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Writer's pictureUmesh Nair

5 Ways to Protect Your Mental Health from Social Media

Updated: Sep 18, 2022

Social media is a fantastic tool for connecting with others and widening our hearts and minds. It's also a great way to express creativity, learn new things, and conduct business. But it can also seriously harm our mental health and wellbeing if we don't handle it properly.


- There is a narrow difference between Mental therapy and trauma therapy

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Table Index

1 : Social Media And Mental Health

  • Problem #1: You’re Comparing Yourself to Others.

  • Problem #2: You're Wasting Time.

  • Problem #3: You Feel Isolated and Alone.

  • Problem #4: You’re Mindlessly Scrolling.

  • Problem #5: You’re Doomscrolling.

3 : Bottom line


 

Social Media And Mental Health


We are all aware of how draining and time-wasting mindless scrolling on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and other social media platforms can be.


Moreover, we are aware of the many problems that social media presents and how they are only going to get worse, as numerous studies have highlighted.


58% of Americans, according to a research, claim that social media has a detrimental impact on their mental health.


Anxiety (64%) and sadness (56%), as well as feelings of unhappiness with life (52%), fear of missing out (52%), and problems with body image (51%), are the most frequent negative effects of social media use on mental health.


In a study conducted on behalf of ExpressVPN, 86% of Generation Z participants admitted that social media had a negative impact on their happiness and had a significant negative impact on other aspects of their mental health, such as anxiety, loneliness, sadness, and self-esteem.


Throughout the years, celebrities including Selena Gomez, Camila Cabello, and Ed Sheeran have all taken social media sabbatical to safeguard their mental health and wellbeing. For his mental health, Tom Holland most recently said on Instagram that he was taking a break from social media:


"I find Twitter and Instagram to be overly exciting and overpowering. When I read stuff about myself online, I get caught up in it and spiral, which is very bad for my mental health."




So how do you get all the benefits without all the harm?



How to Use Social Media While Keeping Your Mental Health Safe


Here are 5 typical social media issues and solutions to safeguard your mental health and wellbeing.


Problem 1 : Your self-comparison with others is unpleasant


The most common yet unseen issue with social media appears to be this. As you scroll, you usually feel anxious of what others are doing and what you aren't doing. Everyone has experienced it. You observe a friend getting ready for her child's first day of school with the chalkboard, the ideal breakfast, and all of their adorable school supplies on the kitchen table. You're battling to get the door open so your kids can leave.


Or perhaps you watch a friend complete the 5K you've been wanting to run for a very long time and feel both proud of him and guilty since you haven't even begun your training. Perhaps you feel animosity because you haven't had a vacation story in years after reading one from a coworker.


Solutions

Initially, keep this in mind. You are evaluating your entire life in comparison to their highlight reel. Although you have probably heard this before, it is important to reiterate. Remember that what you see does not represent the complete picture.


When I was spending the day on the river with a friend and our families, I recall that her kids were having a tremendous breakdown. It was a mess, and everyone was irritated. What appears on her Instagram feed few hours later? A stunning image of her enjoying herself to the FULLEST with her family. Huge grins, a beautiful day, and a tonne of fun. Social media is rife with gorgeous moments that don't necessarily reflect the whole truth.


I'm not suggesting we shouldn't rejoice for our friends and their fantastic adventures; we just need to keep in mind that we're only taking in a little portion of the whole picture. Zooming out, consider our lifetimes. We all experience highs and lows, happy and unhappy times, and the issue with social media is that it frequently just catches a brief, meticulously edited snapshot.


“Comparison is the thief of joy.” - Thomas Edison

There will always be someone better or worse than ourselves when we measure ourselves against others. There will always be someone doing more or less.


You must be extremely clear on what is important to you in order to quit comparing yourself and, as a result, feeling bad, envious, critical, righteous, or bad-mouthed. Standing strong in your principles, ideals, and dreams is the only way to maintain your composure and avoid being shaken by people around you. If you don't already know what your values are, I strongly advise you to take some time to consider what's most important to you and what you want out of life.


Mark Manson's book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is another excellent place to start. Because what really counts is that you are moving forward with your life, your objectives, your ambitions, and what means most to you. You won't care as much about what other people are doing if you have that as your foundation.


If they continue to do so, there is a reason for it. Sometimes the envy or disappointment you experience when comparing yourself to others is really a red flag for something you need or want. Maybe it's a sign that you need a new adventure if you notice that you're jealous of pals who are having new experiences. If you're jealous of the cuddly pictures your friend is posting of her wife, it may be a sign that you need to invest more time in your connection.


Use those emotions as inspiration to fulfil your own needs instead of trying to imitate their happiness. Instead, consider what you could be lacking in your life. Consider carefully what you want to do, then set out to do it.


Problem 2 : You are wasting your time.


You check a text on your phone and the next thing you know, you've fallen into a social media black hole. Right now, you're aimlessly surfing through social media. How much time passes as well?


One survey indicates that this year, two hours and 27 minutes a day will be spent on social media on average worldwide. The greatest total ever recorded is this.


Have children? Teens (ages 13 to 18) spend eight hours and 39 minutes on social media each week, compared to tweens (ages 8 to 12) who log on for five hours and 33 minutes. It's more than a full-time job, in fact!


A typical Indian also checks their phone 96 times a day, or once every 10 to 12 minutes. Every day, we unlock our phones 150 times on average and touch them up to 2,617 times. That number can exceed 5,000 for frequent users.


Solutions


To be clear, using social media or the internet is perfectly acceptable and even good. However, while choosing how to use your time, be judicious and deliberate.


Set a time limit. University of Pennsylvania study results strongly imply that:


“Limiting social media use to approximately 30 minutes per day may lead to significant improvement in well-being.”



Although you might not be able to restrict your or your children's use of social media to 30 minutes per day, you might be able to cut back on it by being more vigilant. The same study demonstrated that improving your focus and mood can be achieved by simply being more attentive of how you use social media.


Do you keep track of the amount of time you spend on social media? You'll probably be shocked, I guess. Your phone will allow you to monitor your social media. Simply use a third-party software or navigate to Settings > Screen Time > See All Activity on your smartphone, then scroll down until you see the number of pickups.


I want you to check your typical daily use right now. What could you do in the two, three, or four hours a day you spend on your phone? When you could achieve those goals instead of using social media, how frequently do you say, "I don't have time for that?"


Imagine if you consciously choose to use some of your social media time to reading a book, taking a class, spending time with family, working out, or starting that new business you've been considering. If you spent just half of your time on social media in your real life, how would that affect your success, relationships, health, and overall well-being?


What about the rest you sorely need? How much of your time in bed when you should be sleeping is spent idly scrolling? In actuality, even when our brains should be sleeping and recovering, the blue light keeps us up and the stimulus keeps us awake.


Your phone also has to go to bed at the same time as your children. During your break, leave it charging in another room. If it's out of your reach, you can't be there. Every night, all of the phones in our home are charged at a specific station.



Problem 3 : You Experience a Sense of Aloneness.


Funny how you can be online for so long while also feeling disconnected at the same time. Why? Typically, there is no actual link.


Studies have shown that people today feel increasingly alone and isolated. We experience FOMO and a sense of being excluded and isolated. Using our phones for connection during Covid was essential, but even then, research indicate that it had a detrimental effect.


Solutions


Give yourself permission to establish and nurture genuine connections. Plan a weekly friend date using the time we discussed reclaiming.


Attend a luncheon, continuing education programme, or local networking event. Send a text to a friend you haven't spoken to in a while or give a loved one a call the next time you grab for your phone to begin scrolling. You'll quickly observe favourable outcomes.



Problem 4 : You're Scrolling Aimlessly.


How often have you reached for your phone to look for something—a text, a phone number, or a picture—only to discover it 20 minutes later? The issue with social media usage is frequently that we use it carelessly or with no real purpose. It's time to fill up, and really clever algorithms are leading the way.


Solutions


Just be mindful. Moreover, what is mindfulness? Despite the fact that it's not a bad idea, I'm not requesting that you meditate. The quality or state of mindfulness is "the awareness of something while being conscious of it." Think about your plans and motivations before answering your phone. Do you have something to accomplish, or are you just bored?


Perhaps reaching for your phone whenever you have a moment to spare has become a habit? End the cycle of bad habits. Charles Duhigg discusses the habit loop in his book, The Power of Habit.


The Habit Loop is made up of three parts:


1) The Cue: This is the stimulus that causes the activity to begin. This might be a circumstance such as a place, a time of day, an emotion, a person, or in the case of your phone, probably a notification or buzz.


2) The Routine: The behaviour itself is represented by this. grabbing your phone, checking your texts, or opening social media and beginning to scroll.


3. The Reward: This is what your brain derives from it. In the case of social media, the dopamine rush is probably responsible. But it could also be a sense of camaraderie, a flight from reality, or even laughter. What do you feel after going through social media? Only you can tell what reward you receive.





Your habits can be changed if you can identify them. Consider your "cue" in this sentence. Turn off all non-essential notifications on your phone if it's a notification. Perhaps feeling stressed out is your cue, and you turn to social media as an escape. If you take a small stroll or use your phone to do some quick meditation when you're feeling worried, you'll reap the benefits of reduced tension and a moment of calm.


Even though habits can be challenging to change, if you know how to do it, you can break any behaviour.



Problem 4 : It's Doomscrolling.


Doomscrolling is the act of mindlessly navigating through depressing news stories, social media updates, or other content-sharing websites. In essence, you're reading bad news after bad news. Although the phrase has been existing since 2018, it only recently started to become more widely used due to the pandemic and other factors.


Doomscrolling keeps us in a "vicious cycle of negative" that feeds our worry, according to clinical psychologist Dr. Amelia Aldao.


“Our minds are wired to look out for threats,” she says. “The more time we spend scrolling, the more we find those dangers, the more we get sucked into them, the more anxious we get.”



According to Aldao, this gloomy content might then cast a cloud over how you perceive the outside world.


“Now you look around yourself, and everything feels gloomy; everything makes you anxious. So you go back to look for more information.”



Consider this: Our thoughts weren't built to be aware of everything horrible going on in the world at any given moment. News was still obtained via newspapers or locals even 100 years ago. People were only aware of events that affected their local surroundings two hundred years ago.


Before social media, we were only aware of the things that directly affected us since our minds were built to shield us from threats and hazards that came to us quickly.


We currently know everything. Every day, we are exposed to a variety of upsetting and distressing content. The worst aspect is that most people are unable to tell what is inflated or sensationalised for likes, views, or interaction and what is true and what is fake. That explains why tension and anxiety are increasing.



Solutions

Consciously curate what you are consuming.


Consider how you feel while you scroll. Watch your energies for a moment. What inspires amazement and astonishment in you? What brings you happiness? What does it make you feel inferior, unhappy, angry, or envious about? Next, take action by deleting or unfollowing accounts that give you bad vibes, envious feelings, or worry.


Add some positivity to your social media feed by looking for content that makes you feel safe and happy and by following those that share your outlook. A puppy lover? Enjoy fine cuisine? You find happiness in flowers? Looking for some laughs? Follow people or accounts who make you happy or who make you feel peaceful and optimistic about the world.


Bottom line


The trick is not to stop using social media altogether. The key is to take control of how you use it.


Consider carefully how you may use social media's influence to enrich and improve your life. Implement tactics like these to lessen the negative effects of misuse and overuse so that you can restore your mental health, wellbeing, and joy.

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