Social Media and It's Effect on Mental Health by sophiesophsmith

Social Media

And It’s Effect On Mental Health 1

What is research? Social media and it’s effect on mental health

Contents 01 08 20 22 24 26 40 42 44 48 50 64 68 72 76

PROJECT INTRO Project Brief Project Introduction 14 DAILY TASKS MINDMAPS LATERAL THINKING TASK DESIGN CYCLE WORKSHOPS Screenprinting Mono, Duo and Bitmaps Grids/Kimberly Elam Broadsheet Folds GUEST TALK WITH JESSE BOYCE FONT HISTORY AND HIERARCHY MIKE ABBINK PRIMARY AND SECONDARY RESEARCH PRIMARY RESEARCH Questionnaire 1 Questionnaire 2 SECONDARY RESEARCH The Psychology of Social Media Technology Dependency Short Term Memory Issues Social Comparisons REFLECTION AND REVIEW POSTER DESIGN BROADSHEET DESIGN FRONT/BACK COVER DESIGN EVALUATION LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY

I will also be conducting a questionnaire to ask various people’s opinions on my chosen topic and to help answer the question ‘Does social media affect mental health?’. Going forward with my project, I will explore various resources such as articles and books to delve deeper into the psychology around social media and the effects it has on the brain. Using both the primary and secondary research I will collect, I will design and produce a double-sided broadsheet and poster that relates to and supports my topic. This is an investigation through graphic design – using graphic design to explore, better understand and communicate the effects social media has on mental health.

Project Introduction

For this project, I will be focusing on social media and its effect on mental health. I will be looking into how content shown on social media affects people’s mental health and whether or not they prefer to avoid social media for this reason.

14 Daily Outcomes

Figure 1

My first piece in the 14 daily tasks was on how, as a society, we have adopted a throwaway, single use culture. I took inspiration from the Waste age exhibition, which we were unable to attend, unfortunately. The slogan itself was from a section of an article called ‘Beyond the Economy of Waste’ by Kate Soper. Her research stated that “eleven million items go to landfill each week” which I thought could make for an impactful first piece.

Figure 2

My third piece was more relevant to my chosen topic, I had already thought about basing my research on social media but still had a very basic outlook on the topic. I created this piece with the intention of showing how social media can be very addictive, the visual of the apps exploding from the head shows this.

Figure 3

My fourth piece was another route I could have taken my chosen topic, I had thought that linking social media and how it portrays women would be an interesting subject to research. I took actual articles written about women that were extremely sexist and harmful and collaged them together to make a shockingly truthful and effective piece.

Figure 4

My fifth piece was one of my more creative designs, I created a visual representation of technology addiction by using a microchip as the ‘brain’ of a person and the circuit board as the ‘veins’. This visual representation shows how engrained technology can be in someone’s daily life, to the point that it takes over.

For my sixth piece, I thought of using slogans and jargon in male magazines to produce a contrasting design to my third daily task. I wanted the slogans to be the main focal point of the piece, therefore stressing the vast difference between the language used for men and women in the media. Task three’s atmosphere has a clearly negative and judgemental feel, whereas task seven’s is more encouraging and supportive.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

My ninth piece was also inspired by the tragic events happening in Ukraine. I felt as though I could explore war, as a topic, if I decided social media wasn’t the way I wanted to go. This piece was also inspired by war propaganda, as I wanted it to look like a recruitment poster. The text reads ‘no war just peace’ in Ukrainian, with the fist as the main focal point of the design; therefore stressing the message of the piece.

Figure 10

For my tenth piece, I created a design inspired by the war in general; not specific to the current climate in Ukraine. I used a visual metaphor of bullets looking like teeth incasing a peace sign, symbolising how violence and war consume peace. Figure 9

For my twelfth task, I had some difficulty trying to come up with an interesting initial design. I eventually came up with the design of an abstract girl that is split in half, with one side being more aesthetically pleasing; symbolising how society sees you and the other side more dark and soulless, symbolising how mental health can affect a person’s wellbeing.

Figure 11

My eleventh piece was a more experimental design, using warped phones as the main focal point. The text on each phone reads ‘how does social media affect our mental health?’ I wanted to create a design using phones because they symbolise the modern-day issue of social media impacting mental health. I warped the phones to look like thought bubbles, making it seem as though this image is running through a person’s head.

Figure 12

Figure 13

Figure 14

“Every day and without fail respond to the world around you. Your response should be visual using typographic and/or expedient image-making processes.” 19

Mindmaps

After deciding on a vague idea of what I wanted my topic to be, I created a mindmap to explore the various ways I could take my project. The main focus was social media, however, I used my mindmap to help narrow my topic to be more specific. As you can see, my first mindmap was more related to social media’s effect on personal views and these initial ideas, which I thought would be my final topic. However, I felt as though I wanted to explore a more behavioural and psychological side to social media, and therefore took my project in that direction. One topic on my first mindmap, says mental health and body image, which was another direction I thought my project could go as it gave me plenty to research. After having a quick review with my peers and teacher, however, I decided that that would be far too much work for me to do in the time frame my project had to be done. Taking a look at my second mindmap, you can see a more directional approach as I had pretty much decided exactly where I wanted to take my project by then. Two topics on my second mindmap are ‘distracting’ and ‘addictive’, these topics are the starting point of the rest of my project. Looking further into the addictive and distracting side effects of social media, as my secondary research, will allow me to answer my question ‘Does social media affect mental health?’. 20

This task helped me to think differently about my topic, and gave me plenty of ideas that helped me imagine how I want to visualise my research. I found this task very helpful as it allowed me to discuss my topic with other people who could give their opinions on where I could take my project. I started by listing all the words I could think of associated with social media, such as happy, sad and lonely. I then drew quick sketches next to each word to help visualise what my project could potentially look like. For some of the sketches, I wanted to draw them quickly, without thinking about them too much, so the drawings would end up more authentic and would possibly inspire some secondary research. Going forward with my project, I will use both the words and sketches in my lateral thinking task to plan where I can take my journal.

Lateral Thinking Task

After creating my mindmaps, I started on the lateral thinking task. This task helped me come up with ideas and concepts to look further into for my topic.

Design Cycle

Investigate

Evaluate

Plan

Create Figure 15

The design cycle is described as “a combination of steps that lead from a design idea to a finished product”. Designers might approach problems in different ways, some general steps are common to all. Design steps form a design cycle and this supports the design process I will use in my journal. The design cycle will help me with my research, by allowing me to reflect and evaluate my work as my project progresses. 25

Workshops

Screenprinting Workshop

For the silver screenprinting workshop, I learnt how to coat a screen, and how to transfer an image onto it, using the light machines. This workshop allowed me to experiment with different techniques to display my work with. I had previously attended a bronze level screen printing workshop, so I already had experience in how to screenprint artwork onto paper. Attending the silver screenprinting workshop meant that I now have extended knowledge of how to create my screens and my artworks. I experimented with a 3 colour design and used 3 separate colours in order to show the separate parts of the outcome. One way I could use screen printing, in my project, is to create a pattern or image relating to mental health and social media, which could be the front cover of my journal or the poster on my broadsheet. I will make sure that the outcome is dark blue, to match the theme of the rest of my design journal. If the exact colour is too difficult to recreate, I could adapt the colour further in photoshop, using the duotone function.

Figures 20-37 on page 30, 32 and 33 are examples of Duotones, Monotones and Bitmaps.

Figure 16

Figure 17

Figure 18

Figure 19

Monotone The first technique we learnt was monotoning. The process of monotoning was quite simple, we took one of our chosen photos and grayscale them in Photoshop. We then monotoned them to our chosen colour, mine being dark blue. This technique was very interesting to learn and I shall apply it to most of the pictures in my journal going forwards, to create a harmonious appearance.

Duotone The second technique we learnt was duotoning. This technique was a ‘step up’ from monotoning, as it applied two colours to an image rather than one. The process was exactly the same as for monotone, grayscale a photo in Photoshop and then duotone it, then change the colour to 2 colours of your choice. I also enjoyed this technique of editing photos, as it will create some very dynamic images for my journal.

Bitmap The third technique we learnt was bitmapping. Bitmapping at 50% threshold was more difficult to do, than bitmapping using a halftone screen, as you had to make sure your photos weren’t too dark otherwise they would look almost completely black once bitmapped. To fix this, I would adjust the brightness and contrast settings of the photo first, then continue with using the 50% threshold to create a black and white image. My favourite technique to learn was halftone screening, as it gave the photos a comic book effect. I created a variety of different images using this technique as I think it made my photos look compelling. 31

Mono, Duo and Bitmap Workshop

For this workshop, we were introduced to monotone, duotone, halftone and bitmaps. Using the photos we had previously taken, we created some fun outcomes in photoshop. My particular photos were of phone screens, screentime screenshots and various tech from the apple store.

Grid Workshop and Kimberly Elam

Figure 38

Figure 39

We were introduced to the grid design workshop fairly early in our project. This workshop was a massive help in deciding what font I wanted to use and testing various layouts for my journal. I started looking into Kimberly Elam’s book ‘Grid Systems’ to help me with the layout of my journal. Her book ‘Grid Systems’ was very informative and was clear at explaining various layout compositions such as, diagonal and rule of thirds. Elam’s book focuses mainly on the 3 x 3 system and describes that it works especially well with the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds demonstrates that a rectangle or square divided into thirds, both vertically and horizontally, creates four intersections that are the ‘optimal’ points of focus within a composition. I personally enjoy the rule of thirds as it helps add structure to a composition and will create some interesting layouts for my journal. The most ‘complex’ composition is diagonal, as the 3 column by 3

row grid doesn’t fit well within the diagonal direction. It is also described as one of the most ‘visually cohesive’ compositions as it allows multiple alignments, of the elements within the composition, to coincide. The diagonal composition is probably one of my favourites as it can create dynamic layouts that look very eyecatching. However, I don’t think I will be using this layout within my own journal, as I don’t think it will suit the amount of text I will include in my project.

Figure 40

Figure 41

Figure 42

Figure 43

Figure 44

Figure 45

Figure 46 + 47 shown on the left, Figure 48 + 49 shown below

Broadsheet Fold Workshop

We were introduced to the broadsheet task and were given multiple examples of previous years’ work. Our broadsheet should be a double-sided sheet that folds down and should have a poster on one side that answers our chosen topic’s question. We were also introduced to the different folding techniques that could be used and created mockups to test out which folds we would like. I experimented with a few quick sketches of different folds and then made my favourites into mockups to visualise how my broadsheet might look. I chose a half-fold then tri-fold design as I think it maximises space as well as looking sleek and professional. The broadsheet also needs to look compatible with our journal, I will achieve this by using the same colour palette and font for a more cohesive design.

Guest Talk with Jesse Boyce

We were lucky to have guest speaker, Jesse Boyce, come and talk to us about ‘Cultivating curiosity’. He explained design processes and where briefs come from, and how to write our own which was extremely helpful. I have included the notes I made during his talk, as I found them very interesting and they relate to the design cycle that I mentioned earlier.

How to Write Your Own Brief? - Do the hard yards and give proof of value - Culture hacking - culturally relevant, meaningful - Creativity - Spot opportunity - Gather evidence - Build your case - Own the moment, but add value - Find the right way in - dig deeper - Join the dots - Unleash your culture hacking masterplan - Devil’s in the details

Benefits of Cultivating Curiosity - Creates great ideas that you wouldn’t have otherwise - Proves something isn’t risky or ‘off-brand’ - Provides you with a mental checklist - Helps you back up your ideas and fight for them - See the bigger picture - where else can this go? - Produces meaningful work - You tell you what to do - Ultimate creative satisfaction 40

“It’s literally not rocket science” - Wayne Hemingway

How Much Time is Spent on Development? - It varies, spend more time digging, preempt what people are looking for, cant have enough research - Open doors, one thing leads to another - Every project is different - Bullet point some ways in, use instincts - Brands are on your side, people are already interested in brands - Have a few ideas for a brief, down to you to decide where the barriers are

How to Reinspire Yourself - Go for a run - Have a shower - Don’t put pressure on yourself, - Do something you haven’t done in a while - Don’t get lost in doom scrolling

Font History and Hierarchy

IBM Plex is an “open-source” typeface that was conceptually designed and developed by Mike Abbink. IBM was created in collaboration with Bold Monday to reflect the brand spirit, beliefs and design principles and to be used for all brand experiences across the company. IMB Plex soon took over Helvetica as the IBM corporate typeface after more than fifty years, therefore removing the company’s extensive license payments in the process. The IBM font family had four typefaces, each with 8 weights: Thin, Extra Light, Light, Regular, Text, Medium, Semibold, Bold and italics to complement them. IBM Plex Serif is a transitional serif typeface with a design that was inspired by Bodoni and Janson. Some of Bodoni’s features such as “ball terminals” and “rectangular serifs” are used in IBM Plex Serif. Using IBM Plex Serif, as my chosen font, gives my journal a sophisticated feel and supports the seriousness of my research. I wanted to use a font that is clear and easy to read, as well as professional in appearance. 42

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Captions 6pt

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Body copy 9pt

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Subheadings 18pt

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Headlines 30pt

Pull out quotes 36pt

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Mike Abbink

Mike Abbink is the Executive Creative Director of the Brand and Design Team in IBM Studios. Abbink started his career, almost 20 years ago, as a designer for ‘MetaDesign’ in San Francisco. He has since continued his career by becoming the creative director for the ‘Museum of Modern Art’ and as a design director at Apple. Abbink also cofounded the Method agency, working as Creative Director, he was able to work with brands such as Adobe, Autodesk, Gucci and MoMA. As well as being a successful graphic designer, Abbink has created ‘award winning’ typefaces like FF Kievit, FF Milo, Brando Serif and IBM Plex Serif. Abbink joined IBM Software, in 2020, as Executive Creative Director and worked with design leadership to allow high-quality work through the ‘IBM digital experience’. He had also spent 5 years prior as the Executive Creative Director at IBM Brand Experience and Design. Abbink has received multiple honourable awards for graphic and typeface design, the most recent being the Pencil award for IBM Plex Arabic and the judges’ choice award for the IBM Plex type family. I have chosen Mike Abbink’s typeface IBM Plex Serif, as the font to use in my journal, because I feel it’s easy to read and visually appealing.

“ Type has been my parallel universe for more than 20 years.” - Mike Abbink Figure 50

Figures 51 - 58 on the next page

Primary and Secondary Research

What is Research? There are two forms of research, primary and secondary. Primary research is a way researchers can collect data directly, rather than looking to data collected from research done in the past.

used to find patterns and averages, and generalize results to wider populations. Quantitative research can be used in biology, chemistry, psychology, economics, sociology and marketing.

Primary research is carried out to look at a certain problem and requires in-depth analysis. An advantage of primary research is that it is “pinpointed”, research is carried out for only a specific issue or problem.

Qualitative research is defined as “collecting and analyzing nonnumerical data to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences”. It can be used to generate new ideas and collect analysis into a problem for research. Qualitative research is frequently used in subjects such as anthropology, sociology, education, health sciences and history.

Secondary research is research that uses already existing data. Existing data is collected to increase the overall effectiveness of the research. Secondary research includes research material in research reports, articles and similar documents. These documents can be found at libraries, online libraries, websites, previous surveys etc. Quantitative research is defined as “the process of collecting and analyzing numerical data.” It is

Questionnaire 1 - Questions

Figure 59

Questions asked: 1. How old are you? 2. How many social media accounts do you have? 3. How frequently do you use social media? 4. In your opinion, what media has the strongest influence? 5. Has social media affected how you view yourself? 6. Do you have a positive or negative view of your body? 7. Do you think social media represents your body type well? 8. Have you ever changed something about yourself due to social media? 9. Does social media have a positive or negative impact on your mental health? 51

Question 1

18-21 22-25 26-30 31+

Questionnaire 1 - Results

Figure 60

Question 3

Everday Every few days A couple times a week A couple times a month Never Figure 62

Question 5

Agree Slightly agree Neutral Slightly disagree Disagree

Figure 64

Question 2

5+ 4 3 2 1 Figure 61

Question 4

Internet Journalism Film/TV

Figure 63

Question 6

Positive Negative Neutral

Figure 65

Results continued on the next page

Question 7

Agree Slightly agree Neutral Slightly disagree Disagree

Figure 66

Question 8

Yes No

Figure 67

Question 9

Positive Neutral Negative

Figure 68

Figure 69

Questionnaire 2 - Questions

Figure 70

Questions asked: 1. How does using social media affect your mood? 2. Would you say that social media has affected your mental health at any time? 3. Do you think there is a link between social media and short attention spans? 4. Based on your answer to the last question, can you explain why? 5. Would you say your attention span is short? 6. Do you think social media has affected your attention span? 7. Would you say you’re addicted to social media? 8. Based on the last question, can you explain why? 9. Do you think you could quit social media, cold turkey? 10. Would you ever reduce your time spent on social media? 11. Based on the last question, could you explain why? 57

Question 1

Questionnaire 2 - Results

Negatively Positively

Figure 71

Neutral

Question 5

Yes No

Figure 74

Maybe

Question 9

Yes No Maybe 58

Figure 77

Question 2

Question 3

Yes No

Yes Figure 72

Figure 73

Maybe

Question 6

Question 7

Yes No

Yes Figure 75

Figure 76

Maybe

Question 10

Yes No

Figure 78 Long answer questions on the next page

Questionnaire 2 - Results Continued

- Instant gratification - I think I have a shorter attention span since having social media because you can see so much in a short time meaning you don’t want to watch or do something for a long period of time. - It’s why tiktok is popular short videos, people don’t want to be sitting there for too long looking at something now - We live in such a fast paced, ever-evolving world that things like social media require not much of your attention, and for not very long. ‘Scrolling’ culture has negatively shaped our attention span as we are always onto the next post/story/tiktok - I mean I have ADHD so I have no attention span anyway - We can get distracted quite easily - I haven’t looked into it but it probably is connected - Everyone is always looking at their phones nowadays, need to be constantly stimulated otherwise cannot focus for a long time Question 4

- I don’t use it a lot but I do use it a lot for communication - Because I enjoy doing things without social media and don’t feel like I need to reach for it all the time. - I use it all the time as a form of entertainment - Not really bothered by social media - I unfortunately, am someone who seeks a lot of my validation through social media. I get serious FOMO so I like to be aware of everyone’s movements, what they’re doing and the latest trends. - Everyone is annoyed at me for not checking my phone enough and ignoring their messages - It’s convenient - Every time I am on my phone is social media. I’m in social media from the minute I wake to up. - I use it a lot but I think I could stop any time - Because I have days where I hardly use it and other days where I use it a lot Question 8

- I don’t think it’s healthy to be on it as much as I am - Yes I would reduce my time spend on social media as I’ve been trying to do this more at the moment anyway - I feel as if I need to use my phone less - Rather spend time with people in real life - I have been thinking recently, to delete my account for a couple of weeks and see how that might have an effect on how I perceive myself. Social media affects me negatively because I am always comparing myself to others - I mostly use social media to keep in contact with people but I could probably waste slightly less time on tik tok - Might help my mental health - I think social media does consume most of my time, and I would like to not have to rely on it when I have nothing to do or when I am bored. - To be healthier - Because I don’t think it is healthy the amount of time we all spend online Question 11

Figure 79

Primary Research Conclusion

For my primary research, I started by creating a questionnaire related to my chosen topic. I asked various questions such as ‘Has social media affected how you view yourself?’ and ‘Does social media have a positive or negative impact on your mental health?’ and received a varied response. 70% of respondents said that social media has affected how they view themselves and 70% also said that they have a negative view of their bodies. This evidence thus proves that social media has a strong influence on people’s mental health. Going forward, with my research, I will create another questionnaire with more specific questions about my topic. Although I feel as though this questionnaire does answer my chosen question ‘Does social media affect our mental health?’, I would like to research further into my topic by creating another questionnaire that supports and links to my secondary research better.

My second questionnaire was more specific to where I was taking my project, exploring the link between social media usage and shortened attention spans. I asked more precise questions that would narrow down the final outcome of my primary research. Asking questions such as ‘Do you think there is a link between social media and short attention spans?’ and ‘Would you say you’re addicted to social media?’ gave me a more definite response. 63.3% of respondents said that there is a link between social media and short attention spans and, interestingly, only 36.4% of respondents said that they were addicted to social media. These results help answer my topic question ‘Does social media affect our mental health?’, focusing specifically on social media addiction, as respondents agreed that attention spans are affected and therefore addiction and dependency follows. Going forward with my research, I will look further into technology dependency and short term memory issues by looking at articles, research papers and books on the subject. 63

“ The average person spends over 3 hours on their phone each day, including approximately 2 and a half hours on social media.”

- Lizzie Lewis 65

The Psychology of Social Media

A paper written by John Suler in 2004 explains a phenomenon called ‘online disinhibition’ which has some concerning results. Firstly, there is ‘dissociative anonymity’. It’s easy to create multiple accounts and false details on social media. A person can feel like they aren’t themselves, and therefore they can do things their normal selves wouldn’t do whilst online. The second factor is ‘invisibility’, when using social media, a person can feel like they can watch what’s going on, without being seen. “When scrolling through a news feed, we can see updates our connections have posted without posting any updates ourselves”. Although everyone’s activity, on social media platforms, is being monitored we have the illusion that we are invisible. Thirdly, there is an ‘asynchronicity’ factor. “Where when online, we don’t feel as though we are acting in ‘real time’”. No one is obliged to reply to online messages straight away. Given the opportunity to reply whenever you feel like it, you can think out your replies longer than if you were having a conversation face to face. This can make communication clear, but it also removes the personal element. Fourthly, online impulsivity includes ‘solipsistic introjection’ where a person develops premature ideas about whoever they are talking with on social media. This is particularly the case with people who haven’t met before: we fill in the emotional blanks in the message they send trying to imagine who they are. A person can visualise how another person talks and acts, therefore it is easier to talk with a person face to face, than a text message. Fifthly, online impulsivity also involves ‘dissociative imagination’. People treat their social media like a game or fantasy. There is a premise about the internet, since it’s not ‘real life’ it doesn’t count as important and personal as a result. Experiencing this feeling can have serious consequences. The final element is the ‘minimisation of status and authority’. In the ‘real world’, rules and laws are necessary to follow. However, “in cyberspace, the internet has no centralised control”. The ‘traditional philosophy’ of the internet is that it’s a platform where everyone is equal and can share ideas and also resources. This can either work in a person’s favour, but can also feel overwhelming. 66

Technology Dependency Technology dependence is an everincreasing worry for people’s mental health, with the average person spending about three hours on social media and almost a full hour of that on Instagram. During the pandemic, those numbers most likely would have gone up. As mental health issues arise, it’s important to see the connection between increased phone usage and a person’s declining mental health. Reports have shown that scrolling on Instagram “spikes your dopamine levels” and therefore can lead to addictive behaviours. A like, share or tag can increase your dopamine levels instantly, this can lead to dependence, on the app, for a person’s happiness. “Screen-induced dopamine addiction” can also affect the amount a person’s brain needs to think. Using apps such as Instagram, Snapchat and Tiktok, that constantly feed entertaining content, affects the brain’s need for thinking and reduces attention spans. “Your brain changes moment by moment, according to

what you expose it to,” Cognitive neuroscientist, Dr Caroline Leaf says “When social media becomes what you overwhelmingly expose it to, you allow your brain to start changing networks and making neurotransmitters fire incorrectly. They won’t fire in harmony and your brainwaves won’t be coherent. This all causes abnormal pathways in the brain.” The main reason for Instagram’s negative impact is the apps’ ability to simulate connectivity whilst simultaneously leaving users feeling isolated. Social media users will continue to use their favourite apps for a rush of dopamine and receive a sense of social interaction, even if the interactions aren’t meaningful.

Short Term Memory Issues Frequent social media usage has been linked in many studies to worsening memory function. One way in which social media negatively impacts a persons’ memory, is through a decline in mental health and general emotional well being. A study performed in the “United States Refresher Cohort” found that participants reported a “daily negative effect, but not a positive effect” from using social media. When participants had a high use of social media, they reported that they had a “greater negative effect and, in turn, more memory failures.”

us to view multiple streams of media very quickly, which is a behavioural pattern called “media multitasking”. As people increase their consumption of social media, it is important to note the less obvious effects on a person’s intellectual abilities. An analysis of 41 studies, showed that taking part in media multi-tasking linked to lower overall intellectual abilities and a reduced attention span. This helps answer my research question ‘Does social media affect our mental health?’ as many studies show that there is a clear link between increased social media usage and shortened attention spans and overall lower cognitive abilities.

Schools and other education providers have already noticed the effects of social media on children’s attention spans, over 85% of teachers support the statement “today’s digital technologies are creating an easily distracted generation”. Hyperlinks, notifications and other prompts like these, provide an unlimited flow of media for people to interact with and consume. Therefore, this prompts 68

Social Comparisons According to ‘the social comparison theory’, there are 2 types of social comparisons. A person can make social comparisons when they compare themselves to someone they think is ‘better’ than them for many different reasons. For example, appearance, popularity and intelligence can be factors in a person’s downward social comparison and, if particularly bad, can cause a person to think of themselves as worse. Social comparisons are also strongly related to depression. Whilst using social media, social comparisons are extremely common and are a massive factor in mental health issues.

also give the illusion of the ‘perfect’ lifestyle. Therefore, can leave a person feeling depressed and inadequate compared to others they see online.

Figure 80

On social media, updates, photos and stories can inundate the user, and the number of online interactions can contribute to a person’s social comparison. Only showing the best side of yourself, on social media, to make yourself sound more interesting and using photo enhancements can 69

Reflection and Review

Peer Review Comments - Strong secondary research and lots of facts and figures - The research archive isn’t vague, focuses on answering your question - Has a clear checklist of things still needing to be finished - The design journal seems very well planned out and consistent throughout - Needs some more in-depth secondary research, narrowing the answer to the question down - Still needs a reflection on the work done so far

Review of Work so Far Looking back at the work I have completed so far, I am very pleased with where I have taken my project. I do still think there is room for improvement and will specify these improvements in my action plan below. What I’m most pleased with so far is the various topics I have researched for my secondary research. Once I had started looking into the effects of social media, on the brain, I went down a wormhole of information and various articles and studies written about the clinical effects of social media. I found a particularly interesting book edited by Devon Rosen called ‘The Social Media Debate’ which contained multiple articles written about the Social, Psychological, and Cultural Effects of Social Media. This book really helped me further research my topic, of social media and mental health, as the articles within were very detailed and gave me various subtopics to look into.

Action Plan Going Forward I need to decide and plan out my journal layout. By doing this, I will have a more clear idea of what still needs to be completed. I need to spend time organising my google document that contains all of the content I have written for my journal so far. Spending time thinking out a clear order for my research so far will make it a lot easier when I start transferring it from my google doc, to my journal on InDesign. 71

Figures 81-92 on the next page

Poster Design

For my poster design, I started off by creating an experimental design using my chosen colour and my research topic question ‘Does social media affect our mental health?’. Although this design was quite interesting, I felt that it didn’t reflect my research topic enough and so came up with the phone detail within the other poster designs. I started off very simple, as I didn’t want my poster to be overcomplicated. Using the phone vector as a new starting point, I experimented with the backgrounds; trying various different designs. My favourite design was Fig 97, as it used my chosen colour and it’s different shades that I used throughout my design journal. This creates a cohesive design throughout my design journal, broadsheet and poster and just looks more unified. I also experimented with bitmapping this design in Photoshop as I wanted to see if it added to the design. I decided against using the bitmapped version however, as I felt it looked too dark and lacked personality.

Figure 93

Figure 94

More than 200 million people worldwide are estimated to suffer from addiction to social media

Figure 95

Figure 96

More than 200 million people worldwide are estimated to suffer from addiction to social media

Figure 97

Figure 98

Final Poster

More than 200 million people worldwide are estimated to suffer from addiction to social media Figure 97

Figure 99

Figure 100

Figure 101

Figure 102

Broadsheet Design

I had a bit of difficulty with my broadsheet design initially, as I had trouble aligning my text and images; I fixed this by using a 9 x 9 grid which helped a lot. I wanted to use the majority of my secondary research on my broadsheet, as it contained a lot of interesting information about the various subtopics of social media and mental health. I have chosen to do a gatefold, for my broadsheet, as I feel it looks best with the information I wanted to include. Fig 99 to 102 show the basic layout designs I initially came up with and Fig 103 to 108 show the first prototype of what the final broadsheet would look like with a gatefold. I ended up changing the colour of a few panels due to the broadsheet looking too plain in just dark blue and white. I also added pull out quotes and images that help to draw the viewer into reading further. Fig 111 shows my final broadsheet design, I chose this design as I feel it reflects my topic well and looks cohesive with my poster and design journal.

Figure 109

Figure 110 Figures 103-108 on the left

Final Broadsheet

Figure 111

Front/Back Cover Design Figure 112

Figure 113

Figure 114

Figure 115

Final Front and Back Cover

Figure 116

Evaluation

I found this project to be both challenging and fun, allowing me to push myself at the same time as exploring my creative abilities. This project gave me the opportunity to work on my InDesign skills and work on improving my editorial design skills too. This project also made me focus on my time management as well as multitasking to make sure everything was completed on time. Overall, I think I was successful in completing my project to a high standard and show this by having a cohesive colour scheme throughout my journal and broadsheet. Focusing specifically on the workshops I partook in, I feel as though they allowed me to expand my knowledge on topics that enhanced my design journal. Starting off with the screenprinting workshop, I found this quite interesting as I was able to have a hands-on approach to making the artwork. I was able to learn more about the process of screenprinting, and therefore use my skills to create a piece of artwork. My favourite workshop was the mono, duotone and bitmap workshop. I found this workshop really engaging as I was able to experiment with making fun and dynamic pieces. I also used the skills learnt in this workshop throughout my journal as all my pictures were monotone. The next workshop we attended was the grid workshop. I also looked into Kimberly Elam’s Grid Systems independently to help me with this workshop as her book was very good at explaining the different types of grid systems. I found this workshop slightly confusing at first, but with Elam’s book and help from my teacher I was able to understand what was required of me. The final workshop we attended was the broadsheet fold workshop. I found a few of the folds I tried quite simple to do and also inspired my final broadsheet. Some of the other folds, however, were quite hard; such as Fig 46. I wanted to challenge myself by attempting this fold but had a lot of difficulties with the execution. I decided against using that fold for this reason and I also felt it didn’t suit my research topic. Moving on to primary research, I started by creating a questionnaire related to my chosen topic. I asked various questions such as ‘Has social media affected how you view yourself?’ and ‘Does social media have a positive or negative impact on your mental health?’ and received a varied response. 70% of respondents said that social media has affected how they view themselves and 70% also said that they have a negative view of their bodies. This evidence proved that social media has a strong influence on people’s mental health. As I progressed, I created another questionnaire with more specific 90

questions about my topic. My second questionnaire was more specific to where I was taking my project, exploring the link between social media usage and shortened attention spans. I asked more precise questions that would narrow down the final outcome of my primary research. Asking questions such as ‘Do you think there is a link between social media and short attention spans?’ and ‘Would you say you’re addicted to social media?’ gave me a more definite response. 63.3% of respondents said that there is a link between social media and short attention spans and, interestingly, only 36.4% of respondents said that they were addicted to social media. These results helped to answer my topic question ‘Does social media affect our mental health?’, focusing specifically on social media addiction, as respondents agreed that attention spans are affected and therefore addiction and dependency follows. For my secondary research, I decided to look at a few books and articles about the psychological effects social media has on the mind. I first looked at ‘The psychology of social media’ by C. McMahon which really helped me explore the effects of social media on the brain. They had some really interesting insights into topics like social comparisons and short term memory issues, that helped support my research. The next book I looked into was ‘Young People and New Media’ by S. Livingstone and M. Bovill; I didn’t end up writing about the topics in this book however, as I felt the information didn’t support my topic as much as the other books I looked at. The final book I looked at was ‘The Social Media Debate - unpacking the social, psychological, and cultural effects of social media’ by D. Rosen. This was the most helpful book out of the three as it contained a lot of research articles and statistics that allowed me to write an in depth exploration into the psychological effects of social media. Although I found doing my secondary research challenging at times, I am pleased with the extent at which I have researched my topic. In conclusion, I found designing the layout of my journal quite difficult at times, as it required a lot of adjustment as my project developed. I had to keep changing the order of my work as I kept changing my mind about certain page layouts. However, I managed to fix this by using a 4 column, 8 row grid which made arranging text and images so much easier. Overall I am very pleased with the standard at which I have completed this project, although I had some difficulties along the way I managed to remedy these with time. 91

Fig 1 2022. Daily Task 1 - 11 million items go in landfill each week. Fig 2 2022. Daily Task 2 - is child advertisment ethical?. Fig 3 2022. Daily Task 3 - social media is addictive. Fig 4 2022. Daily Task 4 - women portrayed in media. Fig 5 2022. Daily Task 5 - its ok to own technology quote. Fig 6 2022. Daily Task 6 - slogans used to descibe men in media. Fig 7 2022. Daily Task 7 - two faces in one. Fig 8 2022. Daily Task 8 - we stand with Ukraine. Fig 9 2022. Daily Task 9 - no war just peace.

List of Illustrations

Fig 10 2022. Daily Task 10 - bullets and peace sign. Fig 11 2022. Daily Task 11 - how does social media affect mental health?. Fig 12 2022. Daily Task 12 - girl with two sides. Fig 13 2022. Daily Task 13 - does social media divide or unite?. Fig 14 2022. Daily Task 14 - headlines used in magazines. Fig 15 2022. screenprinting workshop. [image]. Fig 16 2022. screenprinting workshop. [image]. Fig 17 2022. screenprinting workshop. [image]. Fig 18 2022. screenprinting workshop. [image]. Fig 19 2022. screenprinting workshop. [image]. Fig 20 - 37 2022. Duotone, Monotone, Bitmaps. [image]. Fig 38 Elam, K., 2022. extract from Grid Systems. [image]. Fig 39 Elam, K., 2022. extract from Grid Systems. [image]. 92

Fig 40 2022. my own examples of grid layouts. [image]. Fig 41 2022. my own examples of grid layouts. [image]. Fig 42 2022. my own examples of grid layouts. [image]. Fig 43 2022. my own examples of grid layouts. [image]. Fig 44 2022. my own examples of grid layouts. [image]. Fig 45 2022. my own examples of grid layouts. [image]. Fig 46 2022. my own example of a triangular fold. [image]. Fig 47 2022. my own example of a square fold. [image]. Fig 48 2022. my own example of a triangular fold. [image]. Fig 49 2022. my own example of a rectangular fold. [image]. Fig 50 2022. [image] Available at: <https://www.ibm. com/thought-leadership/innovation-explanations/mikeabbink> [Accessed 29 April 2022]. Fig 51 - 58 2022. examples of women in media. [image] Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/ bodyimage/> [Accessed 5 May 2022]. Fig 59 2022. people network [image] Available at: <https:// pixabay.com> Fig 60 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 1. [image]. Fig 61 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 1. [image]. Fig 62 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 1. [image]. Fig 63 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 1. [image]. Fig 64 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 1. [image]. Fig 65 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 1. [image]. Fig 66 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 1. [image]. 93

Fig 67 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 1. [image]. Fig 68 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 1. [image].

List of Illustrations Continued

Fig 69 2022. person with head in hands [image] Available at: <https://pixabay.com> [Accessed 2 May 2022]. Fig 70 2022. work words collage [image] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com> [Accessed 2 May 2022]. Fig 71 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 2. [image]. Fig 72 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 2. [image]. Fig 73 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 2. [image]. Fig 74 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 2. [image]. Fig 75 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 2. [image]. Fig 76 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 2. [image]. Fig 77 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 2. [image]. Fig 78 2022. pie chart for questionnaire 2. [image]. Fig 79 2022. two people looking at phones [image] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com> [Accessed 2 May 2022]. Fig 80 2022. girl with her head in hands [image] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com> [Accessed 2 May 2022]. Fig 81 - 92 2022. [image] Available at: <https://posterzine. com> [Accessed 5 April 2022]. Fig 93 2022. examples of my own poster designs. [image]. Fig 94 2022. examples of my own poster designs. [image]. Fig 95 2022. examples of my own poster designs. [image]. Fig 96 2022. examples of my own poster designs. [image]. Fig 97 2022. examples of my own poster designs. [image]. 94

Fig 98 2022. examples of my own poster designs. [image]. Fig 99 2022. examples of further broadsheet layouts. [image]. Fig 100 2022. examples of further broadsheet layouts. [image]. Fig 101 2022. examples of further broadsheet layouts. [image]. Fig 102 2022. examples of further broadsheet layouts. [image]. Fig 103 - 108 2022. example of further developed broadsheet layout [image]. Fig 109 2022. example of first full draft broadsheet layout. [image]. Fig 110 + 111 2022. final broadsheet layout. [image]. Fig 112 2022. front and back cover design. [image]. Fig 113 2022. front and back cover design. [image]. Fig 114 2022. front and back cover design. [image]. Fig 115 + 116 2022. final front and back cover design. [image].

QuestionPro. 2022. Primary Research: Definition, Examples, Methods and Purpose | QuestionPro. [online] Available at: <https://www.questionpro.com/blog/primaryresearch/> [Accessed 19 March 2022]. QuestionPro. 2022. Secondary Research- Definition, Methods and Examples. | QuestionPro. [online] Available at: <https://www.questionpro.com/blog/secondaryresearch/> [Accessed 19 March 2022]. Quito, A., 2022. IBM has freed itself from the tyranny of Helvetica. [online] Quartz. Available at: <https:// qz.com/1124664/ibm-plex-with-its-first-ever-customcorporate-font-ibm-is-freeing-itself-from-the-tyranny-ofhelvetica/> [Accessed 25 March 2022]. TheList.com. 2022. Here’s How Social Media Affects Your Dopamine Levels. [online] Available at: <https://www. thelist.com/382688/heres-how-social-media-affects-yourdopamine-levels/> [Accessed 25 March 2022].

Bibliography

2022. The “online brain”: how the Internet may be changing our cognition. [online] Available at: <https:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6502424/> [Accessed 25 March 2022]. Elam, Kimberly. Grid Systems : Principles of Organizing Type, Princeton Architectural Press, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ ucreative-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3387574. 2022. [online] Available at: <https://designstrategy. guide/ux/design-cycle-a-method-you-can-always-use/> [Accessed 29 March 2022]. Taylor & Francis. 2022. Daily associations between social media use and memory failures: the mediating role of negative affect. [online] Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi /abs/10.1080/00221309.2020.1743228?journalCode=vge vgen20> [Accessed 25 March 2022].

Base, K. and research, A., 2022. An introduction to quantitative research. [online] Scribbr. Available at: <https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/quantitativeresearch/> [Accessed 2 April 2022]. Base, K. and research, A., 2022. An introduction to qualitative research. [online] Scribbr. Available at: <https:// www.scribbr.com/methodology/qualitative-research/> [Accessed 2 April 2022]. Mike Abbink. 2022. Info - Mike Abbink. [online] Available at: <https://mikeabbink.com/info/> [Accessed 8 April 2022]. TrueList. 2022. Social Media Addiction Statistics - TrueList 2022. [online] Available at: <https://truelist.co/blog/socialmedia-addiction-statistics/> [Accessed 3 May 2022].

Books mcmahon, c., 2019. the psychology of social media. Routledge, pp.36, 37, 38. Livingstone, S. and Bovill, M., 1999. Young people, new media. London: LSE. Rosen, D., 2022. The social media debate - unpacking the social, psychological, and cultural effects of social media. Routledge, pp.152, 155, 156, 174.

100

Social Media and It's Effect on Mental Health

Articles inside

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY RESEARCH

MINDMAPS

SECONDARY RESEARCH

LATERAL THINKING TASK