Social Media And Mental Health In 2022

21st centuary is known as social media age having a profound effect on people. Sometimes social media put life on hold and sometimes confined to one place. It brings people colser to oneanother but also has visible bad effect on human health like pandemic covid. Social media attached with us in such a way, sometimes it feels complementary to one another. The other fact is, new inventions give us a new perspective, but we need to be aware of the consequences of using them. 

Impact of Social Media On Mental Health:

Experts have been warning for a long time about the negative effects on mental and physical health. According to a 2018 British study, excessive social media use can cause sleep deprivation, interruption or delay.

A report published by NCBI on 15 June 2020, excessive use of social media is imprisoning your mental health and making you a victim of depression, anxiety and stress etc.   

On feb 2022, the Surgeon General of United States warned that rates of anxiety, depression and suicide are rising among the American youth. He said that social media platforms like Tik Tok, Snapchat and Instagram, Facebook are harming vulnerable kids. It have exacerbated feelings of loneliness and low self-esteem. Emergency room visits for suicide had increased 51% among girls in just two years. The bombardment of masages, that tell our kids with greater frequency that they are not good looking enough, not popular enough, not smart enough, simply not enough. It leads to low self-esteem and loneliness. 

Social Media Addiction: 

These days we have become a zombie by images and videos on social media and have ignored our surrounding. When we go to the social media page, we keep scrolling the videos and photos one after another and we do not even realise the time. We have to realise that without our awareness social media is going to control us. Its new way of addiction in youth and adults. 

  Also read Kids and Mobile Phone: The Risk  

The Secret Behind Social Media: 

In October 2021, a Facebook wishtleblower named Francis Haugen showed thousands of inside Facebook documents to the US Congress. For years, Facebook-owned Instagram knew its platform was unsafe for teens, but kept its discovery public away. The company leadership knew how to make Facebook and Instagram secure, but they wouldn’t make the necessary changes, it is the way of earning so they proved it profitable for people. The algorithm are designed to keep amping up the emotional response the stronger negative feeling that keeps people engaged longer. Their business model are stand on more watching hour. The more you watch, the more they earn.  

Pros and Cons Of Social Media: 

Everything has two sides, good and bad. Similarly, social media also has two sides, if we are using it for information and for knowledge that is good for us and if we are using it without any purposes then it may harm us.

How to Keep Safe from Social Media? 

This is the wakeup time for kids and specially guardians. Teens in high school are vulnerable and suffering with anxiety, loneliness and suicidal thought. What we should do? We should start limiting the time spend on social media or completely avoiding it all. 

If you want to keep distance yourself from social media, then first of all know your daily screen time. Remove social media apps from mobile. Use social media through laptop or computer. If social media seems very important, then you can set a special time for it.