Social Media: Is Social Media Bad For People’s Mental Health?

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For a lot of people, social media is as much a part of their life as breathing is. When it is a big part of someone’s life, they can have a number of different accounts online.

Through having these accounts, it will be possible for them to stay in touch with their friends and family. Furthermore, they will be able to see what these people have been doing with their life.

It’s All There

Even if their friends and family are spread out over a few different accounts, it is still not going to take a lot of time and effort for them to stay up to date with what they have been doing. If they had to contact each person individually, this would take a lot longer and require far more effort.

Also, some of these people might not even live in the same country as them, let alone the same area. This won’t matter, though, as one will still be able to speak to them and to see what they have been doing.

A Boost

Talking to their friends and family online can have a positive effect on how they feel, resulting in an increase in their wellbeing. Therefore, if they have moments when they feel as though they are cut-off from others, they will be able to do something about it.

What can also improve their mood is sharing something that other people will ‘like’ and comment on. This could be a picture of themselves or it could be something that is not related to them in anyway.

An Event

Arranging a night out or a reunion, for instance, can also be a lot easier thanks to social media. One can invite whoever they want to invite, without needing to post individual invites to everyone.

The other part of this is that it is also easy for another person to let them know if they can make it or if they are not interested. From these examples alone, it is clear to see that it can be highly beneficial to have just one account online.

Neutral

Nonetheless, to say that there is only one side to social media or that it has only had a positive effect on humanity wouldn’t be accurate. There are people that believe that it is good overall, while there are others that believe it has done more harm than good.

Perhaps the best way to look at social media would be to say that how it is used defines whether it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. This is then no different to how a knife can be used to cut food or it can be used to cause harm.

Another Side

In the same way that someone can become addicted to alcohol, drugs, food or exercise – just about anything really – they can also become hooked on social media. Due to the chemicals that are triggered within them when they use it, they can end up developing a strong need to use it.

This is not something that will happen by chance though, as the social media app that they become hooked on may have been designed to do this. The app that they use won’t have just been designed by engineers; brain experts will have also been involved.

Distracted

What can also play a part here is that one may find it hard to feel good, which can mean that they will be more susceptible to getting sucked in. So through finding it hard to feel good and even lacking self-control, one can be an easy target.

Either way, if they do end up getting hooked, it is likely to have negative effect on other areas of their life. The time that they spend online could be spent connecting to real people and working on something that will enhance their life, for instance.

Something Else

If they spend a lot of time on their and share a lot, how their friends and family respond to what they share can define how they feel. After they have shared something, they could feel anxious and then this may change once the ‘likes’ and comments start to come in.

Without this positive feedback from others, they may feel as though they don’t exist. One is going to be like a child who needs its caregivers to provide constant attention or else it will feel invisible.

Two Parts

If they don’t receive the type of feedback that they expect, they could end up hitting rock bottom. As they have given their power away, other people will be in control of their inner world.

Still, if one is experiencing life in this way, it could show that they lacked a strong sense of self to begin within. If this had been in place, they wouldn’t have needed so much approval from others.

Conclusion

A very simple way of looking at social media would be to say that it can pull someone in and take them away from things that actually matter. When it is used at the right time and for the right amount of time it can be fine, but when this isn’t the case, it can lead to a number of different problems.

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One way for someone to get an idea of the effect that it is having on their life would be to think about if it is causing them to neglect any areas of their life. If it is, there is no need for them to shame or blame themselves; they can think about what they need to do instead and take action.