Abstract:
Studies on how social media platforms are being used as tools for individuals to
interact, connect and support one another have been done in the past. A great
number of youth are spending significant amount of time accessing social media
sites. Scholars are yet to reach a consensus on whether usage of social media is
beneficial or detrimental on the mental health of young adults. This study explored
the effects of social media access on the mental health of university students. The
study used phenomenological research design. The target population was 10,000
students. The sample size was 309 students drawn from 5 purposely selected
schools. Data was collected using randomly distributed questionnaires and analyzed
using SPSS’s descriptive statistics and presented using frequency tables, pie charts,
graphs, cross tabulations. The findings revealed that university students are
spending upto six hours of their time in a day on social media to access content on
fun, video games and sports. Results showed that time spent on social media had no
significant effect on the mental health of students and this could be attributed to the
fact that the content students’ access of social media enables them to cope with stress
and other issues which could have a detrimental effect on their mental health. Based
on the findings, there is need to encourage university students to find additional
activities they could engage in while on social media which could contribute to the
lives in a better way such as blogging, online jobs, and listening to motivational
material.
