Laura Williams

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PSYC104

PSYC104- Essay

25%

‘Do on-line friendships enhance or diminish psychological health?’

Word Count: 1253

Laura Williams
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‘Goodbye healthy friendships, Hello anxiety and depression’

Psychological health is essential to one’s wellbeing yet it is diminished by on-line friendships

and their damaging abilities. Across various pieces of research, it is evident studies and

scholarly sources support this theory. Social media platforms such as Instagram and

Facebook are the few that has people having less face to face contact with their peers.

Leading them to believe they have interacted with people without talking to them but rather

just seeing a photo of them somewhere that they posted. The discussion of Self-esteem,

mental health disorders and why following your friends on social media leads you to believe

you have communicated with those friends. The evidence throughout these sources will

support the argument of a diminishing psychological health when the highest level of

communication between friends is online rather than in person.

Self-Esteem is based on the social approval and support of friend networks, often self-esteem

diminishes due to lack of these. It is common that a position in a friend group is determined

from the popularity online as well as attractiveness from the number of likes within a post,

meaning that if friends have more likes or followers/ friends psychologically it has been

entered that you are beneath them. Responsiveness of social networking between friends is

detrimental to how people feel about themselves as their key feature is the presentation of

oneself ‘the main photo’ which is essentially a picture of how you would like others to see

you but not a true representation. Self-esteem can also be diminished from friends leaving out

of things and then seeing photos published later, giving a person the thought they aren’t good

enough to be seen with their online friends outside the online world. A Research study found

that the negative relationship between Facebook and self-esteem since self-presentation is

their key part of the of the usage of the social media. Those with lower self-esteem were
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found to be online more to promote themselves as a person hence hopefully changing their

social status amongst peers. (online social networking and mental health.) As communication

is 24/7 and it isn’t required that face to face interactions occur due to it being more efficient

and no physical exertion is required. It is evident that majority of friendships online across

the various platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, these online friendships are

unrealistic and harmful to their psychological health as they try to be this edited unattainable

perfection that in no way is realistic.

Furthermore, is evident on diminishing psychological health and its life orientating disorders

that are acquired from online itself and the friendships that are created from just being on-

line. Examining the information gathered by this source provides evidence supporting that

online friendships are putting people in terrible mental states that they develop disorders such

as depression, agoraphobia and social anxiety as they continuously attempt to be like their

friend’s online profile. This is according with how mental health is diminishing from constant

comparing oneself to these photos of friends and as it continues so will the mental states of

those using it profusely leading to such mental disorders. It was found that those that spend a

large amount of their time online rather than meeting their friends in person were more than

likely depressed, this being as social interaction in person is very beneficial to mental health

and all that comes with it such as playing sport (Twenge, J. 2017). The psychological damage

occurs due to the photos posted on Instagram of friends are unrealistic as they are staged to

make that person look the best they can, creating terrible body image. Therefore, it is evident

that screen time is a major contributing factor in the growth of depression amongst youths.

In addition, the ability to be anonymous is frighteningly easy online which has

psychologically damaging capabilities meaning until seen in person that person that you are
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talking to isn’t who they say they are or what they look like in their photos. These friendships

can also lead to unhealthy understandings of what peers are talking about due to the complete

lack of being able to distinguish tone or body language online, the only way being is through

emoji’s which can be interpreted in numerous ways thus increasing the psychological health

issues. To expand from friendships and anonymity, bullying doesn’t stop once school is over

these days people can be harassed all day at school then return home and still be under strain

from their tormentors. Consequently, leading to the deterioration of one’s psychological

health at the hand of their peers online. It is clear online bullying can be worse as those that

bully cannot see the anguish of those on the receiving end, previously home was a haven for

those being bullied yet now it is just another place they can be further bullied. A research

article further explains a case of putting anonymity upon candidates there was a clear

difference between someone’s online and offline personality (Henderson, S., & Gilding, M.

2004). This is vital to understand that people can befriend a person and only share a certain

part of them, manipulating the friendship until the possible meeting up with them in person

yet a lot of that time it doesn’t happen as they are hiding something. Therefore, anonymity is

a manipulation of one’s friendship and as they rarely leave offline it becomes a psychological

trauma, they could be a best friend that has decided they no longer like this person and want

to hide behind an alias to say how much they dislike a person.

Similarly, it is important to touch on face to face interactions in comparison to those online

and recognise the effects of lack of these interactions has on mental health for example

loneliness. As stated previously online people have an authoritarian view when it comes to

what they say online as they don’t see the outcome of what their saying thus creating a

psychologically traumatising zone. Loneliness is commonly associated with a diminishing

psychological health, especially when online. This is evident in a report that indicates the
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importance of face to face interactions in comparison to online relationships, sharing that the

quality of an interaction is far better when it is a face to face interaction (Mesch, G., &

Talmud, I. 2006). Online friendships are much less reliable and in the end are never as close

in friendship to those that aren’t online, friendship in person is much better for psychological

health and is much more reliable as there is no wait in response while online friendships can

see your message and possibly never read it. Results from a study on Facebook users also

found while although the users on Facebook were far more extraverted, they had much

stronger feelings of loneliness. (Ryan, T., & Xenos, S. 2011). Therefore, loneliness online is

detrimental to mental health, people need people to function in their usual order and it has

been proven that those most lonely tend to be online much more than those who aren’t.

To Conclude the evidence of psychological health diminishing due to online friendships is

obvious. From self-esteem issues, mental disorders, anonymity to loneliness it cannot be

denied that online friendships diminish the psychological health of all those that have more

interactions with those online rather than face to face interactions that have been proven to be

beneficial for one’s mental health. Therefore, it is evident that psychological health can be

determined through the amount of time spent online chatting in comparison to in person.

References

Deters, F. G., Mehl, M. R., & Eid, M. (2016). Does posting Facebook status updates increase
or decrease loneliness? An online social networking experiment. PsycEXTRA
Dataset, 31-39. doi:10.1037/e514472015-698

Henderson, S., & Gilding, M. (2004). ‘I’ve Never Clicked this Much with Anyone in My
Life’: Trust and Hyperpersonal Communication in Online Friendships. New Media &
Society, 6(4), 487-506. doi:10.1177/146144804044331
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Indian, M., & Grieve, R. (2014). When Facebook is easier than face-to-face: Social support
derived from Facebook in socially anxious individuals. Personality and Individual
Differences, 59, 102-106. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2013.11.016

Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2011). Online Social Networking and Addiction—A Review
of the Psychological Literature. International Journal of Environmental Research and
Public Health, 8(9), 3528-3552. doi:10.3390/ijerph8093528

Lima, M. L., Marques, S., Muiños, G., & Camilo, C. (2017). All You Need Is Facebook
Friends? Associations between Online and Face-to-Face Friendships and
Health. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 68. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00068

McEvoy, P. (2015, January 27). Explainer: What is social anxiety disorder? Retrieved April
28, 2018, from https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-social-anxiety-disorder-
36601

Mesch, G., & Talmud, I. (2006). The Quality of Online and Offline Relationships: The Role
of Multiplexity and Duration of Social Relationships. The Information Society, 22(3),
137-148. doi:10.1080/01972240600677805

Pantic, I. (2014). Online Social Networking and Mental Health. Cyberpsychology, Behavior,
and Social Networking,17(10), 652-657. doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0070

Ryan, T., & Xenos, S. (2011). Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship
between the Big Five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness, and Facebook
usage. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(5), 1658-1664.
doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.02.004

STIBEL, J. (2018, February 26). How much time on mobile phones and online is bad for your
mental health?Retrieved April 28, 2018, from
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/2018/02/26/how-much-time-mobile-
phones-and-online-bad-your-mental-health/371653002/.

Twenge, J. (2017, November 15). With teen mental health deteriorating over five years,
there’s a likely culprit [Editorial]. The Conversation. Retrieved April 28, 2018,
from https://theconversation.com/with-teen-mental-health-deteriorating-over-five-
years-theres-a-likely-culprit-86996

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Laura Williams
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