their emotional well-being is
compromised in favor of an immersive virtual environment that is enjoyable and full of fantasy (Cho, 2023).

• The internet has made the world more accessible, erasing national borders and making information
sharing more convenient.

• Relationships improve with more interpersonal communication and stronger ties with more social media
platforms.

• Younger generations often have more social media accounts, varying in usage for enjoyment or happiness.

• This essay aims to analyze the complexities of using social media in the youth’s lives, using a
mixed-methods research methodology.
 Literature Review

• Social media spaces such as Instagram and Facebook have a negative impact on well-being, including stress, despair, and
loneliness.

• According to a research by Marttila et al. (2021), Facebook has an impact on people's lives by diminishing their levels of
subjective well-being and life satisfaction. Life satisfaction and emotional equity are components of subjective well-being.

•Being connected on social media enhances relationships and lessens loneliness, which both contribute to life pleasure (Ye et al.,
2021).

• According to Preetha (2023), using online platforms to keep up virtual bonds often replaces lower-quality social interactions
with ones that are healthier; to some extent, weak bonds can be strengthened.

• Social connections are a significant predictor of well-being, influencing the interplay between one’s emotional health and
psychological dysfunction.

• According to Smith et al. (2021), theories of belongingness suggest that close relationships are formed through increased
closeness brought about by intense communication.

• The four fundamental building blocks of emotional health are happiness, anger/disgust, sorrow, and fear/surprise,

• According to Richter & Hunecke (2021), mental well-being is the condition that results from having healthy connections and
ideal hedonic well-being, which promotes happiness and higher levels of life satisfaction.
 Theoretical Framework

• Yaden & Haybron’s (2022) Emotional State theory of happiness suggests that overall emotional health determines happiness,
not just the ability to balance joy or pain.

• Emotional well-being is a comprehensive representation of moods and feelings, influenced by unconscious brain processing,
mental and psychological health, and fulfilling activities.

• Positive signaling in emotional well-being can make a person joyful.

• Pleasure, a balance of moods and emotions, is necessary for emotional well-being.

• Happiness-causing elements and pleasures contribute to emotional well-being, while pleasures can have lingering effects on
emotional health.

• Three distinct emotional states when happy: Endorsement, Engagement, and Attunement.

• Endorsement: Relates to overall emotional health, including key facial expressions like joy and grief.

• Engagement: Determined by an individual's energy levels, with exuberance being the superabundant condition of happiness and
delight.

• Attunement: Crucial component of happiness, characterized by mental calmness and inner assurance. Anxiety arises when
tranquility is associated with a psychic presence in enjoyment.
Materials and Methods

Mixed-Methods Study on Emotional Well-being of Social Networking Platform Users:

• Conducted in Detroit, Michigan.

• Conducted with 100 participants aged 15-25.

• Utilized survey questionnaire with five-item Likert scale.

• Analyzed responses using theory facets.

• Thorough interviews involving experts in social media and psychology.

• The interviews explored study objectives from respondents' perspectives.

 Findings

Emotional State Theory of Happiness

Analysis

• Utilized attunement
(tranquillity-anxiety axis),

engagement (exuberance-depression
axis),

endorsement (joy-sadness axis) for

survey research responses.

• Visual depiction of results provided in

Figure 1.
 Summary and Findings
Survey Analysis on Social Media Usage:

Endorsement (joy–sadness axis):

• Online communication is fulfilling and increases emotional energy levels.

• Users find virtual attention and emojis to be a source of happiness and elatedness.

Engagement (exuberance–depression axis):

• Majority of respondents are enthusiastic about virtual connections.

• Social media notifications cheer them up and make them emotionally aware.

• Lack of adequate social media communication can lead to restlessness and rejection.

Attunement (tranquillity–anxiety axis):

• Users perceive a fulfilling virtual life based on social media contact.

• Anxiety levels rise when a friend doesn't respond to their SMS.

• Social media is often used as a substitute for personal issues.

Discussion : (1)The Positive Impact of Social Media on
Emotional Well-being

Social Media's positive role:

• Social media provides a platform for emotional well-being and communication, reducing
loneliness.

• It spreads knowledge on mental health issues, boosting awareness and solidarity.

• Platform campaigns and movements reduce stigma and promote understanding.

• Platforms like Instagram and TikTok allow artistic self-expression, promoting personal
achievement and self-actualization.
(2) The Negative Social Media Impacts on Emotional
Health

• Social Comparison and Envy: Users feel inadequate

and desire unrealistic beauty and lifestyle expectations,
affecting self-esteem and overall well-being.

• Cyberbullying and Harassment: Social media sites

often host cyberbullying and online bullying, affecting
emotional health, especially vulnerable societal
members like adolescents.

• Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): Exposure to others'

experiences and activities can trigger FOMO, leading to
feelings of unfulfillment and inadequacy, affecting
emotional welfare.
(3) Psychological Mechanisms of Social Media Use

• Dopamine and Reward System: Social media engagement triggers dopamine, a

neurotransmitter linked to rewards and pleasure. This reveals the addictive nature of online
entities and their impact on psychological wellness.

• Social Comparison Theory: Social media serves as a platform for social comparison, affecting
self-esteem and emotional well-being.

• Online Disinhibition Effect: The anonymity and virtual distance in cyber interactions lead to
impulsive, expressive behavior, causing both positive and negative emotional impacts.
Conclusion

• Social media has accelerated the exchange of emotions, promoting social interaction.

• It can lead to mental and emotional health issues for users who are more frequent users of the platforms.

• Social media platforms can feed the natural desire to compare oneself to others, potentially leading to
emotional health abnormalities.

• A sense of interconnectedness improves relationships, leading to increased happiness and pleasure levels.

• Happiness is a product of a variety of happy feelings combined with the brain's feel-good neural pathways.

• Humans desire both pleasure and happiness as social beings.

• Pleasure is a fleeting, transient state of satisfaction, often accompanied by suffering.

• Happiness is the state of being internally felt to be self-sufficient, whereas contentment is a state of calm and
non-conflict that is mainly obtained from strong, intimate relationships.
Recommendations

• Implementing Digital Literacy and Media Literacy Programs: These programs empower users
to evaluate and manage social media content, fostering positive resistance to harm on emotional
wellbeing.

• Including Online Mental Health Support: These services provide medical help to depressed
individuals, creating a positive online environment.

• Using Personalized Content Controls: These measures, including customizable algorithms and
content censorship, allow users to control their social media exposure, promoting emotional
well-being.
Discussion Questions

1. How can people strike a balance between harnessing the good of social media for sociality and self-expression without
falling into the traps of social comparison and envy?
2. How can social media be used to promote the feelings of the users positively, and at what level of responsibility does social
media operate so as not to promote online vices?
3. Contemporary advancements in the realms of technology continue to evolve over the years and given such development,
then what role can one or the other emerging technologies such as augmented reality or virtual reality, play in implying the
interplay between affective well-being and social media?
4. How much should society rely on education and awareness programs regardless of the aspect of promoting digital literacy
and how much of the negative impact of social-media on mental health is a resilience through these initiatives can play?
5. In this emerging perspective on the social media’s influence upon emotional well-being how can the interdisciplinary
approach to insights from the fiancé of technology experts, mental health professionals, and ethicists eventually yield to a
much broader perspective on this leading dynamic in human psyche?
References

Cho, H. (2023). Recovery and Support: Motivations for Playing a Social Video Game in the Midst of a Pandemic.pdf. 1-17.
http://digra.org:9998/DiGRA_2023_CR_9643.pdf
Marttila, E., Koivula, A., & Räsänen, P. (2021). Does excessive social media use decrease subjective well-being? A longitudinal analysis of
the relationship between problematic use, loneliness and life satisfaction. Telematics and Informatics, 59, 101-556.
Preetha, P. (2023). Fear of Intimacy and Virtual Intimacy among College Students. Pdf,
1-94.http://digitallibrary.loyolacollegekerala.edu.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/2875/1/PREETHA%20P.pdf
Richter, N., & Hunecke, M. (2021). The mindful hedonist? Relationships between well-being orientations, mindfulness and well-being
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Smith, D., Leonis, T., & Anandavalli, S. (2021). Belonging and loneliness in cyberspace: impacts of social media on adolescents’
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Yaden, D. B., & Haybron, D. M. (2022). The emotional state assessment tool: a brief, philosophically informed, and cross-culturally
sensitive measure. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 17(2), 151-165.
Ye, S., Ho, K. K., & Zerbe, A. (2021). The effects of social media usage on loneliness and well-being: analysing friendship connections of
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