#mycuriousity

I have never really considered myself a curious kind of person. Don’t get me wrong, I am still persuaded to further my knowledge on SOME things, but that is only with things that I am passionate about.

Something that I am passionate about is mental health, and how it effects others directly or indirectly. And of course, because I am majoring in Digital and Social Media, I am also passionate about social media.

For this project, I wanted to develop an idea of what the student experience looks like when social media is brought into the equation, and how that effects someones mental health.

I am curious about many things revolving around this topic. For example;

1. What are its benefits within this degree?
2. Do people find that it furthers their education? If not, why?
3. Do they find they lose motivation when they have their phone in their working space?
4. How does social media make them feel?
5. Do they feel apart of something outside of themselves, when seeing fellow students work online also?
6. Or is that something that is overwhelming and confronting?

While reading about different aspects of learning involving social media and mental health, both together and separately, I have come to the conclusion that it really depends on how it is used. We, within the BCM degree, are both privileged and challenged by the encouraged use of social media to further our education. It can distract oh so very easily, but with great strength we can push through to use it to our advantage. To ask questions, to explore others work and to push and challenge ourselves to put our work out in “cybersphere”.

As I continue to read until my brain has to turned to mush, I am excited to learn more about what my fellow students think about this topic, and how they are personally navigating it.

Shankardass, K., Robertson, C., Shaughnessy, K., Sykora, M. and Feick, R., 2019. A unified ecological framework for studying effects of digital places on well-being. Social Science & Medicine, 227, pp.119-127.

Aspen Institute Central Europe. 2020. How Internet And Social Media Are Changing Culture – Aspen Institute Central Europe. [online] Available at: <https://www.aspen.review/article/2017/internet-social-media-changing-culture/&gt; [Accessed 30 March 2020].

Halsall, T., Garinger, C., Dixon, K. and Forneris, T., 2019. Evaluation of a Social Media Strategy to Promote Mental Health Literacy and Help-Seeking in Youth. Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet, 23(1), pp.13-38.

Nesi, J., 2020. The Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health. North Carolina Medical Journal, 81(2), pp.116-121.

Sumner, S., Bowen, D. and Bartholow, B., 2020. Factors Associated With Increased Dissemination of Positive Mental Health Messaging On Social Media. Crisis, 41(2), pp.141-145.