Self-reported Anxiety Levels associated with Social Media use: A Survey-Based Analysis of Oakton Students
Yosef Seidman and Mariia Machalina
Honors Project: “Self-reported Anxiety Levels associated with Social Media use: A Survey-Based Analysis of Oakton Students”
Honors Course: Honors Elementary Statistics
Instructor: Anna Hammer
My name is Mariia Machalina and I am an inspired sophomore at Oakton College. I will be receiving my Associate of Arts in Psychology in the summer of 2025. I plan to transfer to a four-year institution to major in Psychology with Pre-Med concentration. My further plans for career development include enrolling in medical school to become a Psychiatrist or continuing my further education to obtain a PhD in Psychology. As a future medical and Psychology specialist I am thrilled to work on improving the lives of people in our and future generations by providing better mental health services for people through conducting research, educating a mass audience, and developing new methods for the effective treatment of mental illnesses. I am very grateful to the Honors program at Oakton College for giving me unforgettable experiences and great opportunities such as developing my leadership skills, expanding my professional network, and the opportunity to create a wonderful project.
My name is Yosef Seidman. I have been a student at Oakton since spring of 2022. I plan on transferring to a four year university and majoring in Biology. I have an interest in human health and medicine. Since taking classes such as Anatomy & Physiology here at Oakton, I have been continually amazed by the complexity and beauty of various biological systems. I am ever fascinated by the potential for the intersection of different disciplines such as Biology and Statistics. During my time at Oakton, I have had the pleasure of working as a Lab Assistant for Anatomy & Physiology 1 and 2, as well as for Microbiology. I have immensely enjoyed and benefited from my time at Oakton. The relatively smaller class size coupled with dedicated teachers leads to a hands-on and personal learning experience.
Social media has become an essential component of human interaction making it easy to forget that its introduction to society is a not so distant memory. At light speed, platforms such as Facebook (founded in 2004) and Instagram (founded in 2010) have had immense impacts on both a societal and individual level. The implications of such a dramatic and extensive change in modes of human communication is still unclear and requires exploration. We believe it is important to study social media to better understand rapidly changing patterns in human behavior and consequences of changes in communication technology on human health and wellness.
Our project focuses on the ways in which social media impacts the Oakton student population, particularly regarding potential anxiety resulting from excess use. We surveyed 50 Oakton students (ages 17 - 49) in order to answer questions such as: Does social media affect mental health outcomes of users? Is there an association between gender and self-reported anxiety levels due to social media use? What is the relationship between age and platform choice, or content preferences? Linear regression analysis and independent sample t-tests yielded several interesting associations between anxiety and other variables in our data. We found a significant association between how much one compares oneself to others on social media and self-reported anxiety level. In addition, results indicate a statistically significant difference between social media associated anxiety levels of men and women.
