How Social Media Gaslights You Into Ruining Your Mental Health
Social media tricks you into thinking it’s helping you cope when it’s actually what’s causing your problems
“A fish doesn’t know it’s in water.”
My father said this to me frequently when I was young. A fish doesn’t know it’s in water — and like fish, we don’t know we’re in water either. Lifelong Los Angeles natives think heavy traffic is normal, poor people think a perpetual fear of losing one’s job is normal, and mentally ill teenagers think suicidal depression is normal. We don’t know what we’re swimming in when we’re swimming in it.
Well, dear reader, when’s the last time you weren’t swimming in social media?
No, that 30-day detox where you deleted the apps off your phone and only checked on your laptop once or twice a week doesn’t count. I mean, when was the last time you were free?
When is the last time your accounts didn’t exist, you didn’t click on links, and you didn’t even visit parts of the internet that don’t require a social media account?
When did you last use text messages to communicate with your friends?
