Online social networks are so integrated into our lives that we cannot imagine life without them, and modern technology contributes to that tremendously. In my graduation thesis, entitled Social Networks and the Mental Health of Young People in Education, I have broken down the theoretical part into chapters, looking at what adolescence is, what social networking sites are, and a little bit about digital literacy, followed by mental health in general, and social networking sites and the mental health of youth in education. As mental health is a broad concept, I have decided to focus just on self-esteem, anxiety and depression. The following section presents the qualitative data I collected from the eight research participants, with whom I conducted semi-standardised interviews using the interview guidelines. After the qualitative analysis of the data, the results and the discussion are written up to answer the research questions, followed by the conclusions and proposals. I have found that research on this topic is necessary and will be increasingly so in the future, because modern technology is a great help in meeting many of the demands of our society, which has led to the development of various social networking sites, the most widespread of which are young people, and their use can offer a number of advantages to the individual, the most important of which is communication, which has changed from a one-way system, where people received information via TV, radio or newspapers and there was no feedback, to a two-way system. In addition to communication, social networking sites are also based on sharing as much information about oneself as possible, which can pose certain risks of blackmail or abuse, and the main purpose of these sites is to use pictures to show who people are and what kind of life they live. However, since individuals mostly or almost always publish only the best images of themselves and hide the bad ones, there is an imbalance between the realistic portrayal of life or people and the slightly altered one, which causes many problems and distress for young people who are constantly comparing themselves with these images. Even though young people are aware that not all posts are completely true and know that people use different ways to improve their photos and their appearance, it still gives them the feeling that they are not living as full a life as they are, or that they are doing something wrong because their appearance does not match the ideal.
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