Knowledge Article

Side Effects of social media

Introduction

Nowadays, everyone uses social media and spends their most valuable time scrolling through reels on social media platforms. When you watch videos, posts, and stories on social media platforms, you are getting fomo.

These things harm your mental health, hinder your productivity, and cause addiction.

How do they make it possible? How did they get you hooked?

You start using social media and you like something, so they start tracking you and presenting you with the type of content you like the most, and you start spending most of your time on social media, and you get addicted.

Addiction to social media harms your mental health.

 The below-mentioned points showcase how social media addiction negatively affects our mental health:

1. Peer pressure: social media use also creates the fear of missing out because you want to do what everyone else is doing. This evokes anxiety and will give rise to negative feelings and emotions, which again create mental health problems and stress, and anxiety disorders.

2. Fatigue and stress: When you are using social media, you are constantly switching from one task to another because there is just so much to do and see. This abundance of information can exhaust your brain, especially if it is received chaotically. Your brain needs time and room to absorb the data and process the information, but multitasking on social media makes your brain work overtime. This can prevent it from relaxing, and it will become exhausted as it tries to deal with the barrage of information. Hence, fatigue puts your mind under a lot of stress, and you may not be able to concentrate on anything at all.

3. Social Anxiety: Even though the whole point of social media is to allow people to stay connected with others, it doesn’t have the same satisfaction or element associated with actual human interaction, which is a crucial human need. In fact, in some ways, it is too distant, and this is not a good thing for those who become dependent on social media as it can lead to social anxiety. Those who are already suffering from this problem will find it even more difficult to indulge in face-to-face interaction. Real human interaction can become extremely scary for people, as it is becoming common to hide behind your computer screens and not go out at all.

4. Distraction: Social media is just tailor-made for decreasing our productivity because you spend hours looking at everyone else’s life when you could be doing something else. This means that most of your time is spent viewing photos, liking posts, and writing comments, and these activities don’t require the use of your intellectual abilities. They aren’t intellectual at all and distract you from activities such as reading, studying informational articles on the internet, etc. Your brain doesn’t get enough food for development, and your intellectual abilities can decline in this way. Your brain will slow down and not be able to respond quickly in various situations.

5. Insecurity: One of the major problems with social media is that posts typically present an idealized version of what’s going on in everyone’s life. Usually, what you see isn’t real because everyone has their problems and issues. Nevertheless, you end up comparing your own life with that of others and think less of your own. If people in your newsfeed seem to be having a good time, it will make you envious and affect your mood negatively. Research has shown that widespread use of social media can demotivate people, make them aggressive, and cause a decline in confidence.

So, are you adversely affected by social media? Here are some signs to look out for:

1. Low self-esteem.
2. Feeling low when you see other people's images and lifestyles
3. Envy of other people's lives—wishing your life was like someone else's.
4. Choosing social media as your first and only recreational activity
5. Not having as many face-to-face conversations with your relatives and friends and feeling disconnected
6. Being unable to do anything without feeling compelled to post it online. If you wish to discuss a specific problem, you can consult a doctor.

 Conclusion

After reading this article, you already know that social media is not good for your mental health. But you can't completely avoid social media, so use it in moderation, such as when you're traveling, free, etc. Don't use social media when you're working or doing something because it's like a drug; if you start using it in between your work, it will waste your time and hinder your productivity, so use it only for entertainment in moderation.

Save your mental health and your time too.