Positive Impacts of Social Media on Mental Health
Increased social connectivity : As we all know in our daily life we all use social media. It is a great application or tool to be connected with our relatives and friends. These online communities offer a way for people to connect and engage with others from around the world.
Access to support networks : Social media creates a supportive network and communication to discuss mental health, and we can control our own actions [like: how much to post and add your friends and family as per your interest].
Awareness and education : social media helps to spread awareness campaigns against fake or fraud news or information and also helps us to get education from their users or pages & create connections with students, universities & alumni.
[like : uses live streaming for lectures and discussions].
Opportunities for self-expression : we can use social media to enhance your creativity and social skills & self-expression by their creative skill [like : creative showcase, inspiration hub, collaboration potential, personal building ,etc].
- Negative Impacts of Social Media on Mental Health
Comparison and self-esteem issues : this is a very big problem of our new generation and youth and that is low self-esteem and confidence. They compare themselves with others and get depressed by watching their posts and stories and this type of comparison has the potential to elicit feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem.
Cyberbullying : cyberbullying directly affects a person’s mental and physical health. The victim which suffers from cyberbullying in the form of harassing starts having self-doubt, emotional & physical harm, loss of self-esteem, feeling shame, anxiety, concentration, and bad mental health.
Addiction and dependency : In our daily life every person is on social media, especially [13-24]age group kids and youth and they are in a trap of social media and they are in a loop of addiction of social media sites and apps. It is very bad for their mental and physical health in the long term and they will become angry and aggressive by using social media too long on a daily avg. basis. They spend most of their time scrolling and watching reels and stories of their friends and doing chit-chat and wasting their expensive time in social media and throwing pressure in their eye and brain. It causes very bad radiation from high screen time.
Sleep disruption : Social media often displaces time that should be dedicated to sleep, and this sleep disruption has harmful effects on the mental, physical, and emotional health of teens. And there is no doubt that mostly every student is suffering from the lack of sleep cycle. And for a long time it is very harmful. When they become younger they will face a lot of problems. [likee: bad quality of sleep, dark circles, headache, bad eyesight and many more].
Fear of missing out [FOMO] : Fear of missing out (FoMO) is a type of anxiety that’s linked to addictive social media use (SMU). We investigated the association between FoMO and social media use’s impact on daily-life and productivity at work. In addition, we aimed to determine whether WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat Use Disorders mediate that relationship. The effective sample comprised 748 German-speaking study participants from the general population (age M = 38.63, SD = 12.10; 336 men, 412 women) who took part in an online survey study.
Reduce face-to-face interaction : as we already know social media reduces actual meetings of friends and family members, now everybody is available on social media. so , there are very few chances that we meet our friends because we will talk to them by using social media on voice calls and video calls. Actual meet is gone in this generation. And that’s why everybody prefers mostly text-based communication on social media. It also leads to misunderstandings and miscommunication because it lacks nor-verbal cues [like : body language, tone, and facial expressions].
Balancing The Effect of Social Media on Mental Health
Mindful usage : Mindful use of social media occurs when a user is aware of their environment, sensations, thoughts, and feelings during social media consumption. For better mindful usage of social media, set your daily time screen limit so that you will use your social media handles properly and efficiently and avoid over scrolling with no harm or you will achieve a good and proper sleep cycle.
Be mindful of what you see: Remember that what you see on social media may not be reality, and that people’s profiles are often highlight reels.
Promoting digital literacy : “Digital literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.
(How to increase digital literacy)
Participate in online courses, Tutorials, Webinars.
Explore new options
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
Creating positive content : A positive social media presence can help to create both types of opportunities personal and professional and if you want to Promote your personal brand or what you want people to think of you then, positive content is mandatory. Also, Be entirely sure about what you’re posting on your social media account or on your page. Make sure to post content that you feel positively reflects on you, on your audience, your creativity, your values, and your skills.
Encouraging offline activities : it is very important to be encouraged towards offline activities because offline activities give us energy and also give us time to spend with our family & friends. Offline activities help us to get fit and reduce our stress and screen-time and give us some peace physically and mentally also.
(Here’s some offline activities 🙂
Writing/ Reading/ Journaling
Playing board games/ Bicycling/ Gardening
