According to Statista, people in the U.S. are on social media for an average of 2 hours and 14 minutes every day. People are online for at least 34.1 minutes daily on X, formerly Twitter. It’s become second nature to check what’s going on a social network when you use your smartphone. It’s hard to imagine going through your day without visiting these platforms.
Also, if you’re in a public space and look around, you’ll find many people on these networks. How does social media affect mental health, especially when it’s becoming harder to separate ourselves from the online world? Today’s discussion is about these platforms’ positive and negative impacts on your psychological well-being. Also, you’ll find several helpful tips to reduce social media addiction.
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How Can Social Media Affect Mental Health: 2 Ways They Can Change Your Life
If these platforms are for connecting people and bringing them together, how can social media affect mental health? The answers are below:
1. Social Media Can Interfere With Your Sleep
Imagine going to bed early at night so that you get adequate amounts of rest. You decide to open your favorite social media app like X to follow the latest conversation on the platform. You scroll through a few tweets, tap the like button on various posts, and check out the comment section. After a while, you find out what’s trending on X to know what everyone will discuss tomorrow.
Initially, it felt like five minutes, but when you look at the clock, it was 30 minutes. You see another interesting post just as you decide to keep your phone down. By the time you turn off your screen, it’s been several hours.
Insufficient sleep has a significant impact on your mental health in the short and long term.
2. Social Networks Are Extremely Addictive
Sites like X, formerly Twitter, want you to be on their platform as long as possible. How do they keep you scrolling through your timeline for several minutes continuously? For starters, the platform uses its powerful algorithm to recommend content you will find interesting.
It does so by learning more about your activities, likes, and dislikes. Your feed is like a bottomless pit, as there is no end to the number of posts you can read.
Similarly, you get notifications on your device whenever you leave the platform. It informs you of every activity so you can open the site to see what’s happening. In other words, these networks try every method to get you to return. You may want to turn some of these notifications off. Over time, you develop bad social media habits.
This is how social media affects mental health.
How Does Social Media Affect Teens Mental Health: Everything You Must Know
Teenagers are already going through a tough time as they have to learn more about themselves. So, what happens when you throw these social networks into the mix? Below is a list of answers to the question, “How does social media affect teens’ mental health?”
1. They Can Experience Cyberbullying
Social media networks make it easier for teenagers to become victims of cyberbullying. Why? For starters, anyone can create an account and fake their age on the network. How will X or any other website know the user’s real age?
With fake accounts, teenagers can anonymously leave hurtful comments on their peers’ posts.
Kids can spread destructive rumors about people they don’t like on various online platforms. Also, teenagers may receive abusive messages from people they know and strangers.
Teenagers may carry several emotional scars due to these harmful behaviors, affecting them for a long time. For instance, they can experience depressive symptoms due to cyberbullying.
2. They Feel Unhappy With Their Appearances
Teenagers go through immense biological changes, which can make them unhappy with how they look. For instance, kids going through acne breakouts won’t like their appearance. Or they start to notice minute details about themselves that they didn’t see before.
Using social media during these times can have a negative impact on their self-esteem. As you may already know, several filters on these platforms hide imperfections. These filters can also significantly change how people look.
On top of that, air-brushed photos of celebrities are also floating on these networks. When teenagers come across these images, they develop unrealistic expectations of themselves.
As a result, they become unhappy with their appearances, which, in turn, affects their mental health.
How Does Social Media Affect Mental Health Negatively: An Overview
Platforms like X can cause various mental health issues if you’re not careful. So, you ask yourself, “How does social media affect mental health negatively?” Below is a list of problems you may face, especially if you use these networks for a long time:
1. You Feel Like Your Life Is Inadequate
When you go through social media platforms, it seems like everyone is having a ball. You see people celebrating various occasions by going out to expensive fine-dining restaurants. It always seems like everyone’s going on a holiday to the next hottest destination.
Or, you come across posts from people you follow about getting promotions in their workplace.
Unfortunately, this is far from the reality, as most users only share their high points. This is like watching Lebron James’ career highlight reel without factoring in the decades of hard work. People don’t always have a good time as there will also be low points in their lives.
However, there is no way of knowing this unless you are good friends with these individuals.
As people make their lives look fabulous on social media, you start to feel insecure. You may make decisions you’ll regret later, which affects your mental health negatively.
2. You Experience Loneliness Despite Having Thousands of Followers
Social media makes it easy to know what your friends are up to with a few taps. However, this is a double-edged sword, as you stop interacting with them as much in real life.
You focus more on the online space as you have thousands of followers. But you don’t have a way to express yourself or feel connected with these users.
Over time, you feel lonely, which makes you more defensive. This can push you further away from your friends, resulting in a never-ending snowball effect.
How Does Social Media Positively Affect Mental Health: 4 Reasons To Use Them
Until now, everything you read about social media was about its negative effects. Enough with the bad news. Is there anything to look forward to? Or, how does social media positively affect mental health? There are a lot of good reasons why you shouldn’t ignore these platforms completely:
- It gives you a sense of belonging to a community as you find like-minded people. Humans always seek social connections as this can make them feel at home. Social media removes physical boundaries, enabling you to connect with people worldwide.
- You get to interact with a diverse group of people, which may not always be possible where you live. Social media exposes you to different cultures and ideologies, making you grow as a person.
- These platforms provide a space where you can express yourself freely. Sometimes, you just want to tell someone, and social media allows you to do so. You don’t have to do it on your primary profile. You can create a second account on X and use it to share all your innermost feelings and thoughts.
- You can stay in touch with your close friends, even if they are in different countries. There may be points in your life where you don’t have the time to talk to your friends. For instance, you’re in different time zones. Social media networks remove these barriers and make you feel like they’re in the same room as you. This way, you still feel connected despite being thousands of miles apart.
3 Ways To Prevent Social Media Platforms From Influencing Your Mental Health
Although social media has its downsides, there are several ways to limit its impact on your mental health. Always remember the effectiveness of these suggestions depends on the individual. What may work for you may not show any results for others. Try these three solutions to see which ones offer the best results:
1. Meet or Call Your Friends and Family Regularly
The best way to beat the effects of social media is to stay in touch with people close to you. This means you meet them at their homes or public spaces like restaurants, cafes, or parks. If you can’t do this due to physical limitations, call them instead.
Contacting people you are close with can do wonders for your mental health. In other words, physical-social interaction is vital to avoid mental health issues.
2. Try Something New When Bored, Stressed, or Uncomfortable
Social media makes it easy to stay in your bubble, especially during difficult times. For instance, you have nothing to do as it is the weekend. A common thing to do is immediately open a social media app on your device.
Instead, do something different. As these platforms constantly engage your brain, do the opposite. Stay away from any stimulation for a short duration and observe the changes in how you think. Alternatively, you can try something you haven’t done before.
This breaks the habit of constantly checking a social media platform when jobless or bored.
3. Reduce the Notifications You Receive From Social Media Platforms
Smartphones provide greater control over what notifications you see from apps. Go to each social media app’s settings page and turn off irrelevant notifications.
For example, X lets you know when a person in your contacts list joins the platform. You can turn this setting off manually to reduce the notifications clutter.
Keep Your Mental Health in Check With TweetDelete
Use the above tips in this “How does social media affect your mental health” guide to combat its addictive nature. Always be mindful when using these networks, as you are aware of how social media affects your mental health.
When your posts go viral for the wrong reasons, you can face a lot of backlash on X. This can take a toll on your mental health, especially if you go through all the comments.
Or, you want to take a break from X but don’t want to deactivate your account. With TweetDelete, you can protect your mental health to a certain extent. For instance, it can delete specific posts so they don’t go viral and affect you negatively.
Also, if you want to start fresh on X after the break, this tool can delete all tweets. It can be a symbolic way to show that you’re a new person after the much-needed hiatus.
This tool can also remove likes from posts, which influences what you see in tweets. In other words, you can use it to refresh your feed and change your perception of the platform. Along with this guide on how social media affects mental health, you have nothing to worry about.
Use TweetDelete today so you’ll always be at peace using social media platforms like X!
