Social Media and Mental Heath. How is it connected?

What is the first thing you do as soon as you wake up early in the morning?

I can surely say almost 80% of us look for our phone, that’s been laying near us like a good, loyal partner. Just like a new-born looking for their mother with their eyes still closed.  Maybe it’s not the first thing you do, but if you are like most social media users, it’s a part of your daily routine.

Human Beings are social creatures, so we need other’s companionship to thrive in life. And in today’s world, social media has made it very much easier. 

We are so much attached to these media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, twitter, etc, viewing others so called perfect life, that we start comparing and hating the dull life we live. In this era of editing, people upload photos, videos making it look perfect. It makes people to look like everyone else is living a perfect life, with a perfect body, full of happy relationships and a successful career. As a result, it might make us feel like we are being left behind or it even makes us feel like everyone in the world is happy than you. What we don’t realise is that, the photos or videos we see of others are just bare minimum time of their lives. Those photos are carefully curated to make people think they are living their perfect life. We tend to forget that not everything that’s on those platforms are real.

One of the most seen among people using social media in a daily basis, is the Fear of missing out (FOMO).

This fear makes us to return to social media again and again. Even if there will be things that can wait or don’t need immediate response, This Fear of missing out will make you think otherwise. Once you start scrolling through the sites, you might suddenly leave your social media after seeing something that that makes you uncomfortable. And if left unchecked, this might grow into more serious concerns like depression, anxiety and stress.

A 2016 study, using survey data from over 1787 US adults between the ages of 19 to 32, found a link between social media use and increased depression.

There are not just downsides of it. Social Media platforms also have some upsides to it, that helps in improving our mental health.

There are many social media influencers who share videos on body positivity and they also show how not everything we see on social media are not true. Sometimes, when people feel disconnected from the real world, they feel like they don’t belong anywhere and starts losing confidence in themselves, so they indulge themselves into the world of internet, specially into these social media platforms to look for places they belong, people they can connect to, and they start gaining more confidence in themselves.

 

So, this cannot be said about social media that it has a bad influence on our mental health. Everything depends on how we utilise it. People should know how to keep a check and balance on its usage.