Social Media and Mental Health
With social media we can see thousands of people, thousands of lives, countless different stories and personal worlds. Having these things at the tips of our fingers is not always beneficial. For example, if you have a young teen who has struggled with their weight, they are insecure and worried that they aren't pretty or handsome enough. Then they look at Instagram, Snapchat, etc and they see all these people who are thin, flawless, and can wear whatever they want. This teen is going to feel like they aren't good enough, they can't ever be as good as these models and actors. These situations could lead to eating disorders, low self-esteem, and worsening depression. I'm not saying this happens every time, but from personal experience I know that constantly seeing people who you think are better than you can drastically affect your mental health.
Social media has also led to worsening cases of anxiety. Seeing so many news channels and alerts about the next drastic shooting or another flood can make a person paranoid and worried. If everywhere we look we see another video about something terrible that happened it is hard to ignore that, we think that we could be next or a family member could be affected by this. Of course people need to see the news and know what is happening in the world, yet sometimes there is too much negative information for people to handle it all at once. I have felt myself getting increasingly worried when I see the latest news about a major disaster, I think about how my family lives near there or that I could be next. The news is an important aspect of our lives, but when it is all around us to the point that all we see is the terrible events in the world then we get scared.
In conclusion, social media has affected many people's mental health. With the sudden awareness of terrible worldwide events leading to an increase in anxiety and depression. Increased insecurities due to the unrealistic beauty expectation portrayed throughout social media. There is also the well known cyber bullying, which has given the wrong people too much power to hurt others when we should be helping each other up.
Do you think an increased awareness of our surroundings and global politics encourages us to ignore such things, or create a general feeling of apathy towards truly horrible events that happen, simply because we see them happen so often? Is social media robbing us of our ability to empathize and replacing it with anxiety and insomnia?
ReplyDeleteIt is very true that social media has negatively impacted mental health situations, but do you think it may have helped in some ways. At least in my experience, the increased amount of conversations and the increased openness towards mental illness through social media has made situations better for many people. I believe that the ability to find people you can relate to easily also serves as a positive side to social media in relation to mental health, and feeling included. It is interesting how social media has so many positives and negatives; I wonder if one group outweighs another.
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