Impact of Social Media on Psychological Well-Being and Happiness Among Young Adults of Different Socio-Economic Groups in Delhi

Abstract

Social media is a very powerful tool in recent times. It can be used as a weapon or a protecting amour, both completely depending upon its usage. More rigorous use of social media can impact one’s mental health and emotions. The focus is to bring light upon the proven facts of how social media use can generate some impression of happiness and well-being. The objectives are – 1. To study the relationship between social media usage, happiness, and psychological well-being among young adults of different socio-economic groups; and 2. To assess the impact of social media usage on happiness and psychological well-being among young adults of different socio-economic groups. The sample is 104 young male and female adults of different socio-economic groups based in Delhi and was reached through Google Forms using purposive sampling. The tools used are Social Networking Usage Questionnaire (Gupta & Bashir, 2018), The Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999), and Psychological Well-being (Ryff & Keyes, 1995). The sample was assessed on Pearson’s correlation and regression analysis. The result reveals that there is a significant positive relationship between social media use, psychological well-being, and happiness. Whereas regression showed that no significant impact was found of social media use on the happiness and psychological well-being of young adults over different socio-economic groups. It is concluded that using social media creates a positive relationship between happiness and psychological well-being. An individual’s happiness and well-being tend to increase with the increase in exposure.