The world is advancing every day, and so is technology. When we wake up in the morning, the first thing we do is check our phones, and just before going to bed, we end up in a spiral of scrolling. We spend hours on it without even realizing its consequences.
While social media is beneficial in connecting us with our loved ones who are far away, we don’t consider how it affects our mental health. Unconsciously, we are ruining our mood and self-confidence just to fill up the boredom with the never-ending use of social media.
Many people are unaware that social media use is similar to the use of drugs, as scrolling through the Internet releases dopamine. The more we scroll, the more dopamine our brain releases, thus, creating an addiction. People may even refuse to accept that they are addicted to their phones as they think it is not harmful to look at their phones for most of their day.
The authors of a Canadian study published in 2017 found that compared to occasional users, students who use social media for more than two hours per day are far more likely to assess their mental health as fair or poor.
In 2019, research linked social media use to erratic sleep patterns. Regular, high-quality sleep is crucial for well-being and research indicates that sleeping issues are related to adverse mental health effects like memory loss and depression.
People on social media may feel dissatisfied with their lives as they compare their lives with others. But people need to learn what happens behind the cameras. People create a facade just to show off or please others, thus promoting a lifestyle that they don’t follow.
People prefer to spend time on social media than go out and build healthy relationships. Individuals are isolating themselves and becoming socially anxious as they don’t feel confident talking out in public.
Recognizing that there is an issue with excessive social media use and developing a strategy to reduce consumption is the first step. According to studies, self-corrective behaviour is both possible and practical. Tracking applications to identify rising social media usage is one aspect of corrective behaviour. Additional recommendations include disabling app notifications, which are the most significant source of distraction, moving frequently used apps from the home screen to a folder that is difficult to access, charging mobile devices in places that are more difficult to access, setting daily time limits for phone use and switching the phone’s colour settings to black and white.
Social media can be a boon if used effectively. Otherwise, it will remain a curse and take control of everyone’s lives. We should realize that there is more to a world than just likes and shares, and we cannot let our life slip away just by sitting and scrolling through the internet and contemplating our own lives.
Written by UCW AA Alumna Jastej K.
Published on June 14, 2023.
