How Social Media Affects Mental Health
Social media is great, right? Even so, social media affects our mental health in ways you may not be aware of.
Social media is a big part of many people's lives. In fact, the average North American spends almost an hour a day (many of us more!) on social media sites using multiple devices. But the rise of social media has also had some negative effects on our mental health—and some of them might surprise you. Here are four ways that social media affects your mental health:
It can eat up your time (and take you away from things that really matter).
Your time is valuable, and social media can eat up a lot of it. You might have already noticed this when you look at the time you spend on your phone or computer each day. Social media can take away from other things in your life, like spending quality time with friends and family members or participating in activities that are meaningful to you (like enjoying hobbies, reading books, working out).
It can be a useful first step to begin to track your social media use using settings like screen time limits on your devices. Get a real sense of how long each day, week and month you are spending on social media, then reflect if this is how you want to spend your time and if this is in alignment with your values.
Social media can make you feel isolated.
Social media promises connection but many people identify a correlation between the amount of social media screen time they engage in and feeling increasingly isolated and lonely.
When we engage in social comparison and focus on the highlight reel it is easy to begin to believe that we are the only one who is struggling - mentally, emotionally, financially, in our careers, relationships etc. The more we support this narrative with "evidence" of everyone else's success on social media, the more we pull away and may notice feelings of shame or embarrassment. These emotions are barriers to connection and make it feel difficult to reach out for support from the people (in real life) that we can turn to.
It can have a negative effect on self-esteem.
Social media can really impact our self-esteem. The constant stream of compliments and perfection can lead to a distorted view of reality, and make you feel bad about yourself - hello Social Comparison!
It can also make you feel envious of other people's lives, which further impacts our sense of self. If someone posts an amazing vacation picture, for example, we might assume they are always having fun and enjoying themselves; it's hard to remember in the moment that these perfect images our videos are the highlight reel, and not reflective of reality.
Social media can be a form of escapism or emotional numbing.
It’s hard to know when you have spent too much time on social media. Social media is designed to be addictive, and there is a constant stream of new information and content being posted that can draw you in for hours at a time. You might think you are spending your time wisely by checking in on friends, but if you are spending more than 30 minutes per day scrolling through feeds or posting updates, the chances are good that your social media use is negatively impacting your mental health.
Social media can be escapism and avoidance as well as support and connection: when people feel down they may turn toward their phone out of habit rather than reaching out to someone who could offer them real help. This type of behaviour cumulates over time and can make it uncomfortable or difficult to sit with ourselves and practice self- awareness, particularly when we are struggling.
Takeaways…
We use social media because it’s fun, entertaining, and a great way to connect with friends. But sometimes it can feel like too much or even become detrimental to our happiness and mental health. It’s important to remember that social media is just one part of life; your happiness shouldn’t depend on how many likes you get on Instagram or how many retweets someone else gets on Twitter! So keep this in mind as you scroll through your feeds tomorrow morning—and beyond.