From a young age I found myself involved in social media. I was given my 1st phone in Grade 9….and I was relatively late to the party on the ownership of cellphones. At the time, the only “social media” channel was Twitter, which I obviously was quick to download. I remember it like it was yesterday, my very first tweet was “Wake Up in the Morning Feelin’ Like P Diddy”. Now, looking back, is the content of my tweet really that important? Not so much. If I had written that tweet last week, while trying to create a valuable brand and image, I would think differently. However, I could go back and give myself advice on social media and mental health, I would tell myself this:
“Dear Emelie, I know at this moment in time, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook are some of the most important parts of your life. Although these are only apps on your Iphone, I know how much they mean to you emotionally and mentally. However, this is not good for your mental health. You may not see it now, but social media is not as important as you believe it to be. Yes, right now, the amount of likes, the comments and the engagement on your social media channels mean the world to you, they consume you. Your every thought, your concisous on posting and the specifics on what you comment on your peer’s profile’s. As much as social media can benefit you in more ways than one, it can also break you. Social meida causes uncessessary stress, sometimes harassment and overall anxiety. As Bailey Parnell had said “ Micro moments over time become a macro problem.”
Over time, social media becomes a constant in your life. Wether you like it or not, social media will start to control you, your thoughts, opinions and act. From the day I first opened my accounts, ie. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, I took social media way to seriously. Although social media can be used as a work tool and can potentially make you money, it can also become a tool of self destruction. I was very concerned about how people would see me, how they would judge what I posted, if I was considered “cool or not” etc…..now, I still care about those things, but I am also not as focused on them. Yes, if you have social media you will always care about these aspects, even if you would like to deny it. The fact of the matter is, is that you care about them, in a different way. Instead of being seen as cool, you strive to be seen as hirable, hard working and a team player. Instead of being considered popular, you are focused on being seen as friendly, reliable and valuable. For me, that is the biggest change I have personally seen in my social media channels, as well a many of my friends as we age. Social media may have started our lives on a interesting cycle, but in the end, it may help us achieve our aspirations in ways generations before us would never have imagined.
In the end, social media has its negative, as well as positive impacts. For me, I love social media both for the social aspect of connecting with my family and friends, but also for connecting with future employers and collleagues. Social media may be bad for your mental health, if you don’t use it properly. Using social media as a tool of attention and confirmation, you may end yourself up in a whole you feel as though you cannot dig yourself out of. However, using social media as a tool of connections, networking and conversation, can lead you down a path of success that years before us have never had the opportunity to utilize and that is pretty incredible.
