How online negatively affects our mental health
Humans are sociable creatures by nature. Being connected to someone we love can help us cope with stress, anxiety, increase our self-esteem, bring joy, and prevent reduced isolation. We can’t deny that social media brings a lot of positive effects, but at the same time, it negatively affects us mentally.
So, how does online negatively affects our mental health?
Nowadays, we spend most of our time on social media such as watching TikTok videos, scrolling to Facebook, posting our aesthetic pictures to Instagram, so on and so forth. By simply doing one of these it can impact us both positively and negatively. It can negatively affect us in a way it became toxic for us and affects our mental health. For instance, you saw a post of a girl with a curvy body, instead of appreciating her beauty or getting inspired to do exercises to have that kind of body, you felt insecure and you feel bad about yourself. Another one is when you post a picture of yourself, you want positive feedback from those people who can see it, some may compliment you at the same time some may say negative things about that picture. There may be positive comments, but we can’t ignore those negative ones that may lead to cyberbullying and that will affect our mental health. Social media can make us feel good about ourselves at the same time makes our self-esteem lower. The use of social media can also worsen anxiety and depression. Just like the situation that was mentioned, instead of helping to ease unpleasant feelings and improve your mood, social media makes you feel more nervous, unhappy, or lonely.
Should we stop using social media?
The answer is no, but we should minimize using it.
When we're bored, lonely, or sad, we turn to social media for the company. However, if you're spending too much time on social media and are feeling unhappy, dissatisfied, frustrated, or lonely, it's time to re-evaluate your online habits. Limit your social media usage and make sure you're using it for the right reasons. Although social media may help us locate nearly anything, we must be conscious of the negative consequences it might have on our mental health.
- Q
