Teenagers’ Utilization of Social Media in Taking Care of their Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study

• Main Authors: Bautista, Ralph Anthony C., Ibe, Justin Andrei P., Tampis, Julio Amir D.R., Warain, Aaron Shane N.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: social media; mental health; pandemic; effects; platforms
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/conf_shsrescon/2021/poster_cli/1; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/conf_shsrescon/article/1638/viewcontent/CLI_Teenagers__Utilization_of_Social_Media_in_Taking_Care_of_their_Mental.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

With the ongoing pandemic, mental health concerns have been observed to be on the rise. Lockdowns have prompted many, especially the youth, to primarily use social media for communication and for addressing their mental health issues. However, past studies merely investigated the positive and negative effects of social media on mental health in general; there have been scarce resources that detail how these platforms are used for mental health concerns during the pandemic, particularly among teenagers in the Philippine context. Hence, the study aims to examine the experiences of teenagers in using social media platforms in dealing with their mental health issues during the pandemic. Employing phenomenology, ten senior high school teenagers were interviewed through Zoom to determine how and why social media platforms are used in relation to mental health. Thematic analysis was employed to look for emerging themes. The results showed that platforms namely Twitter and Messenger were popularly used by teenagers. Such platforms were found to be used with limitations due to the fear of familial judgment and fear of disingenuous reactions. Also, it was found that the reasons for such social media usage were (a) to seek other modes of communication, (b) to look for a source of entertainment, (c) to express emotions, (d) to spread positivity, and (e) to raise awareness about mental health. With these findings, it can be concluded that social media does have a monumental role in sustaining or improving teenagers’ mental health. Thus, recommendations for future studies have been made.