With the communication spreading faster and faster, the world seems to shrink smaller and smaller. With today’s obsession with social media networks, the way the world communicates today has completely changed. The information across the globe travels with the speed of light.
Social networks are becoming one of the dominant ways we communicate. There are hundreds of good reasons to have Social Media accounts, one of the major ones being, staying in touch with friends and families and reaching out to make new friends.
Each one of us is familiar with social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. They have become part of our society to such a degree that most of us have an online personality as well as a private personality. We spend hours of time watching our friends and families’ momentous occasions, such as births, birthdays, weddings and vacations.
Next time you are out, count how many people you see walking and staring down at their smartphone.
People are more obsessed with checking their smartphone every 2 minutes than engaging in meaningful conversation with their child or spouse. Social media and technology are double-edged swords. It’s awesome to have and can really help us, but it also distracts us to the point of being blind and deaf to everything else going on.
Although reaching out to friends and family members through social media sites can make us happy, numerous studies have now been done that show the negative effects of social media as well. All this seems to come at the cost of negative health issues. Have you heard of the term “Social Media Depression”?
Research has linked social media to feelings of envy and insecurity, low self-esteem, social isolation and even depression. Researchers have shown that when Facebook users feel envy of the lifestyles of their friends on Facebook they are far more likely to report feelings of depression.
Focusing on other’s successes brings negative feelings about oneself. The serious matter of concern is the negative cycle that occurs when long periods of time are spent on social media. The most frequent social media users report a decrease in socialization and an increase in loneliness, which is one of the major factors for depression. The time spent on social media is time that could be better spent doing other useful things. Better ways for spending that time is to encourage one’s own emotional health with activities such as exercising, eating right and in-person socialization.
Social media has also changed the way that we interact, mainly the way we have lost some of our social skills. It has severely hampered the personalities of many. Some people are completely incapable of carrying on a normal conversation or interacting with people in person because of the dependency on social media.
Social media sites create a false sense of connection. They can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media. By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections are slowly weakening.
So What You Do About All This?
So don’t let some Social Media glitch ruin your day. If you find yourself checking Social Media every half-hour, it’s time to start discouraging yourself away from it. The more you check Social Media, the more opportunity you have to get entangled in some kind of drama.
Social Media needs to be positive – a site where you keep in touch with friends. Don’t let it turn into a negative, or you might end up with “Social Media Depression!”
