By now, just about everyone knows that social media could have potentially negative implications for your physical, mental, and even emotional health. Just the simple act of endlessly scrolling through your social media feeds for an hour a day could leave you feeling tired, anxious, and deeply disappointed about life.
In short, there’s a good chance you could come face-to-face with the dark side of social media. This “dark side” is so common and so familiar by now that it’s even being written into Taylor Swift songs, according to Clemson professor Angeline Close Scheinbaum. She looked at several of the songs on Swift’s latest album (“The Tortured Poets Department”), and found that many of the melancholy and depressing themes in those songs involved at least indirect references to social media.
Comparing yourself with others will make you miserable
What the Clemson professor saw, time and time again, was the undeniable impact of social media on one’s mental state. And that includes the mental state of Taylor Swift. Call it whatever you want – your mood, your vibe, your state of being – it all goes downhill once you start spending too much time on social media. Teens and young adults are spending as much as five hours online per day, so you can just imagine what they’re feeling these days.
A major problem is the tendency to compare yourself to others. This must be something hardwired into every human’s psyche, because it’s impossible to avoid. If, for example, you see someone enjoying a long summer vacation, you might begin to think about your own experiences, and set up a natural comparison. How does your “staycation” at home compare to a luxurious Caribbean beach vacation with endless hours in the sun?
And so a big takeaway here is: comparing yourself with others will make you miserable. Yes, there is sometimes a motivational boost you can get from checking out others. But, by and large, any short-term boost is going to be far outweighed by the long-term emotional damage. You might think that someone posting a “gym pic” will motivate you to work out more, but it might actually convince you that you have absolutely no chance of ever getting into shape by the end of the year.
It’s even worse, says Scheinbaum, when you make “upward” comparisons, and not just peer-to-peer comparisons. It’s one thing, for example, to compare your summer vacation with those of your office colleagues. Generally speaking, you’re all probably making the same amount of money, and you’re all probably spending the same amount on a summer vacation.
But what if you start comparing yourself to people you don’t know? That’s when things get tricky, because you only see them at their very best. They’ve literally filtered out all the bad and distasteful elements in their lives, and are only presenting themselves in the very best light.
Time for a social media detox?
No wonder so many people are giving up social media entirely, or at least, going for a “social media detox.” Yes, all that negative energy can be very toxic. It can make you depressed, anxious, and less certain in your own abilities. So do yourself a favor – reduce your time on social media. You don’t need to give it up entirely, but you do need to cut back on your social media time. If you’re spending more than one hour per day on social media, then you’re doing it all wrong.
