Addicted to likes: Social Media and Mental Health

Webinar Title:  

Addicted to likes: Social Media and Mental Health

Social media platforms, in particular networking sites like Facebook and Instagram, which currently have over a billion users and growing worldwide have become increasingly popular and pervasive over the years. Presently there is a  plethora of social media sites that allow the users to create a profile and within seconds they are connected to millions of people. This workshop will explore the role of social media and how it relates to mental health issues like depression, anxiety, self-validation and social comparison. Numerous studies have indicated that prolonged social media use (SMU) and depression/anxiety can be characterized by an emerging maladaptive pattern known as problematic social media use (PSMU). 

This workshop will explore various issues like user typologies, gender traits, sleep disturbances, connection with social media use and self-harm and suicide, addictive patterns to social media, and overall mental health implications for prolonged social media use. This is an interactive workshop where case vignettes will be presented to further enhance the learning experience and allow for direct application of learned principles. 

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to: 

1. Increase their knowledge of the various forms of social media platforms and their effect on a user’s mental health. Focusing on the role of likes and followers. 
2. Understand the various concepts of social media like: FOMO, SMU and PSMU.
3. Articulate and explore the role of social comparison: differentiating between upward and downward social comparisons and its effect on users mental health.
4. Understand the connection between intermittent reinforcement: becoming addicted to and anticipating a like or comment to a post.
5. Participants will be able to articulate protective factors to share with social media users to eliminate or decrease negative mental health outcomes related to media usage.