SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS IN SEPAHIJALA, GOMATI, AND SOUTH TRIPURA DISTRICTS: A REVIEW

Abstract

Background: Over the past ten years, social media has come to touch nearly every part of a young person’s life, and no group uses these platforms more heavily than today’s college students. When that use tips into compulsive, poorly regulated habit, a cluster of psychological problems tends to follow — heightened anxiety, depressive symptoms, strained friendships, and slipping academic engagement among them. Tripura, a northeastern Indian state where internet access has expanded rapidly in recent years, has received almost no research attention on how this pattern of use is affecting the mental health of its college-going population. Objective: This paper brings together the existing literature connecting social media addiction (SMA) to psychological well-being in college students, and does so with specific reference to the higher-education setting of Sepahijala, Gomati, and South Tripura districts. Methods: We conducted a narrative review of peer-reviewed research published between January 2012 and June 2026. PubMed, Google Scholar, PsycINFO, Scopus, and DOAJ were searched using combinations of terms including social media addiction, problematic social media use, psychological well-being, mental health, and college students. Forty-four studies met the inclusion criteria and make up the evidence base discussed here. Results: Taken together, the reviewed studies point to a fairly consistent positive relationship between social media addiction and depression, anxiety, lowered self-esteem, poor sleep, and weaker academic outcomes in college populations — though how strong that relationship looks depends heavily on what is being measured. Simple frequency-of-use measures tend to show small effects (r ≈ 0.17), while measures targeting addictive or problematic use specifically show moderate-to-large effects. Two mechanisms come up again and again as the psychological route from addictive use to distress: fear of missing out (FoMO) and habitual social comparison. Several features of Tripura’s setting — its linguistic diversity, the remoteness of many college catchment areas, and a shortage of mental health services — are likely to sharpen these effects locally. Conclusion: Social media addiction represents a growing threat to college students’ psychological health, and the institutions examined in this review, spread across Sepahijala, Gomati, and South Tripura districts, illustrate just how widespread the exposure already is. Awareness campaigns tailored to local conditions, structured digital literacy training, and accessible on-campus counselling all deserve urgent attention.