Do you spend hours scrolling on social media? Do you happen to feel bad afterwards or feel like everyone on it is living their best life and you’re not?
If yes, you are not alone.
According to McLean Hospital, people have been experiencing depression from their social media apps.
Continue reading to learn more about how depression is caused by social media.
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Why is Social Media Causing People Depression?
It is no secret that social media mainly consists of the good parts of people’s lives. Many people who post, only post the best, edited, and good-looking things in their lives. This could be a picture of them with their friends, a picture of their vacation resort, a nice picture that took them way too long to take, a picture of the nice food they bought as a one time thing, etc. They don’t post the behind the scenes. Not many people post about their bad days, their failures, their hard times, what they are going through, and so on.
Due to people only sharing their best moments on social media, when people are scrolling, they find it easy to compare their lives to the people they see online. It’s not a fair comparison because they are not getting the full story. This comparison makes people feel bad about their lives. It makes them hate their lives.
But comparing their lives to what they see online is not the only reason why some people may experience depression from social media. Some people may spend too much time on it that it’ll make them feel horrible because they didn’t get to complete their work. Social media is distracting and it can take away so much of a person’s life. All of the time they wasted demotivates them from working on themselves.
A study was conducted by the University of Pennsylvania to help prove that depression can be caused by using social media. In the study, 143 people participated. They got split into 2 groups. One group had to limit their social media usage to 30 minutes per day (10 minutes per social media platform). The other group had to continue using their social media the same as they always did. By the end of three weeks, it was concluded that the group who spent less time on social media had their depression decrease than when they first started.
Their depression had decreased by limiting the amount of time they spent on social media. Now imagine if they had completely cut off social media.
How is Depression From Social Media Bad For Us?
- It creates a feeling of dissatisfaction.
- It makes you feel like you are never happy with what you have.
- It makes you feel less motivated to do things in your life.
- It makes you feel like you should give up on trying to improve your life.
- It can cause relationship problems.
- It can cause mood swings.
- It can make you feel like a failure.
How to Avoid Getting Depression From Social Media?
Spend less time on social media. You don’t need to be on it all the time. Don’t let your life consist of viewing other people’s lives. Give time to yourself.
Practice gratitude. Write down a list of things that you are grateful for and things that make you happy. Do this small practice every day and it’ll make you more appreciative of what you have in your life.
Understand that you’re not getting the full picture and details when you view a post on social media. There is so much behind every post that we as viewers have no idea about.
Focus less on other people and focus more on yourself. Improve your life, set goals for things you want to do, and focus on self-care. Stop worrying about what other people are doing and build your dream life.
Talk to a therapist. There is nothing wrong with getting help or just wanting to talk to someone about it. It’ll help make you feel better.
To learn more about how to avoid depression when using social media, visit https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm
Conclusion
Social media is used daily in our lives and whether we like it or not, it can have a negative impact on our mental health. It is important to know about the risk factors so that we can avoid them. Limit your social media usage and always remember that things are not as they seem online.
References
Mammoser, Gigen. “Social Media Increases Depression and Loneliness.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 10 Dec. 2018, https://www.healthline.com/health-news/social-media-use-increases-depression-and-loneliness#Does-social-media-cause-depression
No More Fomo: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression,https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751
“The Social Dilemma: Social Media and Your Mental Health.” Here’s How Social Media Affects Your Mental Health | McLean Hospital, 18 Jan. 2023, https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-your-mental-health