Social Media Use: A Risk Factor for Depression among School Adolescents in Enugu State of Nigeria

Abstract

Social media just like the rest of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) channels aid and promote speedy and easy access to information more especially among school adolescents. Social media use among school adolescents is a double-edged sword as they use them to connect friends and find information about many things including learning. However, they also spend too much time on them which affect their mental health and may cause them depression. This research investigated on the social media use: A risk factor for depression among school adolescents’ depression in Enugu State. Descriptive survey research was adopted for the study. The population of the study was all the school adolescents in Enugu State. Stratified random sampling was used to select 800 adolescents from 4 states. In each of the four states, 200 adolescents were selected. Self-structured questionnaire and Hamilton depression scale were used to elicit information for data collection. The results were analyzed using mean scores and standard deviations. The findings revealed that many adolescents spend up to 10 hours daily on social media, they prefers chatting on social media to talking to their parents, among other behaviours. The findings also indicated that; adolescents who spend up to 10 hours daily on social media have decreased activities and feeling of incapacity, adolescents who don’t have enough sleep in the night due their use of social media experience hallucination, low mood among other findings.