The Evolution of Social Media and the Impact on Modern Therapeutic Relationships

Abstract

Combining the most popular social networking sites (SNS), Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, and Pinterest, the number of social networking users has exceeded two billion ( Jain, 2013 ). The average American spends on average 37 min to 2 h and 16 min on SNS each day, which surpasses any other internet activity, including email ( Adler, 2014 ; Batastini & Vitacco, 2020 ; Kemp, 2019 ). The high number of users and the amount of time people spend social networking has given rise to an increased interest of research on social medical and mental health. For example, several studies have shown that extended social media use increases depression ( Coyne et al., 2020 ; Veretilo & Billick, 2012 ), symptoms of bipolar mania, narcissism, and histrionic personality disorder in adults 18–35 ( Rosen et al., 2013 ) and decreases self-esteem among adolescents ( Coyne et al., 2020 ; Shapiro & Margolin, 2014 ).