How Your Social Media Habit Can Contribute to Depression
When you are scrolling through your social media feed, it’s easy to get the sense that your life is somehow lacking. As you view selfies and vacation shots you may wonder why you’re not experiencing the same satisfaction that your friends do. Do you feel worse because you see your friends leading seemingly extraordinary lives?
It is ironic that the purpose of social media is to create connections when often, scrolling just leads to feelings of isolation and loneliness. You may feel down seeing romantic photos of your best friend with their partner knowing you are still struggling to find your special someone. Maybe you feel jealous when you see your relatives go on trips out of the country. Even though what you see on your feed is bringing you down, you still cannot help but continue scrolling. What’s the connection between your social media feeds and the way you feel?
Consider the following ways that your social media habit may be contributing to depression. When you are aware, you can start to make choices that make you feel better and help you create more meaningful connections.
How Your Social Media Habit Can Contribute to Depression
Poor Body Image
Scrolling through photos of your friends and relatives looking sharper than ever can make you feel inadequate about the way you look. You would think your friends just stepped out of a magazine!
Perspective is crucial here. It is important to remember that people often use photo effects or filters to cover up any blemishes or enhance their features. Plus, those photos could have been taken with special effort and when a great deal of time was made on their appearance. Not everyone looks glamorous 100% of the time. Nor should we. Still, it is hard not to feel envious when such photos get so many likes and positive feedback.
Self-Absorption
Social media feedback can make you feel dependent on submitting selfies for approval or posting your every thought. It feels important to put yourself out there all of the time. Spending your time alone, taking numerous photos of yourself, making videos, or crafting other attention-grabbing content can increase loneliness and isolation.
It can be hard for you to make new friends or participate in life if you’re busy creating the perfect image of yourself. Staying present and engaged may feel increasingly difficult if you spend too much time preparing for the camera or editing your own thoughts.
Fear of Missing Out
Social media can behave like a clique functioned during our highschool days. A lot of your friends may post about their childrens’ accomplishments, new purchases, or the new promotion they received. Posts of people bragging about their successes can make you wonder if you are doing something wrong in your own life. You may long to be included among the admired and successful, much like many teens want to belong to the “cool kids” clique in school.
If you completely absorb yourself in your social media feed, because you do not want to miss out on any updates; your sleep, self-esteem, and real-world connections may suffer. All of which can quickly devolve into depression.
Cyberbullying
Social media can be the worst place to experience bullying. 10% of teens have been subject to cyberbullying and a victim to hurtful comments. Even adults are not immune to cyberbullying. Experiences of an embarrassing photo or video being posted or a negative comment or rumor being shared about you for everyone to see can be quite painful. Plenty of adults have been on the receiving end of social media disrespect, harassment, or intimidation.
Despite the abuse, it can still be tempting to continue reading these hurtful comments. When those posts increase in numbers, this can lead to emotional scars that fuel depressive thoughts, low self-esteem and withdrawal.
Social Media Cleanse & Professional Support
If social media is contributing to your depression, do not be afraid to step away from it. A 2018 study by the University of Pennsylvania showed that reducing social media use to 30 minutes a day can reduce feelings of depression. Set a timer for how long to scroll through your social media and then log out of the account.
Find more time to spend in the real world. Try to get together with at least one other person once a week with your phones put away. Prioritize making memories with your friends without focusing on photos. Stay present so that you can fully participate. The rewards of real life memories and connections are greater than anything you can post.
Depression therapy can provide you with the tools you need to use social media without feeling sad. Please contact us at Mindworthy Therapy to learn how to cope with depression and gain a brighter outlook on life.
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