'Social media addiction could lead to depression'

LYDIA NABAWANDA

Experts are concerned about the increasing cases of depression linked to social media use in the country mostly among young adults.

This is as a result of cyber bullying, social media harassment and social media comparisons among others.

Depression is a mood disorder characterised by persistent low mood and a feeling of sadness and loss of interest.

A simple social media post like this can turn to haunt you – largely because of the response one gets from the crowd.

Despite the popularity of social media platforms, there are remarkable claims about how they affect us personally: our behaviours, our social relationships, and our mental health.

Daphine Ankunda, 22, a resident of Gayaza who is a twitter fanatic said she had had a fair share of social media bullying and harassment.

"There is a picture of mine where I was eating a piece of meat that went viral. I thought that was the end of it not until they started using it as a meme," she said.

This made her lose self-esteem, quit twitter for some time because she could not handle the negative energy.

Ankunda said she was devastated to the extent where she just wanted to die.

"I had to leave twitter for sometime because I felt do depressed because people kept abusing me, saying I was ugly," Ankunda said.

Hasfa Lukwata, a medical doctor advises the young people to expose less of their personal lives on social media.

"Students especially those at campus should learn to spend very little time on phone and that is approximately a period of 6 hours and remain secretive about their life in order to avoid issues that could lead to depression," she said.

According to police, social media bullying or harassment is an offence and anyone liable can be convicted.

Police spokesperson Kampala Metropolitan, Patrick Onyango said there is a law in Uganda against cyber bullying.