5 Ways Social Media Can Affect Your Mental Health

We all know how addictive social media can be, but did you know how impactful it can be on your mental health? Take a look.

Addiction: Studies say that more than 50% of teenagers log in to social networking sites multiple times in a day. In fact, there have been institutes that have created a psychological scale to measure that addiction. Symptoms like people accessing sites like Facebook and Twitter to forget about their personal problems or spending a lot of time thinking about how to use social media indicate there is an issue.

Anti-social behaviour: Ironically, overuse of social media can refrain you from participating in real world activities. Things like online multiplayer games, micro-blogging and other forms have people missing out on important moments in life.

Problems related to obesity: A new study found that the more time people spent on social networking sites, the less time they spent exercising, with an increasing tendency to opt out of team sports. Spending seven to eight hours a day on these websites also leads to unhealthy snacking.

Self-esteem issues: Studies have found that while in practice, as social media interaction increases, self-esteem-related problems decrease. But in reality, it was found that those who overindulged in online activities had very low self esteem. They seem to behave counterproductively, bombarding their friends with negative tidbits about their lives and making themselves less likeable.

Cyberbullying: Majority of social media users were under 30, with most being adolescents. According to research, 95% of teenagers who use social media have witnessed forms of cyberbullying on social networking sites and 33% have been victims of cyberbullying. However, it is important to note that in all the above cases, it was not the inherent nature of social media, but the fact that our need to be electronically connected at all times was responsible.

Posted by Kunda on October 12, 2015. Filed under HEALTH. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.