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Social Media and Mental Health: How to Conquer It

There is no doubt that social media has taken the center stage of our lives today. From maintaining relationships with friends and family, to catching up on new trends and ideas, the possibilities for entertainment, staying connected, and information are endless on the social media platform. However, beneath the shiny filters and curated content lies a growing concern about its impact on mental health. While social media can be a powerful tool for communication and self-expression, it also has the potential to negatively affect our well-being. In this blog, we’ll dive into how social media impacts mental health and provide tips on how to navigate it in a way that promotes a healthier mind.

The Dark Side of Social Media: How It Affects Mental Health

Comparison Culture and Self-Esteem

One of the most prominent effects that social media creates is the constant comparisons to others. We often find ourselves scrolling through posts showing other people’s highlight reels-vacations taken, new jobs acquired, relationships, and fitness achievements. It’s so easy to make that mistake in thinking everybody else is leading a more exciting or fulfilling life, which may stir up feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. On the other hand, curated social feeds often do not reflect the realities behind the screens but may yet provoke inadequate comparisons that worsen our mood. 

Social Media and Anxiety

The constant notifications, messages, and updates may make one feel the urge, or the compulsion of having to stay connected. Indeed, feelings of anxiety or FOMO are developed among many. Several studies have shown that the more time people spend on social media, the more likely they are to develop symptoms of anxiety and depression. The stress and worry increase with the feeling of not getting as many likes or comments, the fear of missing out, or simply missing something important. Cyberbullying and Negative Interactions While social media platforms serve to connect us with other people, they also serve as conduits for negativity. Cyberbullying, harassment, and other toxic behaviors online are common on most of the platforms, which have left many people, especially the teens, feeling alone, sad, or even angry. This can go a long way in affecting a person’s mental health, causing something now referred to as long-term emotional trauma.

Sleep Disturbances

Excessive use of social media, especially before retiring to bed, interferes with sleep patterns. Moreover, continuous turning of highly provocative content keeps the brain alive and bars the power of actually relaxing or falling asleep. The blue light of the phones, tablets, and computers interfere with the creation of melatonin-a chemical that makes us sleep-and interferes. Worst off, it may make for poor sleeping afterward, contributing to a host of mental issues, including everything from stress to anxiety, depression, or suicidal self-harm.

Navigating Social Media for Better Mental Health

 As much as the negative effects of social media are real, that does not imply we have to abandon it altogether. So here are a few pragmatic strategies to help you navigate around social media in a manner that sustains your mental health:

Curate Your Feed

It might get even better: be more deliberate with who and what you follow being one of the most effective ways to improve your social media experience. Stop following accounts that make you feel badly or inadequate, and start following those accounts that inspire, educate, and lift you. Fill your feed with content that supports your values, interests, and mental health goals. You are in charge of what you view!

Set Time Limits

It’s very easy to get lost minute after minute on social media. Set daily time limits for the amount of time you want to spend on each social media channel. Utilize in-app features or independent tools to monitor how much time you’ve spent in a day, along with reminders on when to step away. By reducing screen time, it might also lower the risk of addiction to social media and generally keep you healthier.

Practice Digital Detoxes

Regular breaks in social media give your mind a break too. It may mean taking some hours, a day, or even a week off the digital platforms to recapture this moment and cut down levels of anxiety. Create in yourself a weekly digital detox whereby you avoid the digital platform, or you declare some parts of the day  as taboo to using social media.

Be Aware of Your Feelings

Pay attention to how social media makes you feel. If a scroll through of some accounts or nature of content makes you anxious, sad, or insecure, then it is time to take a break from it, or to unsubscribe from such accounts. Being tuned in to your emotional responses will provide a great way to recognize if social media is having an impact on your mental health, and if so, you need to make any adjustments. You should, therefore,

 Meaningly Interact

Rather than passive scrolling, actively make an effort to meaningfully engage others online. Leaving insightful comments on posts that strike a chord in your heart, or sharing such with your networks, or reaching out to a friend for a catch-up chat-just examples, but one can interact meaningfully to nurture feelings of connectedness over loneliness and isolation. Social media use must be in the manner of developing relationships rather than merely consuming its content.

Support When Desired

One should not feel ashamed in seeking the services of a mental health professional when social media starts becoming overwhelming and affecting mental health. The therapist or counselor may have insight and ways to overcome emotional problems arising from the use of social media.

Conclusion: Finding Balance

It gets overwhelmingly effective when social media is able to balance awareness with implementation. Social media could be an awesome connection besides vast information. So, sometimes you really have to tell when social media has turned from normal connection to negatively affecting mental health. With these simple measures-curating feeds and setting limits or times to undertake digital detox, for example-social media becomes much safer. Let the well-being of your mental faculty always be top-notch and never let a digital world clog up the real one.

If at any moment it gets too much, take a step back, breathe in deeply, and remember that the most important connection you can nurture is the one with yourself.

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