Abstract
Social media just like the rest of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) channels aid and promote speedy and easy access to information more especially among school adolescents. Social media use among school adolescents is a double-edged sword as they use them to connect friends and find information about many things including learning. However, they also spend too much time on them which affect their mental health and may cause them depression. This research investigated on the social media use: A risk factor for depression among school adolescents’ depression in Enugu State. Descriptive survey research was adopted for the study. The population of the study was all the school adolescents in Enugu State. Stratified random sampling was used to select 800 adolescents from 4 states. In each of the four states, 200 adolescents were selected. Self-structured questionnaire and Hamilton depression scale were used to elicit information for data collection. The results were analyzed using mean scores and standard deviations. The findings revealed that many adolescents spend up to 10 hours daily on social media, they prefers chatting on social media to talking to their parents, among other behaviours. The findings also indicated that; adolescents who spend up to 10 hours daily on social media have decreased activities and feeling of incapacity, adolescents who don’t have enough sleep in the night due their use of social media experience hallucination, low mood among other findings.
Highlights
The use of social media in everyday life activities is a relatively recent development that is welcome by the old and the young
While social media use has become an integral part of daily life of an adolescent, there are number of risks associated with social media use especially the negative effects on mental health such as depression, anxiety, suicide, worry, low self-esteem, suicide thoughts and so on
The major objective of this study is to investigate on social media use as a risk factor for depression among school adolescents’ in Enugu State
Summary
The use of social media in everyday life activities is a relatively recent development that is welcome by the old and the young. Social media applications are changing virtually everything more than ever before, such as how we connect and make friends that are immediate and those in far-away lands, how we transact businesses, market our products and purchase goods. The way young people especially the adolescents are actively involved in global online communication through social media has become a source of worry for researchers, parents and educators, as they (adolescents) spend more time on social media than on real world, making friends easier online and making connections in far-away countries. Part A was used to elicit information about the participants’ particulars, part B was used to find out if adolescents spend too much time on social media, while section C was adopted from Hamilton depression rating scale to elicit data about the effects of social media on depression among adolescents.
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