With use of social media being at an all-time high, our mental health is seeing an all-time low. Here’s how social media is directly hitting hard on our mental health.
Social media has undoubtedly revolutionised our way of living. Gone are the times when we would wait for days for a letter to arrive. Who would have imagined that our distant friends and relatives will be just a click away? But, social media did it! It turned our lives into a never ending loop of “Click, sleep and Repeat”.
But we the millennials, the already sandwiched generation between traditions and modernity are totally stuck in this loop and coming out of it has become a distant dream of many. What has made this gigantic world a dangerous space to be in is its effect on our mental health?
To get the answers of such questions, you need to rewind in your mind your activities on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and answer the following questions for yourself.
Have you “checked in” on Facebook when you last visited Starbucks or any other high end restaurant or even watched a movie?
Have you checked again and again the number of likes and comments on the picture you uploaded on Facebook or Instagram and felt a tinge of sadness when the number of likes didn’t match up to your expectations?
Have you ever hated your life when you saw the pictures of swanky and happening lifestyle of your friends?
I hope the readers have got the point. But the ultimate question is “WHY?”
We were wondering the relation between the two, and here we see social media directly aiming and hitting hard at our self esteem which in turns leads to affect our mental health. We often come across the question that why our generation is so unhappy? The answer lies here.
With an advent and never-ending rise of social media, we have become overly dependent on others and those sitting miles away, having absolutely no care of our lives to validate our worth.
Here’s a list of few ways it does hit our mental health:
Validation and approval : This system is based on other people’s validation and approval of our lives. And this has created the biggest impact. Even the person living a happy and peaceful life will start doubting his way of living if social media disapproves it. You all must have seen your Instagram filled with videos and images of concerts. This is people’s way of asking others to judge their lives as “happening”. One can go on thinking thoughts like “Who would like a guy or a girl who spent the weekend at home?”.
Numbers, numbers and numbers : Don’t get confused. This is what our lives revolve around, numbers. From numbers of comments, number of likes to number of views. A single number below our expectations makes us judge if we are even living it right. And what’s the point of living a moment when there aren’t numbers to say “Yeah, you did it right?”. Haven’t we living life with that mentality? Think about it.
Instant glorification : This is another aspect of social media which again has two sides. With Instagram pages and YouTube channels making people superstars in few days, the greed to become popular without many efforts has also risen among youth today. But what don’t meet the eye is several others who bite the dust. Thus, when failures and trolls hit us hard, we find it almost impossible to get back our lost esteem and sanity.
Self doubt: Models with perfect bodies and faces attract everyone on Instagram. This has led to a tremendous increase in guys and girls opting for surgeries and implants to present themselves as “perfect”. Perfection seems like the myth social media created and has now people aiming towards it. Basically, social media presents people full of confidence and glamour while they hide themselves in the gloomy rooms painting their scars.
Featured Image credits: CNBC
Shreya Agrawal
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