This study examines the relationship between depression and behavior on social media platforms. Social media is a concept that is unique to the 21st century and undergoes change quickly and frequently. Consequently, research that analyzes the impact of social media is limited. Emerging research has focused on how regular use of social media sites affects attitude, with many researchers finding a positive correlation between the use of social media and depression (Lin et al. 2016; Primack et al., 2017; Shensa et al. 2017; Radovic, Gmelin, Stein, & Miller, 2017). Researchers have pointed out the need to explore this relationship further to determine why depression and social media are associated. Researchers suggest future studies examine if social media affects depression or if depression influences social media usage. (Shensa et al., 2017; Radovic et al., 2017). This study, therefore, aims to further research on social media usage and depression. Specifically, this study asks if depression in individuals can be used as a predictor of negative social …show more content…
In their study on maladaptive social media use and depression, Shensa et al. propose that the relationship between depression and social media is due to a maladaptive behavior pattern they identify as Problematic Social Media Use (PSMU) (2017). Their definition of PSMU describes the use of social media sites in an addictive manner (Shensa et al., 2017). The results of their study showed a significant relationship between PSMU and depressive symptoms (Shensa et al., 2017). Like previous research, this study could not determine directionality of the relationship between social media use and depression; however, it does suggest that researchers examine the way individuals use social media closer to determine if maladaptive use leads to depression or if depression leads to maladaptive use (Shensa et al.,