Social Media Anxiety Disorder

Olivia Hester
More than Donuts
Published in
2 min readFeb 21, 2017

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Social Media has introduced society to an entirely new dimension of how we interact. Instead of human contact and face-to-face recognition, we can contact one another at the click of a button. Social Media has truly transformed personable interactions and meaningful conversation. For the past few years, a discovery was made that social media can actually be accredited to the rise in anxiety, and this was labeled Social Media Anxiety Disorder. This disorder focuses on the negative effects Social Media has mentally and physically to an individual, and the long-term effects.

Having actual human interaction has become more difficult for young children and recent generations because of the ease we have fallen into with posting online. Contacting someone via message is much easier and less stressful than having a face-to-face confrontation, and this has lead to a decrease in overall human interaction among young adults and teenagers.

I do believe Social Media can be a great thing, however, I completely see this side of the argument as well. Personally I see the effects it has everyday into my own anxiety with recognizing someone from online and not quite knowing how to interact with them. I think Social Media can easily freeze our curiosity of others, because you can easily look them up on any Social Media platform and find them within seconds. When you have the opportunity to do this, you are much less likely to express your interest in other’s lives in person, and I think this also freezes how friendships are made.

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