Spencer Bowers

Aseeya Grant-Aitahmad
Hayden Limbach
Ivan Mayorquin Cabello
The Impact of Social Media on College Students Mental Health
Ivan:
Berg, Alex. The Price Of Athletic Perfection And Social Media Huffpost Live. Huffington Post.
May 27, 2015. Web. Mar. 1, 2016. <http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/collegeathletes-depression-suicide-social-media-twitterinstagram/5552480d78c90acb13000059>
A Huffington Post Live Discussion hosted by Alex Berg discusses the impact that social media
has on mental health. They give a good detail of a Pennsylvania runner who committed suicide
due to major stress from social media. This discussion goes into detail of how social media can
add an unhealthy comparison to others, which in turn damages the mental health of that student
athlete. It shows that social media does have a major negative effect on the student athlete.
Brown, Gary T. Mind, Body and Sport Understanding and Supporting Student-Athlete
Mental Health Wellness. National Collegiate Athletic Association. Oct. 2014. Web. Mar.
1, 2016
Gary T. Browns Mind, Body and Sport Understanding and Supporting Student-Athlete Mental
Wellness (2014) explains why colleges should take major steps to helping student athletes get the
help that they need in higher education. It goes into detail of how student athletes are suffering
mentally due to many factors, one of those major factors is cyberbullying. It goes into detail on

how damaging it is for student athletes mental health to experience cyberbullying as well as the
pressure to succeed as an athlete, tying back to the original claim that colleges need to focus on
mental health of the student athletes.
Browning, Blair, and Jimmy Sanderson. "The Positives and Negatives of Twitter: Exploring How
Student-Athletes Use Twitter and Respond to Critical Tweets." Chronicle. N.p., Dec.
2010. Web. Mar. 1, 2016. 2016.
<http://chronicle.com/blogs/players/files/2012/12/athletes_twitter.pdf>.
Blair Browning and Jimmy Sandersons The Positives and Negatives of Twitter: Exploring How
Student-Athletes Use Twitter and Respond to Critical Tweets talks about their research of the
impact that Twitter has on the student athletes. Unlike the other articles, this research goes in
detail of the benefits that social media has on the student athletes but also how the students who
were apart of the research understood how to handle it but it yet took a toll on the individual.
This shows that while Twitter can have its benefits, it also does mental harm to student athletes.
Carr, Chris, Barb Hansen, Kenneth Chew, Jr., and Mary Wilfert A Game Plan to Address
Student-Athlete Mental Health and Substance Use Issues University of Michigan
Depression Center. Feb. 27, 2013. Web. Mar. 1, 2016.
The authors of A Game Plan to Address Student-Athlete Mental Health and Substance Use
Issues covers how the NCAA should handle mental health issues, covering topics such as
substance abuse and communications. One topic that they discuss is social media and how this
makes student athletes mature in one way but not in another. Such things have an impact on
student athletes, as they can get themselves in precarious situation that they would have avoided
if it wasnt for social media, which is harmful to the mental health of the student athlete.

Hernandez, Aaron All Quiet on the Digital Front: The NCAA's Wide Discretion in Regulating
Social Media Texas Review of Entertainment & Sports Law. Texas: University of Texas.
Sept. 2013
Aaron Hernandezs All Quiet on the Digital Front: The NCAA's Wide Discretion in Regulating
Social Media (2013) writes about how impactful social media is not only to student athletes, but
to universities as well. The author uses as an example of Manti Te'os Twitter debacle, which is a
perfect example of how social media had a major impact on Manti Te'os mental health, as the
major criticism had major damage to his image. This shows that universities should have
restrictions of social media use to student athletes.
Hopkins, Jamie P. et al Being Social: Why the NCAA Has Forced Universities to Monitor
Student-Athletes Social Media. Journal of Technology Law & Policy. Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh. 2013
Jamie P. Hopkins, Katie Hopkins & Bijan Wheltons Being Social: Why the NCAA Has Forced
Universities to Monitor Student-Athletes Social Media (2013) dissects the importance of
monitoring and how to monitor social media for student athletes. It goes into detail on how the
NCAA should go about monitoring this and how beneficial this is to the colleges and studentathletes. Hopkins tells the readers, who are people in power, that colleges should monitor the
social media of student athletes as it prevents student athletes from being bullied online, in turn
not harming them mentally.

Aseeya:
Covarrubias, Rebecca, Andrea Romero, and Michael Trivelli. "Family Achievement
Guilt and Mental Well-being of College Students." Journal of Child and

Family Studies 24.7 (2015): 2031-37. PsychINFO. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.

This study focused on the impact of family members relationship to the member that was
attending college. The study hypothesized that first generation college students would have
issues with self-esteem, as well as depression due to feeling guilty of their education. The
conclusion proved the hypothesis right. First generation college students did in fact did see
higher numbers in depression as well as low self-esteem than non-first generation college
students. The conclusion discussing that the students did not feel like they deserved the education
or that they didnt want to appear greater than members in their family, then leading to
depression. The tested participants saw higher levels of what the article calls family
achievement guilt. In summary, the findings display how family plays a crucial part of the
success of their first generation college students.
Denenny, Danielle, et al. "Subthreshold Psychotic Symptom Distress, Self-Stigma, And Peer
Social Support Among College Students With Mental Health Concerns." Psychiatric
Rehabilitation Journal 38.2 (2015): 164-70. PsychINFO. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
This study aims to reveal the effect of the amount of social support and how it relates to distress.
The subjects of this study were younger college students who claimed having a past or present
mental health diagnosis. The result of this study was that there was limited relationship between
distress being associated with psychosis and self-stigma. The major conclusion however, was
that there was a large connection between distress and psychosis and self-stigma for students
who had a low social support compared to students with high social support. This is something
colleges may look to improve on, providing their students with safe and fun places to build
various support systems.
Gale, Jill, and Madhusudan Deepak, Thalitaya. "Mental Health Support Service For

University Students." Psychiatria Danubina 27.Suppl 1 (2015): S115-S119. PschINFO.

Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
This article addresses how helpful facilities can be for student patients that are recovering from
mental illness. The service consists of professionals some working full, or part time were able to
provide support to patients whenever they needed it. The results of this study stated that students
found it valuable to have professional help at their disposal. Many of the students even credited
this program to success at their university and helped them finish out their degree.
Hsieh, Nancye L. "A Collaboration Of Student Nurse Coaches And Students With Mental
Illnesses In A College Preparation Project." Psychiatric Rehabilitation 33.3
(2010): 200-06. PsychINFO. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
This article focused on the actual treatment and recovery of students with mental illnesses. The
study shows positive results of giving patients a strong support group. A hard part of mental
health can be the recovery and this provides promising results of providing facilities that are
dedicated solely to students in recovery. This proposal also offers positive results because of the
aid offered to students with mental illness.
Kim, Jin E., Nolan Zane, and Anne Saw. "The Influence of Psychological Symptoms
on Mental Health Literacy of College Students." American Journal Of
Orthopsychiatry 85.6 (2015): 620-30. PsychINFO. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
Many college students are affected by depression varying from severity. Though many are
impacted by depression most will not recognize it or if they do, will not go seek out help. The
first study in this article addresses the amount of college students that are depressed. It examines
that those with more severe depression are less likely to recognize it as well as seek out help than

people with less severe depression. The second study in this article expands on the first, looking
to see if students that suffered from depression would seek aid for their illness. The participants
of the study, obviously students, share whether they acknowledge their depression and if severe
enough would they reach out to get help.
Merlo, Lisa J., and Amanda M. Stone. "Attitudes of College Students toward Mental Illness
Stigma and the Misuse of Psychiatric Medications. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 72.2
(2011): 134-39. PschINFO. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
This article addresses the attitude or stigma many college students have with mental illness. Its
objective is to find out if students are less likely to look for treatment if they have a negative
understanding of mental illness. This study also tested students for misuse of psychiatric
medications. The conclusion of this segment found that more students claimed to be using
psychiatric drugs for reasons other than treatment. Something that stood out that with the
students that misused those drugs had less of a stigma with mental illness. This study concludes
that education on mental illness as well as closer monitoring of psychiatric meds will play a
major role in improving these results.

Spencer:
Al-Khateeb, Abdulrahman, & Hanan Y. Abdurabu. "Using social media to facilitate medical
students interest in research." Medical Education Online, 19 (2014): n. pag. Web. 1 ;Mar.
2016
Using social media to facilitate medical students interest in research is short but sweet. This
article although it is short provides examples of how social media, specifically Facebook and
Twitter, have helped medical students obtain more knowledge and acquire more skills. This

article would play the role of providing information that allows a reader to have ideas of what to
do to start up a social media group, what to do with the group, and how to use the social media.
This helps one understand that social media can affect a student mentally in a good way.
Blankenship, Mark. "How Social Media Can And Should Impact Higher Education."
Education Digest 76.7 (2011): 39. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 1 Mar.2016.
How Social Media Can and Should Impact Higher Education talks about the effective nature
of Social Media in regards to students and teachers alike. This could help with discussing how
social media affects Students in Higher Education and how teachers can use it to help students in
learning as a healthy mental tool for students. This information is helpful towards students who
can use it to see when social media is appropriate and when it is not. How social media can be
used appropriately as well.
David C. DeAndrea, Nicole B. Ellison, Robert LaRose, Charles Steinfield, Andrew Fiore.
Serious social media: On the use of social media for improving students' adjustment to
college. The Internet and Higher Education, Volume 15, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages
15-23, ISSN 1096-7516.
Serious Social Media: On the use of social media for improving students adjustment to
college discusses how social media can be helpful toward students who are just entering the
college scene. This article could be used to discuss the adjustment features of students in Higher
Education due to social media and how it helps with their mental state. Social media can be
helpful toward students trying to adjust to college life in a good way.
Donghee Yvette Wohn, Nicole B. Ellison, M. Laeeq Khan, Ryan Fewins-Bliss, Rebecca Gray.

The role of social media in shaping first-generation high school students' college
aspirations: A social capital lens. Computers & Education, Volume 63, April 2013,
Pages 424-436, ISSN 0360-1315.
The role of social media in shaping first-generation high school students college aspirations
discusses the effect social media has on High School students looking to move forward with
attending college, as they would be the first in their family to go to college. These students are
able to find out the process of the college application. This article would fit in with Higher
Education based on the fact that these High School students are trying to enter into Higher
Education and social media is a part of helping them do that.
Esam Alwagait, Basit Shahzad, Sophia Alim.Impact of social media usage on students
academic performance in Saudi Arabia Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 51, Part
B October 2015, Pages 1092-1097, ISSN 0747-5632
Impact of social media usage on students academic performance in Saudi Arabia explains the
effects of social media on students in Saudi Arabia. It explains a little bit about other regions of
the world and how social media has affected them in relation to their grades. Statistics were
provided within the article. Those statistics help to explain the effect social media has had on
students in relation to their mental health and how that affects their grades. In the end, students
were not affected by social media use in regards to their GPA or academic performance.
Junco, Reynol. Engaging Students through Social Media: Evidence Based Practices for Use in
Student Affairs. Wiley, 2014.
Engaging students through Social Media (focusing on Chapter 3) does a good job of
explaining how social media will help students to engage. A personal account in Chapter 3 from

the author about the academic performance of students and the use of Facebook and how there
isnt any correlation between the two for students having lower grades because of Facebook.
This author spoke to campus newspaper reporters who were astonished at the outcome. This
could be used to explain how the normal view that many teachers and academics have about
social media and it having a negative effect on students academic performance is fallacious and
that the mental state of a student isnt affected by social media.

Hayden:
Ang, Rebecca P. & Wilkinson, Nathan & Goh, Dion H. ONLINE VIDEO GAME THERAPY
FOR MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS: A REVIEW (2008): International Journey
of Social Psychiatry. Web. 3 Mar. 2016
When video games first started to pop up in the 1980s, there were small amounts of
controlled experiments for their application in therapy. Therapeutic potential for video games
lies in issues such as Aggression, Anxiety, ADHD, Personality & Psychotic Disorders, and
Autism. Many practitioners will still prefer the benefits of face-to-face encounters, but in time
we will continue to see the growth of alternative virtual therapy.
I can use this source to detail some of the more positive effects games can have on a students
mental health. If a student is stressing over a difficult equation on their math homework, a quick
game of Tetris could work wonders by stimulating different parts of the mind and giving the
math a brief rest.
BBC News Team + Griffiths, Mark. Online gamers are not unhealthy (2008): BBC News.
Web. 29 Feb. 2016

Over 7,000 avid players of an online game EverQuest II were surveyed about their habits. The
data showed that their average BMI resided just at what is considered overweight, and below the
average for Americans, and that many exercised twice per week. Professor Mark Griffiths says:
People talk about excessive gaming as if its always bad to take part in gaming, but the context
is important. He says that there are two kinds of people that play EverQuest for 12 hours per
day. One is obsessed, the other is completely normal.
This source lets me provide evidence that people do play games for extended periods of time, but
arent affected mentally by it. Can come in handy when writing about how what some news
sources would consider to be addiction can just be devotion to a beloved pastime.

Chan, Phillip A. & Rabinowitz, Terry. A cross-sectional analysis of video games and ADHD
symptoms in adolescents (2006): BioMed Central. Web. 1 Mar. 2016
A survey of 72 teens and their parents was made. Kids that played more than one hour of video
games tended to exhibit stronger symptoms of ADHD, and thusly were more likely to have
trouble maintaining a higher GPA and more prone to having trouble with school.
This is a good source for me because I can use this data to support the idea that video games do
not have a negative mental effect or addictive properties on people. It supports the idea that
pre-existing issues and disorders such as ADHD are the causes of stress, and that playing a game
is people's solution to that.
Portnow, James & Floyd, Daniel. Extra Credits - Game Addiction (part 1)
(2012): YouTube Extra Credits Channel. Web. 2 Mar. 2016
Daniel states that in all severe cases of so-called game addiction, the mental health of the
subjects has been called into question. He goes on to tell the viewer that in order for something

to be addictive, it must fundamentally alter somebodys brain chemistry, which is impossible for
video games. Media fear-mongering has led many people to believe that games are the cause of
certain mental health issues. They are compelling, but it still can be a real issue for those that
cant regulate themselves, as Daniel puts it when he explores the counter-argument.
This is a great source for my paper for when I want to address the issue of media sensationalism
and how some people can develop an unhealthy relationship with video games.
Portnow, James & Floyd, Daniel. Extra Credits - Game Compulsion (Part 3) (2013): YouTube
Extra Credits Channel. Web 2 Mar. 2016
Human beings live in a world populated by six million other people. This wears on the human
psyche as a result. Nobody picks up a video game and becomes an addict, it doesnt work that
way. Games give people a strong sense of control and reward direct effort to succeed using the
problem-solving skills that dont get recognition in other areas of life. Studies show that those
who perform an action through a sense of purpose and goal perform better than those who dont,
regardless of IQ. The harmful point of game compulsion is when real-life feels uncontrollable
by comparison.
Pulling statements and information from this source will allow me to show some of the more
important points about how video games are a good thing for mental health, and perhaps Segway
into my point on how games can be therapeutic for stressed individuals.
Wood, Richard T. A. Problems with the concept of Video Game Addiction (2007): Springer
Science + Business Media LLC. Web. 1 Mar. 2016
Wood states that no such clinical criteria of video game addiction exists. There are four
categories of people that are being labeled as addicts:

Those labeled by overly concerned parents and close friends when in reality there is

nothing wrong with their habits.

Those that have pre-existing problems and turn to games.

Those concerned about their own behavior simply because 1 and 2 can refer to themselves

as addicts.

Those that are just bad at managing their gaming time.

This source dives deep into what the sensationalist game addiction really is. These four points
can be used to further establish that video games come as a solution, not as a cause of mental
stress.