Survey Analysis

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The Research Question Behind The Survey

"How can comparing posts viewed on social media affect young women's relationship with their mental health as well as their body perception?"

The Process

Using Google Forms I created a 13 question survey asking participants questions related to their emotional and psychological connection to social media. Out of the 13 questions, I used 11 of the most useful questions to interpret my results.

I contacted participants via GroupMe group chats, personal texts, and D2L Classlist. My friends also posted my survey to their social media platforms; Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter as well as sending the survey out through text.

Participants

This survey was conducted with certain criteria: females who were 19-24 years old.

I reached about 352 potential participants through initial contact of my own and through advertisement from friends.

71 out of 352 of these potential participants actually completed the survey.

What Does The Data Say?

What Does It All Mean?

The purpose of this survey was simple; attempt to define the way social media influences the mental health and perception of young women. Did social media help? Or did it influence a negative perception of a woman's constantly changing body? If there were negative connections and influences, how did this translate to our mental health?

When evaluating social media's influence, a majority of participants definitely experienced a negative perception of their food diet (52.1%), body (64.8%), and lifestyle (64.8%) and experienced a changed perception of the ideal body (83.1%). These fixed ideals can attribute emotional and eating disorders.

Although, while using and after using social media, a majority of participants sometimes compared themselves to social media posts (50.7%), rated their self-esteem mid-level at a five (22.5%), sometimes felt unsatisfied with their own life compared after logging off social media (46.5%) and made positive changes to their lives after using social media (62.7%).

Analyzing the open-ended responses from participants, it appears to be a majority of negative connections between social media and participants. Responses like "worthless", "anxious" and "overwhelmed" stood out when asked how social media made participants feel after being on social media. There were little completely positive responses given while a few responses interpreted a mixed reaction ("okay, but still like i might need to change something about myself to feel pretty" and "sometimes uplifted , sometimes my self esteem is lower" ) when using social media.

The results translated that participants ultimately reaped less than beneficial results from using social media. While many participants found middle ground when using social media, a majority of participants also found themselves viewing their appearances and life habits as less than what is societally excepted.

So, while social media has great benefits and capable of influencing positive changes, young women still find themselves shifting between "okay" and "self conscious".