Social Media and Emotional Well-being

Pursuit of Happiness or Pleasure

Bibliographic Data

ID21685122
AuthorsD Guna Graciyal (0000-0002-9979-2954, Mother Teresa Women's University, corresponding author), Deepa Viswam (Mother Teresa Women's University)
Year2021
Volume31
Issue1
Pages99-115
Publication date2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsia Pacific Media Educator (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1326-365X • E-ISSN: 2321-5410
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1326365x211003737
OpenAlexW3157250090
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited47

Virtual engagement of lives has been made possible with the advent of social media. Almost 80% of the day are spent virtually on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, etc. Usage of social media to connect to and communicate with the ones we care about is always healthy, termed as social networking. Social dysfunction occurs when the constant communication leads to the point where our real or offline life gets replaced by virtual or online life. There is a slight boundary between social networking and social dysfunction. When social networking is advantageous, social dysfunction affects emotional well-being. When emotional well-being is affected, many users experience a compulsion to dissociate from the real world as they find virtual world, full of fantasy and enjoyment. When the Internet was created, perhaps no one was aware of its potential. More than the convenience for sharing of information it has brought the world so close to crumbling the geographical boundaries. The more people-to-people communication is, the more is the strengthening of relationships, bonds grow stronger with ‘more’ social media platforms. Being on ‘more’ social media platforms has become a benchmark for living amidst the younger generation. Either as an activity of happiness or as an activity of pleasure, users tend to use social media at varying levels. This paper aims to conceptualize the the intricacies of social media in young lives and to discern whether their association is happiness or pleasure activity. The research method of this paper has a mixed-methods research design combining data from structured survey with information outputs from in-depth interviews

Happiness · Internet privacy · Pleasure · Social media · Sociology · World Wide Web · Child Development and Digital Technology · Computer Science · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Media Influence and Health · Psychology · Social Psychology

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Open DOI