Go to a nice restaurant or even a party, look around. What do you see? Most likely you’ll be witnessing a room full of people on their phones. According to Digital Trends, Americans spend an average of 5 hours a day on their phones. (And you say you can’t make it to the gym for an hour a day?) Aside from the news, information and entertaining data that we find on the internet, it could also be a dangerous place for our own mental health, Here are 5 scary and honest revelations of what social media can do to you.
- The Internet affects your mood.
Whether its a sad puppy video or a happy reunion, the truth is that what you see and read affects your mood. Study has proved that corrupt footage or information fed to your brain of violence, abuse or chaos can implement the emotion of fear or sadness in you. Don’t let what you see behind a screen affect your feelings in real life. You may be influenced to feel a way that does not match with your real surroundings.
2. We get lazy at real-life interactions
It’s quick, convenient and simply easy to send a “Happy bday” text to a friend nowadays. Although most adults engage in multiple jobs and responsibilities, face-to-face interactions will always be a crucial part of human relationships and we’re getting lazy at them. We prefer to sit behind a screen making us at risk in lacking one-on-one personal relations with close friends, families and loved ones. Try treating a friend to lunch or even sending them a birthday card if distance is the issue. A physical birthday card shows far more effort than a quick text.
3. We become jealous of a fantasy
When life isn’t always working in our favor, it’s easy to unintentionally, or perhaps intentionally, envy somebody else’s life. That picture-perfect couple or successful individual can have you wishing you could trade places in a heartbeat. The truth is most people only promote the good and the pretty. People usually keep their failures to themselves, only promoting the parts of life that seem desirable. Being envious of somebody’s life on social media is not a realistic wish because you don’t know the state of their mindset, their health or their finances. Don’t be fooled.
4. Your success depends on numbers
According to an article published by The Guardian, they gathered testimonies from various young girls on how they felt about social media. Summer Andrews, 18, shared this: “I do feel pressure to look good in the photos I put up…. if it doesn’t get enough likes, I will take it down.” We are wired to give society the power to dictate if we are good and pretty enough by measuring our worth by likes and followers. The worst part is when those likes are coming from people you don’t personally know. Take control of your own worth, be powerful. Instead on focusing on your digital numbers, count the real people in your life that you could trust.
5. Filters and photoshop don’t exist in real life
Face it. Nobody walks around with the Aden filter in real life or has a blemish corrector on bad skin days. In real life, we have no control of the angle or lighting others see us in. Social media exposes us to what the “perfect” person should look like except this perfect person is in a controlled situation. Often these are unrealistic features are enhanced by photoshop, angles and lighting while other times it’s medical body enhancements and plastic surgery that give us the illusion. An individual’s self-esteem and risk for depression has been seen tied to social media in the latest digital boom. Be imperfectly perfect.
Now, we hope these 5 points haven’t encouraged you to fling your phone across the room but instead be wiser, confident and stronger in your daily life not allowing the world of social media consume you.
