Introduction
Since 2004, many of us have used social media for many reasons, whether it’s to express our opinions on various matters or simply to connect with our friends through update posts and direct messages. While people may use social media with a good intent, is social media harming us more than it is benefitting us?
Physical Problems
Though social media seems like something that would only affect you mentally or socially, a study at the University of Buffalo suggests a strong proportional relationship between social media and physical health. Those who reported more cases of somatic symptoms, chronic inflammation, and frequent trips to the hospital are also seen to use some of the top social media sites more often, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. Many suggests this occurs because the addictive nature of social media leads to people staying indoors and living a more sedentary lifestyle. According to Vinmec, staying indoors more often poses a multitude of health risks, which include but are not limited to poor sleep quality, reduced consumptions of vitamin D, decrease in appetite and/or increase in junk food consumption, and compromised immune systems.
Social Struggles
Though it may seem like social media exists to promote the social wellbeing of someone through it incredibly accessible global platform, many studies have shown that social media actually decreases one’s ability to perform in social interactions. HelpGuide explains how social media can make someone feel more lonely despite being able to communicate with people easily, and makes people feel more anxious in social situations as it lacks the face-to-face communication that people need. This constant isolation and lack of practice in social situations can make even basic interactions difficult for someone who is addicted to social media. In addition, social media can make people more susceptible to online bullying and discrimination, which also contributes to poor mental health among social media users.
Mental Health
Out of all 3 topics discussed in this article, social media may have the biggest impact on one’s mental health. One such example of this is the unrealistic distortion of one’s life on social media. Through apps like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, many people tend to posts the highlights of their life, which makes them appear live an unrealistically perfect life while simultaneously hiding the negatives. This over-exaggeration of happiness on social media can make their viewers degrade their own lives, and make them desire to have this seemingly perfect life. Besides exciting events that people post about, social media is also a breeding ground for setting unrealistic standards. These standards often set unhealthy and damaging stereotypes, which can promote discrimination and prejudice, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and more. Such unrealistic standards also lead to insecurities and dysmorphia, as people feel the constant pressure to keep up with the rapidly moving body, fashion, and health trends.
Desensitization
Many people often use social media to promote toxic and fear-mongering (deliberately arousing public fear or alarm about a particular issues) content. While it is important to bring awareness to certain situations, social media often leads to the desensitization of triggering news, which is especially harmful in situations where action needs to be done to make a change. An article from the Yale Daily News describes the normalization of malicious content, violence, and generally insensitive speech. Social media builds a sort of sheep mentality, where people are encouraged to make insensitive content and comments because of how regularly they come across it online. Most, if not, all social media websites include content filtering technology and describe what content is and isn’t allowed online in their terms of use, but despite these efforts, malicious content is still largely accessible through these platforms.
How can you protect yourself from these effects?
Mindfully using social media is a key step to protecting your physical, mental, and social well-being. Consider going through your following and followers list to remove and unfollow accounts who promote the spread of malicious content. Zulie Rane from onezero.medium suggests that unfollowing celebrities can help you fight the pressure to make your lifestyle similar to theirs, and can benefit those who are especially susceptible to developing insecurities. However, this isn’t to say that you should unfollow all celebrities and online figures, especially if you find them genuinely inspiring you to improve your life. Taking breaks from social media can help to reduce the amount of time you spend looking at damaging content, with some people removing themselves from their favorite platforms altogether. Privatizing your life can also help, not only with online security, but it keeps your posts limited to the people you know and away from strangers online. If you don’t want to take breaks or delete social media altogether, or want to move away from it slower, you can also consider using screen time limits on these apps to help you reduce the time you spend on them.
Conclusion
Social media is the biggest way to connect with others, which has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Knowing the risks of social media and knowing how to use it mindfully is crucial to getting the full benefits of social media, while also protecting yourself from it’s adverse side effects.
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