The development of technology in the digital era like this definitely has both good and bad impacts. The impact of social media on mental health is starting to come into focus. In connection with the large number of online media containing information that creates global interaction.
We can see for ourselves that almost everyone is active and dependent on social media. There isn’t a day without posts, news updates, and the like. This is what ultimately makes social media a necessity that cannot be separated from everyday life.
The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health in Life
Reporting from the MedEdPage Youtube channel, social media has a big impact on mental health. On the one hand, the platform helps to establish relationships and get informed. However, excessive exposure to content that triggers self-comparisons often leads to anxiety and insecurity. Negative comments can also significantly affect mood. By managing the time of use and following positive accounts, social media can be used in a healthier way to support mental balance.
If we cannot use social media wisely, we will have negative impacts. Indirectly affects mental health psychologically. Maybe you don’t realize it, but according to a survey, many users feel the following impacts:
Dependency
At first, the impact will be dependency. The desire to continue scrolling the timeline on various types of social media. A popular youth term for this impact is FOMO (fear of missing out).
Feelings that arise include anxiety, restlessness, and fear if you miss a new topic. Over time, this feeling will develop into depression, which can reduce productivity levels and sleep quality. Of course, mental health will be damaged by this kind of addiction.
Concentration Disorders
Furthermore, the impact of social media on mental health is disrupting the sense of concentration. Our natural focus will be directly focused on the activity at hand. But lately, notifications appear, interesting content or even long-awaited news breaks the concentration.
If it reaches this stage, someone will feel anxious if they don’t check it immediately. It’s very dangerous to have a habit like this.
Loss of Privacy
The scariest thing about the massive use of social media is the loss of privacy. Posts that lead to privacy are increasingly normalized. So in the end, we can get to know someone just from their social media accounts.
Excessive circulation of privacy ultimately makes users feel uncomfortable and anxious. Feelings like this affect the level of trust in and towards other people who accidentally share personal information without permission.
Social Comparison
The impact of social media on mental health often causes overthinking at night. Comparing other people’s lives with your own just because of social media posts. This feeling of low self-esteem should be a motivation, but if it is not controlled, it will affect the mental state to the point of depression.
Bullying, intimidation, and harassment
The problem that most affects the mind is bullying. On social media, this may happen. It’s scary when you get a lot of negative comments even though you haven’t met or know the person. The appearance of provocative sentences and intimidation will make people feel stressed.
In fact, it is not uncommon for social media posts to become an indecent medium. Then harassment occurred, which made the content owner feel disturbed. It can apply to everyone, regardless of how many followers they have or whether someone is famous or not.
Social Isolation
Finally, there is a feeling of wanting to interact in real life because they are too comfortable with the virtual world. If it’s like this, someone will only have virtual contact more often. This excessive anxiety is clearly unhealthy and affects self-confidence.
Dealing with the Impact of Excessive Social Media
If you already feel some of the things we discussed previously, it’s better to immediately take a break. Adjust your social media use to find your limits. Change the mindset that the real world is wider and important to upgrade.
Apart from that, we can focus more on self-development. However, if you can’t handle it yourself, there’s no harm in asking for help from a professional. The impact of social media on mental health is no joke, so you need to change negative things into positive ones to live a better life. /tari
