Self-Disclosure on Social Media and Its Influence on the Well-Being of Youth

Abstract

This article investigates how social networking sites (SNS) usage among youth influence their wellbeing. It specifically examines the impacts of SNS from the perspective of information sharing and self-disclosure. The study subjects are students at a vocational institute in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This group was chosen due to their unique and different academic orientations compared to their private and public universities counterparts. Based on a qualitative approach, the study explores the following research objectives based on in-depth online interviews with twenty first-year students: to determine respondents' preferred SNS and how they use them, and how self-disclosure on SNS affects their well-being. The finding found three types of groups concerning the level of self-disclosure and its effect on wellbeing among youth. The first group mainly engages in passive SNS, mostly uses Instagram, and regards SNS as less meaningful but positively influences their lives. The second group engages in active social media usage but only discloses positive aspects of their daily lives. This group mainly uses Facebook and found social media meaningful and positively influenced. The third group is those who use SNS actively and express their happiness and upsetting emotional state on SNS. They are very active on Twitter and find social media very meaningful. This study shows that different individuals apply their strengths and virtues differently on SNS to adapt to different life situations. The findings found that respondents flourish under certain conditions when using SNS regardless of different levels of self-disclosure and SNS usage. Keywords: Social media, wellbeing, youth, usage influence, self-disclosure.