Let’s face it; we’ve all been there. It’s 10 p.m., and we’re lying in bed about to fall asleep for school or work the next day. We can’t sleep, so we start twisting and turning. Next, our phone lights up, and we find ourselves on TikTok to help us fall asleep. A quick 10-minute scroll turns into 30 minutes, and those 30 minutes later turn into hours.
Social media has its ups and downs; we use it to connect with friends and family. However, it also serves as a prominent breeding ground for cyberbullying, hate, and toxicity.
Social media helps link parts of the world together, but too much is detrimental to our mental health.
In this article, you’ll understand 6 ways social media can leave a harmful impact.
1. Time waster
As previously mentioned, a quick 10-minute scroll can effortlessly turn into hours. We don’t realize it because we’re constantly hunting for the next dopamine-filled post.
We like to say scrolling through social media helps us relax, but are we relaxing or wasting time? Ultimately, we use social media to temporarily escape from problems instead of doing something about it.
2. Envy and jealousy
The posts you see from your friends or favorite celebrities are not real; they’re photoshopped. Social media creates a false illusion where people flaunt their wealth, possessions, and bodies so people like you can give them attention. The attention you give them only boosts their ego, so they can lure more people into growing their ego even more.
When we see people living lavish lives with foreign cars and 3-story homes, we naturally compare their lives with ours. We automatically assume they’re living the glorious and ultra-perfect life, not knowing that you are probably happier than them. It may sound unusual to hear that materialism doesn’t make you happy, but research has shown that it’s true.
The envy from seeing people online succeed only brings you further down, which correlates to depression, social anxiety, and discontent.
3. Social media addict
The social media algorithm, including Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, is designed to keep you scrolling; it’s how these companies make money. It’s for this reason that it is so difficult to put down the phone after a few minutes of scrolling.
Social media starts as a fun hobby to pass the time, but before our eyes can register, it becomes a monster that keeps us glued to our phones. We then become obsessed with how many likes we got, how many followers we lost, and what people think of us in the comment section. In today’s age, kids and teens can’t survive without their phones, preventing them from bonding with friends and loved ones.
If you’re looking to transform for the better, reducing your social media usage will tremendously improve your mental health.
4. Misleading and false information
On November 5, 2020, former US President Donald Trump tweeted, “ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!” This tweet by Trump was fact-checked and proven false, as only 22 out of 50 states don’t accept mail-in ballots after election day.
This tweet by Trump was a clear campaign strategy to create a sense of urgency among voters to speed up the election process and reduce the time voters spent deciding on the best candidate.
Even without a 20/20 vision, it’s clear that social media makes it ridiculously easy to persuade a group of voters. Once a post attracts one person, that person interacts with it, causing it to spread further like the bubonic plague.
Though it may seem humorous, false media can delve into our daily lives as we start believing assumptions instead of truths. A post encouraging young adults to smoke marijuana because it’ll boost their athletic performance sounds ridiculous but is believable to susceptible teenagers.
5. Breeding ground for hate
Young adults are the most active on social media, and it’s no surprise that they’re consistently spreading hate, threats, and remarks towards one another. Some users are unhappy, so they turn to social media as a way to release their anger and complaints. While doing so, they tend to bash, hate, and bring others down.
A survey conducted by the Population Council found depression from social media use has increased, with 33% of females and 16.6% of males showing depressive symptoms in their early adulthood.
Depression from social media stems from the hate and negativity ready to latch onto you each time you visit your Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok feed. Additionally, it serves as a convenient post office for many to send hateful comments with the intent to bring each other down.
6. It isn’t very helpful
The next time you catch yourself scrolling on social media, look at yourself from a third-person POV and think deeply about your actions. Do you have homework that is due tomorrow? Have you been exercising like you said you were? Are there dishes piling up in the sink?
If you ask yourself these questions and it rings a bell, it’s clear that you’re procrastinating and using social media to shield you from engaging in a difficult task.
Unless social media is helping you improve, I guarantee there are better things you can do than waste time endlessly scrolling. You’ll forget these posts anyway, so what’s the point? The next time you fall into an endless scrolling marathon, ask yourself: was it worth it?
