INTRODUCTION1.0Background During the past 10 years, the rapiddevelopment of social networking sites (SNSs) such as Instagram has causedseveral profound changes in the way people communicate and interact. Instagramis a mobile, desktop, and Internet-based photo-sharing application and servicethat allows users to share pictures and videos either publicly, or privately topre-approved followers. It was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, andlaunched in October 2010 as a free mobile app exclusively for the iOS operatingsystem. A version for Android devices was released two years later, in April2012, followed by a feature-limited website interface in November 2012, andapps for Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 in April 2016 and October 2016respectively. Instragram, one of the biggest socialmeida ,today has more than one billion active users, and it is estimated that in thefuture, this number will significantly increase, especially in developingcountries. Instagram is used for both business and personal communication, andits application has brought numerous advantages in terms of increasingconnectivity, sharing ideas, and online learning.
Recently, however, some researchers haveassociated online social networking with several psychiatric disorders,including depressive symptoms, narcissism, and low self-esteem. Since socialnetworks are a relatively new phenomenon, many questions regarding theirpotential impact on mental health remain unanswered. On the other hand, due tothe popularity of these online services in the general population, any futureconfirmed connection between them and psychiatric diseases would pose a seriouspublic health concern. This concise review focuses onthe recent researchregarding Unisel student’s perception towards depression caused by Instagram.
11.1Problem Statement Social media dramatically changed the way wecommunicate, socialize, and make and maintain friendships. While there arebenefits to living in a digital world, there are also risks.
Approximately ninetypercent of college students have a Instagram account, and it is estimated thatthe average amount of time spent on this social networking site ranges fromthirty minutes to over two hours on a daily basis. With all this time spent ona networking site that allows users to create a profile, upload pictures, andshare information about the self with others, one must wonder what the implicationsare on an individual’s mental health. To address the issue of depression caused by Instagram, the first questionraised in this study is: how Instagram causes depression? The main purpose ofthis research is to expand onprevious research, explore the relationshipbetween the Instagram and depression and to investigate Unisel student’s perception towards depressioncaused by Instagram based on verbal content, visual content and frequency ofexposure to Instagram. 21.2Conceptual FrameworkFigure1 : Unisel student’s perception towards depression caused by Instagram. The conceptualframework shows the relationship between independent variable and dependentvariable. This research depends mainly on how the verbal content on Instagram,visual content on Instagram and how frequency of exposure to Instagram cancause depression to the respondents.
All three independent variable can help todetermine how the respondents’ perception towards depression caused byInstagram.1.3Research Objective · To study Unisel student’s perceptiontowards depression caused by Instagram based on verbal content.
· To study Unisel student’s perceptiontowards depression caused by Instagram based on visual content.· To study Unisel student’s perceptiontowards depression caused by Instagram based on frequency of exposure toInstagram.31.4Research Questions.The researcher identified three main questions whichare regarded as the researcher’s main concern :1) Do the respondentuses Instagram?2) How frequently therespondent uses Instagram?3) How the verbalcontent on Instagram can cause depression?4) Why the visualcontent on Instagram can cause depression? 1.5Significant of the study.1.
This research is important to understandUnisel student’ perception towards depression caused by Instagram. This studyshowed that Instagram caused depression to Unisel students. 2. This research also helped to solve thequestion on why Instagram has been one of the main reason of depression. 3. Theoutcome of this research can be useful Instagram users. Theycan avoid form the negative sight of Instagam and use it more wisely. 4.
Thisresearch can be guideline for other researchers who are interested to do studyon depression caused by Instagram. 5. To get better information about Instagram 4 1.6 Limitation Although this research has reached itsaims, there were some unavoidable limitation.The main limitation are : 1. TimelimitØ Becauseof the time limit, this research was only conducted only on a small sizepopulation of Unisel students. Therefore, to generalize the result for largergroups the study should involve more participants around all areas in Malaysia. 2.
DataØ Thedata obtained may differ for time to time. 3. Findings.Ø Thereaders is cautioned that the findings reported here are qualitative and notquantitative in nature. The study was designed to explore how respondents feeland rather to determine how many think or act in specific ways. Therefore, thefindings can’t be serve as a basic statistical generalization, but should beinstead viewed as working hypothesis, subject to quantitative validation.
5 LITERATURE REVIEW2.0 IntroductionIn this chapter, previous studies have been thoroughly analysed to seethe determinants and factors depression caused by Instagram. Theory related to socialmedia and depression are also highlighted in this chapter .Both the dependentand independent variable used by previous researches have also been analysedcritically.2.1Theoretical backgroundSocial Comparison theory Leon Festinger’s Social Comparison theorysays that: “People evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparisonrespectively with the opinions and abilities of others” (Festinger .,1954).
Itposits that one’s feeling of self-worth and self-confidence is based largely onsocial comparisons. In other words, people judge a lot of what they do or howthey feel about themselves on what they see happening around them, whetheronline or in real life. It isimportant to note that many of the comparisons that people make are with peoplewhom they think embody some sort of perfection. In fact, more than “80% ofcomparisons made by women” including both peers and models, “are in the upwarddirection” and usually “result in negative outcomes, such as body dissatisfaction”(Fitzsimmons., 2011).
It is those upward comparisons that tend to be the causeof a more negative sense of self-esteem and body image because the people withwhom we compare ourselves are usually representative of an ideal. Socialcomparison theory recognizes that people who are already dissatisfied withtheir 6 appearancesare more likely to make upward comparisons and participate in more detrimentalactivities to eventually reach an “ideal” appearance. Social media makes social comparisons evenmore competitive. People now have tangible, qualitative figures to fall back onwhen judging their self-worth. The social media like Instagram that encourage”clicking like” on photos or comments means that each photo has a permanentnumber associated with how well-liked it is. For some, that number representstheir reality – their popularity, their acceptance, their attractiveness – andif lower than those of others, can be detrimental to their self-esteem whichcauses depression.
Now, people are not only comparing themselvesto the photos that they see, but also weighing that with what others comment onthose photos. In other words, people can now compare themselves to others, aswell as base their own comparisons on comments that have already been made by athird party. Put simply, “perceptions are shaped not exclusively by whatprofile users disclose about themselves but als based on others’ comments onInstagram” (Hong.
, 2012). This is referred to as the “warranting principle,”which says that “judgment from other-generated information is more influentialthan judgment from self-generated information” (Hong ., 2012).
2.2 Past Research Numerous studies identify connections betweensocial media use and negative outcomes such as increased depression, anxiety,compulsive behavior, loneliness, and narcissism. The idea that Internet use mayhave a negative effect on one’s wellbeing is not new.
7 In 1995, The Home Net Project providedInternet access and a computer to 93 households that had no previous Internetexperience and tracked their psychological health over several years (Kraut etal., 2002). After the initial year of Internet use the researchers concludedthat greater use of the Internet was associated with more signs of lonelinessand depression. In 2012, Rosen, Cheever, and Carrier coined the term “iDisorder”defined as the negative relationship between technology usage and psychologicalhealth.Social media and mentalhealth In early 2014, a nineteen year old boy fromthe United Kingdom named Danny Bowman became obsessed with taking the perfect’selfie’. The boy reportedly spent ten hours per day taking over two hundredpicture of himself each time for six months. When Danny realized he could nevertake an absolutely perfect selfie, he wanted to die.
As a result, Danny was diagnosed withobsessive compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder. Dr. Charles Sophy,a psychiatrist and Medical Director for the Los Angeles Department of Childrenand Family Services, stated that, “No matter what genetics a teen may possess,they are impressionable and adding social media to the already prevalent peerpressure only ramps that pressure up further.” (Stein 2014). The University of Michigan conducted a studyin which they had participants report five times a day over a two week period.The results of the study found that Instagram was negatively impacting theparticipants in every single variable measured (Stein 2014). Though it wouldseem that those individuals should just stop using social media if it makesthem feel bad, as previously stated there are biological effects at play thatkeep users coming back.8 Self-disclosure was strongly associated withincreased activation in brain regions that form the mesolimbic dopamine system(Stein 2014).
The rewards users experience are magnified when they know thattheir thoughts would be communicated to others. When we use social media, particularlyInstagram, it can greatly alter the perception of what our lives should looklike, and if our lives do not fall into those neat little boxes, it can alterour self-image. Often times, the things that people post are an idealizedversion of what is really happening in their lives. This makes others thinkthat the lives of their friends and family are much better than their own,contributing to feelings of inadequacy and failure. Social Media andDepression Social Media and Depression A Croatianstudy (Pantic et al., 2012) found that time spent on by Instagram students waspositively correlated with depression. These findings were mirrored by (Rosenet al., 2013), who found that participants who spent more time online and thosewho performed more Instagram image management evidenced more clinical symptomsof major depression.
A study of American university students found that moreintense Depression use predicted increased loneliness (Lou et al., 2012). Also,according to (Kalpidou et al.
, 2011), college students who reported havinghigher numbers of Instagram friends experienced lower emotional adjustment tocollege life. Further, the same study found that college students who spentmore time on Instagram reported having lower self-esteem than those who spentless time. Selfhout et al. (2009) explored the idea thatthe quality of social media interactions was a better predictor of mentalwellness than general social media use.
They found that adolescents who 9reportedlow friendship quality and high frequencies of social use of online media(talking tofriends,messaging, etc) at Time 1 were less likely to be depressed at Time 2.Conversely, those with low friendship quality who used social media primarilyfor passive use at Time 1 were more likely to be depressed and socially anxiousat Time 2. Davila (2012) also explored this idea: In examining the socialnetworking behaviors of 334 undergraduate students, he found that more negativeand less positive interactions on social networking sites were associated withgreater depressive symptoms. Kraut et al. (1998) and Shaw and Gant (2002) alsogave evidence for an inverse association between Internet use and depression,suggesting that possibly more social forms of Internet use like chatting andgaming reduce the risk of depression. METHODOLOGY3.0 Introduction This section will explain the researchmethodology used for the research under study. Theoveralldesign or strategy that helps in obtaining the desired goals and objectives oftheresearchis referred to as research methodology.
It is basically a confirmation that theproblemunder study has been analyzed and addressed thoroughly. This giveseffectivenessand completion to the research. The research methodology includesresearchdesign, population, sampling , data collection and statistical analysis3.1Research Design The research design of this product is purelyqualitative i.e. using questionnaires. The reason behind choosing this designis because this study is about Unisel student’s perception towards 10depression caused byInstagram. Human varies a lot and is highly unpredictable.
It cannot bemathematically calculated.3.2Population Polit and Hungler (1999) refer to thepopulation as an aggregate or totality of all the objects, subjects or membersthat conform to a set of specifications. In this study the population ofstudents of all gender, races, agegroups, educational status, and faculty who study at Unisel.
Currently, thereare 12000 students in Unisel.3.3Sampling Sampling is the process of choosing thesubjects under study, for gathering data.
For this research, random samplingmethodology has been used. Random sampling is the basic sampling techniquewhere we select a group of subjects (a sample) for study from a population.Each individual is chosen entirely by chance and each member of the populationhas an equal chance of being included in the sample. Sampling subjects will be chosen from studentpopulation of Unisel. Unisel consist of12000 students and the sample size used for this research is 30.
Thequestionnaire were given out randomly and the objective of the research wereexplained. A sample chosen randomly is meant to be an unbiased representationof the total population. The reason of using this technique is becausethe sample should be equally distributed among the region considered for thestudy. 113.4Data Collection In this research primary and secondary datais used. For primary data, the chosen data collection method is questionnaire.Questionnairesare the methods that collect data from a sample of population. The answersgiven by the sample population are evaluated and analyzed.
It is most suitableand cost effective method is conducting surveys through questionnaire todifferent students and collecting their perception. Specialprecautionary measures have been taken regarding privacy and security ofstudents’ information.Only required and most relevant information has been gathered andthe rest will has beenfiltered. A questionnaire comprised of total 21 questions mainly focusing on the dependent andindependent variable have been asked in order to meet research objectives. The data is beingcollected from secondary sources like websites, journals, and news paperarticles. 3.
5Statistical Analysis After i received back the questionnaires, StatisticalPackage for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for the data analysis andinterpretation. All collected data was entered at SPSS sheet to analyze thedata, to separation the findings and representation the data in appropriateform, to draw the diagrams and tables.
