Limiting your exposure to social media will reduce your anxiety and depression, says Anuja Kapur
Social media is another factor that is outweighed by its adverse effects over the good it does. Social media can make you feel anxious, depressed and may even portray you as a failure. The reason behind this negative impact is that the social media sites constantly are being updated with photos and statuses of your friends, colleagues, or even family members enjoying, partying, travelling, landing the perfect jobs, or getting married. Somehow it makes you feel like everyone is living the dream and you are stuck at home with your parents, or living a debt-laden life due to your education or with the house loan hanging over you. We need to realise that we have not needed social media for thousands of years so we should not think that life is over if we don't have it.
Social media may promote negative experiences such as:
Feeling little
Usually, images on social media are manipulated, but it still successfully raises a concern and insecurity in the viewer's life. However, we need to be aware that it is the highs that the people are focussing on in their social media posts, and tend to leave out the lows. The smiles and achievements create a sense of envy and dissatisfaction within as you are scrolling through a friend’s profile centered around a beach vacation or a promotion on the professional front, and so on.
Feeling left out
Social media platforms have the ability to aggravate feelings of being left out as the others are out having fun or living a life you wanted. The idea of missing out on certain things can impact your self-esteem, trigger anxiety, and fuel even greater social media usage/abuse. It even induces you to pick, scroll and check for updates every couple of minutes or obsessively react to every alert — even if that means taking risks while you’re driving, missing out on sleep at night, or prioritising social media interaction over real-world relationships.
Isolation
A study shows that intense usage of social media platforms aggravates the feeling of loneliness rather than subsiding it. The study further highlighted that reducing social media usage can make you feel less lonely and isolated and improve your well-being.
Mental health problems
Human beings need face-to-face contact to be mentally healthy. Nothing reduces stress and boosts your mood faster or more effectively than eye-to-eye contact with someone who cares about you. The more you prioritise social media interaction over in-person relationships, the more you’re at risk for developing or exacerbating mood disorders such as anxiety and depression.
Being a victim of cyber attacks
Most teenagers have been subjected to cyberbullying on social media, especially facing offensive comments. Social media platforms are a hotspot for spreading hurtful rumours, lies, and abuses that can leave lasting emotional scars.
Feelings of self-centeredness
Sharing constant selfies and your inmost feelings on social platforms tends to carve an unfit and inconsiderate being, distancing you from the real life scenarios.
To alter your life positively and make it worthy, try a social media detox. With no notifications to check, no photos to look at, and no tweets to retweet, you will notice your productivity and happiness going up in life. Thus, here are a couple of reasons for avoiding the social media:
Speaking of your well-being, getting off of social media is good for your overall health. Research shows that limiting your exposure to social media reduces anxiety and depression. It directly reflects with an improvement in your work performance by not getting distracted constantly by social media. While social media is a great tool to keep in touch with people all over the world, nothing beats engaging with people face-to-face. If you can't delete your social media accounts, try limiting your usage.
(The author is a psychologist and a mental health expert.)