Title:
SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE, ADDICTION AND DEPRESSION IN YOUNG AND MIDDLE ADULTS OF CHENNAI AND BANGALORE

Authors:
Dr. Nivedita Danammanavar Dr. Sujata Gupta Kedar and P J Suviera

Abstract:
Social media has become inseparable part of everyone’s life especially because of covid-19 pandemic. The present study was undertaken during the year 2020 with the objective to explore types of social medias, its usage, social media addiction and depression level in young and middle adults in Chennai and Bangalore cities. Three hundred and twenty samples in total were equally distributed across cities, age, and gender. Social Media Addiction Scale developed by Unal. T et.al. in 2015 and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) developed by Beck et al. in 1961 along with the interview schedule were used. The data was collected online and subjected to different statistical methods. The results across cities are almost similar and states that Whatsapp and YouTube are the most common apps used by middle adults. Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat are most commonly used sites by young adults. Facebook is most used site by middle adults. Other social media apps include telegram, signal, Pinterest, Hike, and Discord which are used only by very few young adults. Majority of the young and middle adults are moderately addicted to social media and have mild to moderate depression. Very few individuals are into severe social addiction and severe depression who requires immediate attention from the professionals. Intense intervention is required for these individuals. As moderate social media addiction and moderate depression also indicates that there is necessity to intervene these individuals to avoid them from reaching the severe stage. Hence, intervention for both young and middle adults at family and community level is required.

Keywords:
social media, social media usage, social media addiction, depression

DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.37500/IJESSR.2021.4503