Quantitative Impact Analysis of Social Network Usage Patterns on College Students’ Mental Health and Preventive Countermeasures

Along with the rapid development of the Internet, social networks have caused significant changes in people’s interaction patterns. The study chose students from a certain university to fill out a questionnaire. The questionnaire data was then analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and mediation effect validation to learn more about how college students use social networks. The study also looked at how college students’ social network use affects their mental health. College students produce positive psychology through friendship quality when using active social networks, and they can also produce partially positive and negative psychology through friendship quality when using passive social networks. There is a significant positive effect of passive social network use on students’ upward social comparison (t = 2.13, Sig. < 0.01) and a significant negative effect on friendship quality and positive psychology (t = -2.58/-2.77, Sig. < 0.01), and it can have a significant positive effect on students’ positive psychology through the chain of upward social comparison and friendship quality. Colleges and universities should provide mental health counseling courses and organize fun activities to guide students to use social networks reasonably, build self-knowledge, and prevent the negative effects of overusing social networks on students’ mental health.