The negatives of social media affecting mental health.
Social media has been designed to be addicting in that it becomes easier to promote negative experiences such as the fear of missing out. This can be seen in the constant comparison with other social activities and the anticipation for positive feedback which can trigger more anxiety and increase the use of social media turning it into an addiction. This is also shown in many studies as there has been an increased risk for depression, anxiety, etc... due to the rising increase of social media. Another example of the dangers of social media on mental health is self-absorption as social media has helped to create a decrease in real-life connections.
While smartphones are easily accessible, it has become more convenient for people to keep in touch. It also means that social media is accessible which allows trigger impulsive control problems. For example it can become harder to ignore and affect concentration levels and focus which results in it becoming a slave to your phone.
In terms of mental health, social media has fuelled and helped create and form unhealthy cycles as people use social media as a way to relieve the symptoms of anxiety and depression. However, instead, it fuels and increases the feeling of Loneliness, resulting in the use of social media in which the unhealthy cycles badly affect your mental health.
Another way that mental health has been affected by social media is by engaging in risky behaviour. The reason for this is to gain more likes which can cause the community to have no regard for their safety and become more distracted from work or school in general. This has shown that people are becoming increasingly more self-absorbed into social media which has affected their mental health as they feel pressured to constantly check in case of missing invitations or potential connections as well.
This type of behavior has led to insomnia, where they are unable to sleep due to the increase of anxiety and depression.
Social media has not only affected mental health, it has also greatly affected physical health as well. Many researchers have shown evidence in their studies that an increase in insomnia can result in a decrease in exercise and movement, which becomes harmful to the human body as it can cause pain, for example, muscle tension, tremors, and nausea. This is also shown in other various studies that social media has become easier and more accessible to promote the unhealthy eating habit of junk food, which causes health and physical problems within human beings.
Another way that social media has affected physical health is shown in the increase in usage and the decrease in health, for example more use of social media has resulted in frequent health problems and multiple visits to the doctor, which supports the theory of the negative impact that social media has on mental and physical health.
However, modifying the use of social media can result in a change in mental health for instance, Gradually reducing the use of social media can cause an increase in positivity in mental health as it can help to reestablish real-life connections and also result in frequent daily trips to relieve stress. This can also have a positive impact on sleep as turning the phone off before going to bed or charging it in a different room can help keep the human mind relaxed as there aren't many constant alerts and notifications going off.
This will also help change the focus from Social Media to something more productive or spend more time practicing mindfulness and reflection, which can make a positive change in mental health.
Overall, the negative effects of social media on mental and physical health outweigh the positive and convenient effects of social media. For example, this has been showcased in numerous reports and studies as an increase in social media can cause: headaches, eye strain as well as back pain, and neck pain from sitting in one position constantly. The decrease in physical activity due to social media can also cause weight issues as it can become more easily influenced by different lifestyles that are portrayed on social media. The particular reason for this is because it can cause the consistent pressure of certain popular diets and the image of the ideal body too because it can cause not only a negative impact on mental health but also physical health.
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