How social media affects mental health

I’m sure all of you have heard the phrases social media and mental
health in the same sentence. We all seem to understand the effect of
social media on our mental health; it has been drilled into our minds in
assemblies, by teachers and by parents, but in that case, why are we not
doing anything about it? The top 3 diagnosis for university students are:
anxiety, depression and stress and numerus studies from the Us,
Canada, UK, have linked this high social media use with these high
levels of anxiety and depression. But the scary thing is that high social
media use is almost everyone I know. It’s my friends, my family and my
peers. 90% of teenagers use social media and 75% have an active
social media profile by age 17.An average teenager can spend 6 hours a
day on social media. Anything we spend this much time doing has a
lasting effect on us.

So here are three of the most common stressors on social media that
could become mental health issues.

Number 1: The Highlight Reel- a highlight reel is a collection of our best

and brightest moments. Social media is our personal highlight reel. It’s
what we put up when we look great or when we are with friends and
family. But we struggle with insecurity because we compare our behind
the scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel. This is happening all the
time and most of the time we are not even aware of it.

Number 2: Social currency-in social media the likes and comments have
become a form of social currency by which we attribute value to
something, a product. In social media we are the product and are letting
others attribute value to us with their likes and comments. I’m sure most
of you in this room have taken down a photo if didn’t get enough likes.
By doing this, we are letting others attribute value to us. This is changing
our sense of identity; we care about what others think about us more
than what we think of ourselves.

Moving on to number 3: Fear Of Missing Out-FOMO- Fomo is an actual

social anxiety from the fear that you are missing an event or opportunity.
It can make us feel bad because we are not at that party or because we
didn’t get to go to that event.

That FOMO you feel, those highlight reels, the social currency, those are
all results of a ‘normal’ social media experience. With social media all
experience addiction. We get anxious if we don’t have access , we check
our posts and how many likes we got, with every like we get a shot of
that feel-good chemical. Doesn’t that sound like every drug you’ve ever
heard of? This is when we see the rising levels of anxiety and
depression. Is social media hurting your mental health in the same way
that you get addicted to drugs? The answer is it doesn’t have to. Social
media can affect you negatively or it can do the opposite. If you chose to
follow the people that you want to follow, that make you feel better off,
then social media can be a positive for you. You have 24 hours in a day,
if you are going to spend 6 of those on social media, it may as well be
filled with things make you feel better.

Can social media affect your physical health as well as your mental
health?

Yes, definitely. Spending too much time on social media can lead to
having a bad posture and even vision problems. As well as this it can
affect our sleeping habits negatively, which in the long term can be a
problem. A new study shows that excessive time on the internet can
even increase a teenager's risk of high blood pressure.

How much time is a healthy amount to be spending on social media?

There are many different opinions regarding how much time should be
spent on social media. Anything less than 2 hours a day is
recommended. Over time, you may find yourself in better mental health,
with an increased mood and more positive social interactions. That boost
in mood and morale can have massive benefits to your productivity.