How far social media affects us nowadays.
Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter have become a platform for sharing events, achievements, and adventures. While they offer empowering movements and a voice of Gritty, they also contribute to increased feelings of depression and bullying. Social media encourages comparison and can negatively impact mental health, especially for teens, leading to feelings of perfectionism, anxiety, and body-negativity.
Let's discuss together these 4 topics :-
- Fake selfies vs. the sad reality.
- Social media and self comparison.
- Impact of highly edited photos on self esteem.
- FOMO and it's effects.
The More Miserable You Are, the Happier your Social Media Posts
Of all the ways social media can be bad for you, one of the worst, according to science, is the ability of Facebook and the like to induce envy. You see your friends posting smiling selfies at exotic destinations and humblebragging about their professional and personal accomplishments, and you end up thinking your own life doesn't measure up. Of course, intellectually we all know that our real life selves and our highly curated online selves differ hugely, but it's still easy to fall into the trap of letting other people's perfect social-media profiles convince you that you're somehow falling short. here's a video emphasizing the difference between reality and social media :-
Social media and self-comparison
Social media sites have become more interactive and addictive, increasing the opportunity for social comparison, which can lead to mental health issues like depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, body image, and disordered eating. Mental health trends in youth worsened during the same period as increased smartphone and social media use. Establishing clear links between social media use and mental health is challenging due to negative social comparison.
This is because creating a false life on social media for the sake of likes/followers can make our shortcomings or struggles in real life seem all the more difficult and we lose sight of what’s real. Even brief exposure to social media can trigger social comparison, and self-evaluations were lower when people viewed profiles of healthy or successful people.
The impact of edited photos on self-esteem
Of course, presenting a fictional version of ourselves is bound to have serious consequences on self-esteem over time. These retouched images can erode the confidence of both the people creating them and those viewing them. A negative view on body image and body dysmorphia are common results of photo editing. Photo editing allows anyone to pursue specific, idealized and unachievable beauty standards, hiding our real selves from the world and discarding any notion of accepting our flaws and differences.
Seeking acceptance from others online in this manner is highly damaging in various ways; a leading issue it that it ties our self-worth with our physical appearance. Social media brings a huge amount of pressure to people thinking that these edited images are the reality , while they're not.
Impact of social media on self image
Speaking about the effects of using social media nowadays let's not forget about FOMO . click on the following button and test yourself :-
What's FOMO ?
Today, social media continues to feed our need to live vicariously through others—except now we can tap into the lives of hundreds of other people whenever we want. It is easy for hours to slip by as we scroll through the lives of others. This is when we are most vulnerable to the sticky trap of FOMO: the fear of missing out.
FOMO is the anxiety we experience when others seem to be having rewarding experiences without us, and it's not exclusive to social media. Browsing social media can set us up for experiencing FOMO, as it can make us feel like we're missing out on the fun while sitting on the couch at home .
Engaging in social media use significantly increases FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) , which can lead to negative health effects
mood swings, fatigue, stress, sleep issues, and physical symptoms, especially in those who use social media less intensely.
Check out this video for some university students talking about FOMO