Contents
- 1 How can social media benefit mental health?
- 2 What role does social media play in young people’s mental health?
- 3 How social media affects your brain?
- 4 Does social media Affect Mental health pros and cons?
- 5 How the Internet affects mental health?
- 6 What are 3 risks of social media?
- 7 How social media can influence you?
- 8 Why do people post everything on social media?
- 9 Why social media is bad for your mental health?
- 10 What are the disadvantages of mental health?
- 11 Is social media a positive or negative influence?
Being socially connected to others can ease stress, anxiety, and depression, boost self-worth, provide comfort and joy, prevent loneliness, and even add years to your life. On the flip side, lacking strong social connections can pose a serious risk to your mental and emotional health.
According to the Pew Research Center, social media is “nearly ubiquitous” in the lives of teens. However, research reported in the journal JAMA Psychiatry found that adolescents who use social media more than three hours per day “ may be at heightened risk of mental health problems, particularly internalizing problems.”
Social media has the ability to both capture and scatter your attention. Not only does this lead to poorer cognitive performance, but it shrinks parts of the brain associated with maintaining attention.
While there is research that suggests there are positives to social media use there is also plenty of research that ironically suggests that too much interaction with this technology, designed to help us to connect can actually increase feelings of isolation and loneliness and exacerbate mental health issues such as
How the Internet affects mental health?
Excessive Internet use may create a heightened level of psychological arousal, resulting in little sleep, failure to eat for long periods, and limited physical activity, possibly leading to the user experiencing physical and mental health problems such as depression, OCD, low family relationships and anxiety.
The risks you need to be aware of are:
- cyberbullying (bullying using digital technology)
- invasion of privacy.
- identity theft.
- your child seeing offensive images and messages.
- the presence of strangers who may be there to ‘groom’ other members.
Emotion. Multiple studies have shown that unlimited use of social media causes stress, bad moods and negative mental health. Many people wake up in the morning and immediately check their Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter.
We live in a society where we all have to continuously update our self to show what we are doing by posting it to our feed to gain more followers and likes. Also, social sites have been a great platform for social comparison and to showcase the self-esteem of a person.
When people look online and see they’re excluded from an activity, it can affect thoughts and feelings, and can affect them physically. A 2018 British study tied social media use to decreased, disrupted, and delayed sleep, which is associated with depression, memory loss, and poor academic performance.
What are the disadvantages of mental health?
Complications
- Unhappiness and decreased enjoyment of life.
- Family conflicts.
- Relationship difficulties.
- Social isolation.
- Problems with tobacco, alcohol and other drugs.
- Missed work or school, or other problems related to work or school.
- Legal and financial problems.
- Poverty and homelessness.
Social media use can have a serious negative impact on areas of well-being including feelings of depression, anxiety, fear of missing out, body image, bullying and sleep. YouTube was identified as having the most positive impact on adolescent well-being while Instagram was perceived as having the most negative.