Social Media and Psychological Well-being in College Students

College students are faced with several obstacles including finding a new balance between school, work, and social life. This can negatively impact academic performance, social interactions, and personal relationships in the individual’s life. Secondly, influences such as screen time, social media, and stress can lead college students to experience higher levels of psychological well-being symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and lowered self esteem. Therefore, we hypothesize that there will be a significant increase in psychological well-being symptoms in college students. The purpose of this study is to expand on the findings between social media usage and psychological well-being symptoms. We are collecting data through SONA and paper fliers with a minimum sample size of 120 participants, aged 18 and up. We expect to see significant results in increased anxiety, depression, and lowered self esteem ratings. This study has been approved by the Murray State University IRB and data is still in the process of being collected. Our results will be presented at Scholar’s Week. Key Words: Anxiety, Social Media, Stress, well-being,