The influence of social media use and mental health among youth during the lockdown in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Mental health issues are becoming a global concern especially among youths. During the Covid 19 lockdown, social media use increased tremendously among the youths as it was a major source of information and companion to them. However, this study focused on how young people's use of social media impacted their mental health when Nigeria's southwest was under lockdown because of the Covid 19 outbreak. The study relied on a survey for its data collection. A questionnaire was employed to collect information for the investigation. Taro Yamane's sample size method was used to choose a sample of 470 participants from the study's population of 5,168 young people in southwest Nigeria. Frequency, mean, and standard deviation calculations were used to answer research questions. In order to see whether the provided hypotheses were true, single regression was used. The study findings revealed that young people's usage of social media has a large and beneficial effect on their mental health in the southwest of Nigeria. Researchers found that young people's exposure to social media had a beneficial effect on their psychological well-being in southwest Nigeria. The study recommended that the government, stakeholders’ decision makers, content providers as well as parents should formulate policies and generate healthy content, to help to regulate social media use among youths in order to maintain and sustain productivity as well as concentration among youths in the southwest of Nigeria.