How Social Media Affects Mental Health ??

Since their development, social media have penetrated deeply into the everyday lives of people globally, adapting and changing as the decade progressed. The need for sharing and communicating and the rapid advancement of technology brought forth the opportunity of social media as a way of interaction online. Especially during the outbreak of coronavirus, the impact of social media has been reinforced, as for most people it became the only point of social contact medium during isolation periods. Digital interaction has started to outweigh physical contact in covid-19 times, and like in-person social interaction, this digital interaction via social media creates a dopamine rush each time a person uses it, becoming thus highly addictive.?

This addictive nature of social media has been found to induce mental health problems, such as self-confidence issues, narcissism, anxiety disorders, and, in severe cases, depression as well. This association stems from various research in the field, indicating that constant use has severe consequences.?

The impact on Self-Worth

Media such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, with the strong visual content and ‘story’ features, reinforce a fragmented, idealized representation of reality that often does not correspond with the actual life of users, creating feelings of jealousy, inferiority, and constant comparison of one’s self with others, which is unhealthy and destructive for mental stability and inner balance. Things are rarely what they seem to be on social media, and people self-promote their happiest and most special moments to create an interesting, compelling internet persona.?

This in itself can cause severe self-delusion and can distort a person’s view of themselves and their lives, hindering self-growth, realization, and self-awareness. It is also possible that people who experience their social media life intensely by receiving appraisals and many likes or comments, sometimes become abruptly disillusioned when they do not get the attention they used to. Realizing their digital presence does not correspond with their real life, they get disappointed and depressed, feeling like imposters who cannot live up to their own expectations. Unfortunately, it is also very difficult to stop such behavior, since posting content and maintaining this persona is highly addictive and interweaved into their routine.

All these negative effects are correlated with societal pressure and the reproduction of several stereotypes on how people should look, how they should lead their lives, etc. Women, particularly, can be heavily impacted by the bombardment of images of femininity, social etiquette, and stereotypical representations of sexualization or straight-out sexism. On the other hand, an unhealthy dedication to social media and one’s presence can trigger narcissistic behavior and an obsession with the ‘filtered’ version, remaining in constant need of validation and recognition.

The FOMO phenomenon

There is also the issue of FOMO- which stands for “Fear Of Missing Out” on news, jokes, popular memes or trends online and not going with the flow of things as they progressed rather rapidly during the last decades. FOMO is a detrimental factor, especially in teenagers, who become obsessed and stressed out, often losing valuable sleep and becoming restless at night, and, as suggested by this article, people suffering from FOMO show “lower self-esteem and greater emotional instability.” Sleep deprivation most of the time may eventually lead to symptoms of depression, burn-out syndrome, and deterioration of academic or professional performance.

For adults and teenagers alike, feeling accepted and belonging to a community is a vital part of their existence, and thus people always return to their phones or laptop to check notifications, scroll down their feed and react to other people’s content. While this is a healthy habit and a reasonable need, there are often no limits and therefore no control over the usage or the time spent online. According to experiments mentioned here, teenagers have been found to even disrupt their night sleep to check for updates or notifications. When distancing themselves from social media, certain people reported feelings of great dissatisfaction and a sense of loss in their daily lives.

Anxiety and Emotional Health

The constant flow of news and live updates on social media, especially during the last months of the pandemic crisis is generally overwhelming and induces fear. For people prone to anxiety or diagnosed with anxiety disorders, this excess of information and negative images are detrimental. Information has begun spreading through each individual channel, and misinformation, fake news conspiracy theories circulating in the media in such penetrating ways that it is sometimes impossible to tell truth from lie. For a person suffering from GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder), these things are triggering and look like a mountain of indecipherable information.

?Emotional health is also impacted, in a two-fold manner; either the person becomes extremely desensitized by harsh pictures or verbal violence, or the constant exposure to toxic comments, negativity, and even cyberbullying exhausts an empathetic person who feels the burden of witnessing often dehumanizing events. The popular series “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix touches upon the above-mentioned impacts on the mental health of individuals but also explains how algorithms can be ‘manipulative’ and misleading by filtering information, shadow banning voices of dissidence, or keeping fake news and disinformation campaigns up.?

Watch it or read here to learn more.