How Social Media affects Mental Health
It’s past midnight on a Monday morning, and Asha is already dreading the long workday that stretches before her. She double-taps a post on Instagram which talks about how Mondays should be banned, feeling a sense of connection with the 16758 others who share her prediction that the upcoming day is going to be terrible. She sets her phone down on her bedside table and turns out the lights. The weekend had been fun; she had spent it at a music festival full of kitschy souvenirs and artistic installations that had made for some great pictures. One of her selfies got over 100 likes on Instagram, which was a new personal record. It would only go up from there, and she would have to prepare to give her audience more than what they were used to. She grabs her phone from the bedside table, flinching as the harsh light hits her eyes, and updates her status on Facebook, asking her friends for recommendations on good camera phones. She gets 4 comments immediately, from people who swear that the phone they are currently using has transformed their lives. So what if it’s a little out of her budget? The very thought of being an influencer outweighs the very real possibility that if she makes this purchase, she won’t be able to pay rent this month.
In the hyperconnected world of today, people have started spending more time online than offline- whether it’s for replying to messages on WhatsApp, letting your friends on Facebook know where you are and what you’re doing, or scrolling through your feed on Instagram until you’re all caught up. In this scenario, it’s important to ask yourself what exactly you’re getting out of social media and how it’s making you feel at the end of the day.
It’s not like social media is without any benefits. If used in the right way, it helps in maintaining connections with people you aren’t able to meet physically, knowing what’s going on in their lives and keeping them updated about you. It provides individuals with a means of reaching a mass audience in the fastest, easiest and most cost-effective manner, no matter where they are. It has also been proven to increase empathy drives in users, as they are exposed to a plethora of different stories and perspectives.
However, studies have shown that spending copious amounts of time on social media platforms may be linked to feelings of loneliness, depression, sleep disorders, eating disorders and suicidal tendencies. While Social Media isn’t the only reason behind these disorders, the fact that it aggravates it is undeniable and the reasons are worth exploring.
Replacement of human interactions with digital connections
Human beings are intrinsically social animals, who need to form connections that go beyond a physical level in order to function. The highly digitized world at your fingertips means letting someone new into your life is as easy as clicking ‘accept’. The ease of access to social media platforms has grown exponentially over the years, which means that most people we’ve ever had contact with are literally a few clicks away- but how many of them do we really engage with?
In order to fulfill their need for acceptance and validation, people would rather spend time growing their follower count than invest it on actually getting to know someone. But even several hundred superficial interactions can’t replace the physical and mental health benefits of a single stimulating conversation.
Linking Self Esteem to Social Media Validation
For an increasing number of millennials, the number of likes they get on their post defines their self-worth. In order to boost their self-esteem, they showcase only the best parts of their life, heavily editing reality to form a pretty picture of the life they wish they had. People viewing their feed find themselves tormented by feelings of jealousy, as they become dissatisfied with their own lives. This may lead to low self-esteem issues and depression in users. Watching the picture of someone’s ‘perfect’ life, beautiful family or exotic holiday makes people want the same for themselves, and if they do fall short, feelings of resentment towards oneself might set in.
Social media networks have managed to create a gamified society where behavior is shaped by social validation in the form of like and comments. Every time this validation is received, it triggers the reward center of their brain by giving users a dopamine rush, which induces them to repeat this behavior on a regular basis.
Scrolling is the new smoking
How many times have you lain awake in bed at night, watching just one more episode, scrolling to one more post, reading one more article? How many times have you escaped awkward conversations by trying to look busy on your smartphone? The endless plethora of content available at our fingertips has given rise to the phenomena of social media addiction. Just like other forms of addiction, users have been seen to exhibit listlessness and depressive ‘withdrawal symptoms’ once they stop using. Staying glued to your phone not only affects your ability to form meaningful relationships but also has adverse impacts on your attention span and quality of sleep. When you use your phone late into the night, it inhibits the secretion of melatonin, the sleep hormone, because your brains is still alert due to the bright light emitted by the screen, and often, because of whatever you’re browsing. Viewing something that induces negative feelings in you is never a good idea when you’re trying to relax. Also, the availability of engaging material across different platforms forces users to switch across them constantly, unable to focus on one thing at a time. While most people would refer to this as multitasking, over time, this leads to a shortening of the attention span, with users pausing in the middle of everyday tasks in order to check their notifications.
Fear of Missing out
The meme culture is the best example of the fact that if you’re not constantly updating yourself with the latest trend, you get left behind. With memes being integrated into our daily lives so much so that people allude to them in offline conversations, it’s easy to feel left out if you’re not an active consumer. People take strange pride in sharing the dankest new memes, and people who refuse to participate in this culture are thought of as uncool. This constant need for staying up to date propagates the problem of social media addiction and the problems associated with it. Furthermore, feelings of isolation can start to brew if you see your friends meeting up for an outing, or even just tagging each other in posts you’re not a part of. This gives rise to feelings of loneliness and social isolation.
Cyberbullying and consumption of disturbing content
Even though social media platforms have a lot of screening and censoring tools in place to ensure users are not subjected to offensive, inappropriate or disturbing content, the sheer number of material being pushed out from multitudes of sources every day makes it easy for things to slip through the cracks. Even though you can report any post on any platform for its content, seeing certain things even once is enough to breed negative feelings and antisocial tendencies. For example, suicide contagion is a fairly new phenomenon affecting adolescents. Studies have shown that seeing their friends or acquaintances talking about suicide and nihilism actually puts them more at risk of thinking of or making attempts against their own life.
Social media is also the breeding ground for trends that are stupid at best, and downright dangerous at worst. Recent trends like the tide pod challenge and the kiki challenge have led to serious injuries and even deaths. People who are exposed to this kind of content tend to think more about how taking up these challenges will make them look than personal consequences.
More directly, cyberbullying is still rampant. Under the veil of anonymity, bullies feel safe in hurting and intimidating their victims by stalking them, threatening them or sending them inappropriate messages or explicit sexual content. Just like in cases of bullying, people who go through this are scared and feel helpless to do anything to stop it. It disrupts their mental peace and in some cases, makes them fear for their safety.
Memory and attention span
Social media marketers are fond of saying that the average consumer has the attention span of a goldfish. Keeping this in mind, brands and individuals are crafting their messaging to engage their users in the shortest span of time, and in a manner which requires little cognitive stimulation. This gives rise to a culture where no one is expected to pay attention or focus on one thing for longer than 9 seconds. This, and the fact that users constantly switch between platforms and tasks lowers their attention span so much so that they are unable to go through their normal activities with full concentration.
Moreover, people who are in the perception business have begun caring so much about how they look like when they’re having fun, that they often only pretend to do it for social media. For instance, Instagram users gush about how they can’t wait to taste a delectable cupcake when in reality they have no intention of eating it. People trek for hours to reach a beautiful spot only to whine about how there is poor connectivity there, or watch a play entirely through their camera’s lens. Scrolling through these memories on their phone, users might find that they remember the incidents or events completely differently from what they are seeing.
In conclusion, social media can give you value that is worth the time you are investing in it if only you spend it the right way. It is a great way of putting yourself out there, meeting people from diverse backgrounds and places, reconnecting with people you used to know and garnering more knowledge of the world around you. Social Media has provided platforms for marginalized communities like the LGBTQ community to voice their opinions and help people in understanding their side of the story. It has enabled the start of important conversations about mental health, sexual harassment and knowing your rights. People who are depressed or suicidal can seek help through online forums. Perpetrators of personal assault can be called out for their crimes publicly. Artists can be discovered for their talent without having to spend a bomb on marketing. People can form lasting friendships and even find true love. These benefits are there for all users to reap once they strike a balance between active engagement and passive browsing.
However, as the world opens up to you, it is advisable to exercise caution and be cognizant of how you are engaging with it. If you find yourself exhibiting any behavior that is detrimental to your physical or mental health, you might do well to flip your phone over and disconnect for a while. You may end up connecting better with yourself, and the people who make an actual difference in your life.