Humans are meant to connect with each other. We evolved as social beings who formed partnerships, raised young, and kept in close contact with our family members and neighbors.
In the digital era, we increasingly seek that connection over social media. Globally, there are over 4 billion social media users, which is more than half of the world’s population. Social media is a double edged sword: it sows division, makes us angry, frustrated, and envious, while also nurturing relationships, bringing us closer together.
As a result, mental health has been a casualty and beneficiary, and in today’s blog post we examine how social media positively and negatively contributes to this.
Positive: Stronger Social Connection
In its most basic form, social media can strongly help protect people from feeling social isolation and developing the mental health problems that are associated with a lack of social support.
Social media can help you maintain social connections through transitions like changing jobs, towns, or schools. It can also expose you to new communities. You can join groups of people who have similar interests, hobbies or values. In this manner, people feel like they are part of a community and make a positive impact on the individuals around them.
Negative: Reduced Self-Esteem
On the other hand, people may use social media to paint overly positive images of their own lives.
For both young people and adults, exposure to these constructed lives can negatively influence self-esteem and make us doubt our own abilities and skills.
A closely related phenomenon is FOMO or Fear Of Missing Out, in which users feel that they must share the same experiences of their peers. However, much like the lives that people create online, their experiences are also falsely positive.
Positive: Social Media Resources
When you use social media, you can join groups with the ability to support your mental health.
You may also participate in important discussions about mental health that encourage you to better understand yourself or seek resources and support when you need to. Although, with this positive impact comes the risk of joining social groups online that do more to undermine your mental health than to support it. You could consider the ways you use social media and whether specific platforms, groups, or interactions have a positive or negative impact on your mental health.
Negative: Major Risk Increases
Heavy social media usage has been linked to an increased risk of depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm and suicidal thoughts. Limiting your social media usage to below-average levels, especially for youth, is one way to protect yourself from the effects of heavy usage.
Further, if you are struggling with a serious mental health problem, it is important to turn to more than just social media for help. Social media, when used well, can be supportive. But, you should seek in-person connections, mental health professionals, and other options to improve your health when you are struggling.
Neuropsychological Testing
If you or a loved one feel that your mental health is suffering due to social media usage, you can undergo neuropsychological testing, an in-depth and detailed assessment used to assess intellectual, academic, and psychological functioning. Chicago Mind Solutions specializes in neuropsychological testing for adults and children, offering diagnoses and recommendations to parents, teachers, and clinicians.
For more information on this and our other treatments, please contact us at (224) 723-5050 or email info@chicagomindsolutions.com.
