Spread of Anxiety in the U.S.

In the U.S. anxiety is an extremely common disorder affecting most people. It is extremely common in the adult population with the highest at risk group for emergence being young adults. Social media has taken over most users using at minimum two forms and pay a visit to them multiple times a day. While it can enhance ones physical well-being at times it can also be a form of stress and anxiety. There isn’t much actually known concerning linkage of increased anxiety levels and social site usage.

In Norway a experiment was performed on individuals age 16-88 showing evidence of excessive social media use recorded anxiety at greater levels. There was not any known study that has been executed to see if a larger span of social media users report increased levels of anxiety. Therefore this study tested a national representation of U.S. young adults and adults to conduct research on a broader group of people. Their objective was to investigate the association between higher anxiety levels and social media usages.  “It was hypothesized that more daily social media use would be associated with elevated dispositional anxiety symptoms and more severe recent anxiety-related impairment.” (Vannucci, Flannery, Ohannessiam, 2017, p.164)

The study’s contributors were on a national scale displaying emerging adults with a large range of ethnicities and schooling levels. With the highest percent 63.3 being represented by white, 3.5% other,  56.4% having completed high school, and the lowest 1.5% completing more than four years of colleges. A web based business with specializations in world trade research recruited the research group and enrolled them to the study online. The analyzer used different programs and technology to study and record the time spent by the study’s participants on different specific social networks on a average day. Results were represented on a scale of 0-4 0 being no use and 4 being four or more house of social media use. Contributors were also expected to respond to anxiety questionnaires asking questions on a broad range related to the topic.

There were a total of 563 emerging adults tested that had a broad range of anxiety related symptoms and severities. 6.33 daily hours on social platforms was the average among participants with males recording increased levels compared to that of females. The study concluded that greater online socialization network usage was directly linked with increased probability of an anxiety disorder.

The overall goal of the investigation was to “examine the association between social media usage and anxiety.” (Vannucci, Flannery, Ohannessiam, 2017, p.165). The findings suggested that the more social media use one has the higher the probability of an anxiety disorder. Despite the fact that a few research programs have concluded that social media usage isn’t related with increased anxiety this study’s data is consistent to that of previous research regarding the link of online media usage and stress/anxiety. Being exposed to social media has proven to bring about poor social comparisons like someone thinking that other people are living better lives or just in general happier and this leads to encouraged anxiety. The study provided clinical information over the link of anxiety and online social platforms. With social media expected to play a huge role in the future it is extremely important to understand how to treat and prevent anxiety.

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