Social media facilitates the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information through virtual networks and communities. Social media can have both its advantages and disadvantages for us.
First of all the positives, social media allows you to communicate virtually. It is a platform that overcomes barriers of distance and time. Social media allows us to connect and reconnect with others and can expand and strengthen our interactions with people. It also allows people to communicate with people who share similar interests or have the same experiences. In addition to letting people to express themselves and make them happier.
But everything has its negatives as well. The main one being that social media is addictive. Experts have not been in total agreement on whether the addiction is a real thing, but there’s some good evidence that is exists. This “addiction” is unhealthy and effects our mental health in ways that are oblivious to us sometimes. The more we use social media, the less happy we seem to be was what one study concluded from their research. It seemed that social media platforms such as Instagram only provides moments of happiness and lessens your satisfaction of life.
Due to the increased usage of social media it has increased a main problem – comparing our lives with other which is mentally unhealthy. We fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others as we scroll through our feeds, and make judgements about how we measure up. This is bad for our mental health as it makes people not value themselves which results in low self esteem. As well as not having a lot of confidence in ourselves.
From the websites I looked into, many suggest that as long as we are mindful users it could be beneficial than being hurtful. I personally feel it is taking over our mental health. And leading us to sometimes not living our lives to the full. But it is something we have control over and if we decrease our usage of social media it could lead us to having better mental stability.
Mental Health Is Your Wealth 