A Final Word

While it is not always wise to view difficult issues in black and white, however, the view “the use of online media has a negative effect on the mental health of individuals” was argued more convincingly in the three supporting articles discussed in this blog, than the opposing view (that the use of online media does not have a negative effect on the mental health of individuals), which was argued in the three opposing articles discussed in this blog.

The entry “Building Social Support online” (which discusses the article “Using the internet to Build Social Support: Implications for Well-being and hope, Kathy Wengarten”) and the entry “The Positive Effect of Online Depression Communities” (which discusses the article “Challenging the Internet Paradox: Online Depression Communities and Well-Being, Galit Nimrod, Ben-Gurion - University of the Negev, Israel”) both highlight the internet’s potential for connecting individuals. These articles both argued that the use of online media could be employed to the benefit of the user’s mental health, because the social use of the internet supports both mental wellbeing and social wellbeing. In contrast, the entry “The Mental Health of Younger Users (discussing the article “Internet Use and Psychological Well-Being among 10-Year-Old and 11-Year-Old Children”) sheds a dark light on the use of social media, claiming that through cyber bullying, and the use of social gaming sites known as ‘multi player online games’ the social use of the internet has a negative influence on the mental health of individuals. According to the article “Internet Use and Psychological Well-Being among 10-Year-Old and 11-Year-Old Children” the social use of online media is associated with a poorer state of mental wellbeing, therefore, the use of online media had a negative effect on the mental health of individuals.  The strength of the argument presented by the entry “The Mental Health of Younger Users” is reinforced by the size of the survey in which the findings supporting these claims where based.  The 2009 Kids’ Life and Times Survey (“involving 3657 children aged 10 or 11 years old in Northern Ireland representing a response rate of 30% of schools and 15% of pupils”) indicated that Girls who said that they used social networking websites ‘‘a lot’’ were also the group of individuals, that were “most likely to have the lowest PWB (psychological well-being)”. This survey also indicated that the use of multi-player online games (MPOGs) had a statistically significant, negative effect on the psychological wellbeing of young girls, but not on young boys. The results show that “Girls who said they used MPOG ‘‘a lot’’ had the lowest mean scores and these mean scores differed significantly from those of girls who never played online games”.

One of the most persuasive entrees in this blog “Adolescents & Internet Addiction” uses the article “Internet addiction, adolescent depression, and the mediating role of life events: Findings from a sample of Chinese adolescents, Linsheng Yang, Liang Sun, Zhihua Zhang, Yehuan Sun, Hongyan Wu, and Dongqing Ye” to argue that the use of online media has a negative influence on the mental health of individuals. This article builds upon the findings of previous studies that indicated a relationship between internet addiction and depression. The current study indicated that the relationship between internet addiction and adolescent depression was fully mediated by stressful life events. The research revealed that “the indirect effect of Internet addiction on depression through the mediator of life events was statistically significant”. The entry discusses how internet addiction can cause adolescents to spend excessive time alone, on the internet. Spending excessive time using online media leads to a lack of social interaction potentially to academic failure, leading to “more stressful life events from study, peers, and family in real-world situations”, thus; the excessive use of online media leads to stressful life events, which are already “a well-established risk factor for depression”.

Two distinctive areas of the debate surrounding the effect of the internet on the mental health of individuals is the issue of pornography, and the positive influence of internet use can have on the elderly.

Pornography, as discussed in the entry The Pornography Problem (discussing the article “Use of Internet Pornography and Men's Well-Being, Philaretou, Andreas G; Mahfouz, Ahmed Y, Allen, Katherine R.” exposes the negative effect that the use of internet pornography (a specific form of online media) can have on the mental health of internet porn users described as “cybersex compulsives” negative in terms of “depression, anxiety, and problems with felt intimacy with their real-life partners”. Based on information gained through an interview process, the research team revealed that that the technological characteristics of “relative ease, anonymity, and affordability of establishing and maintaining sexual interactions we appealing to recreational, compulsive, and to at-risk users”. They also learnt, “that negative intrapersonal consequences for Cybersex compulsives and at-risk users in terms of experiencing considerable guilt, depression, anxiety, and a general inability to experience adequate intimacy with real-life partners”. Based on these findings, it is easy to see a clear connection between the use of specific forms of online media and a decline in the mental health of an individual.

The article “The Impact of the Internet on the Well-Being of Older Chinese, Xie, Bo” which was discussed in the entry “The Internet and the Elderly”, presents the salient finding of their study “The Internet Makes Life after Retirement More Meaningful”. This article promotes the internet as a tool for the elderly to improve their mental health through meaningful occupation, although this study was limited by cultural differences (many elderly Chinese are forced into early retirement and the use of the internet in China is often limited to the wealthy) the findings of this study are reinforced by numerous accounts from research conducted around the world.

Through the analysis of these articles, we can observe solid evidence that the use of some forms of online media have a significant negative effect on the mental health of individuals however without the addition of the key word ‘some’ to the statement “the use of online media has a negative effect on the mental health of individuals” is not easy to conform or to disprove. Despite this, I believe that within the articles discussed in this blog, there is more evidence that the effect of the use of online media on individuals is a negative effect, rather than a positive effect.