While some studies suggest that Facebook, Twitter, and the likes may contribute to depression among teens, others claim there are social media benefits to mental health.
The popularity of the use of social media is continuously increasing. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook are some well-known social media platforms.
Social media allows people to share and celebrate the different events of their family and friends' lives.
Benefits of social media to mental health
1. Relief from Loneliness
Social media opens a new way of communication. This social media benefit for mental health can help ease the feelings of loneliness.
It is a helpful tool for curing mental illnesses. Social media protects them from being judged by people because of their mental illnesses. It helps people with mental illnesses to express their emotions without requiring them to reveal their true identities.
2. Influence People to Shift to a Healthier Lifestyle
One of the most important social media benefits to mental health is its ability to change a person's lifestyle. Many people use social media platforms as a motivational mechanism. It can help influence people to change their unhealthy lifestyles, such as smoking and excessive drinking.
People posts photos and stories involving living a healthy lifestyle on social media sites. Other people who see these posts are influenced and encouraged to do the same.
Social media sites also allow people with similar goals to create groups and create a positive wall of encouragement to each other.
3. Help with Mental Health Research
The social media benefits include assistance to the research of medical experts. Social media helps professionals in the mental health sector to reach out to those with mental illnesses. Social media allows these medical practitioners to collect abundant data. These data are helpful for different types of medical research.
It can also help connect medical professionals with different practitioners in the different parts of the world.
4. Build Social Support
Some organizations offer help and support to conflicted individuals through social media sites. Some create unnamed forums for different people to connect and share life experiences. This social media benefit allows people to create groups with people from different places in the world.
Some groups in social media sites allow members to subscribe to SMS texts. These texts include advice, motivational quotations, and other information that uplifts a troubled person.
5. Meet New Friends by Participating in Local Meetups
Social media allows you to connect with people living near your area. It helps you meet different people near your area of residence. This function of social media sites allows people to create a broader scope of their network. It can help them with their work by attaining an additional number of people to do business.
Twitter's 'Tweetups' allows online meetups for people with the same interests. For example, a group of recovering drug addicts may do meetups and share their journey with battling their addiction. Some were fortunate enough to find their soulmate through 'Tweetups.'
Social Media Benefits
Social media helps people to create a network with their old friends and relatives. It gives people an update of their family's and friend's milestones in life. It also updates them with their involvement and contributions to the community where they belong. More than that, there are various social media benefits to mental health.
Read also : Effects of Social Media on Mental Health
