INTRODUCTION:
As far as social media is concerned with mental health, it has made the world globally connected yet upset. People have lost the idea of core use of social media; they are now more engaged in brainless activities, making them remote and unaware of their surroundings and themselves. On the other hand if we look on the brighter side social media has played a major role in boosting up the economy and help people grow with their local business moreover, has also given a platform where people can speak their voices. Almost every area of field can be promoted through social means and people are rushing up on that with their full potential.
It all depends on the magnitude and direction we are willing to opt. No human is naïve enough to not know the consequences of the wrong usage of social media or in general life. One way or another if we choose the wrong direction then eventually we will have to pay the hefty price for that and that price is nothing but our mental health. Moving over to shed some light upon some positive and negative impact of social media on mental health;
PROS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND MENTAL HEALTH:
Getting started with few of the positive impact social media has on every age group globally.
• STAY CONNECTED:
There were times when people wrote letters to communicate with each other, it solely has its high cons because the span of time was so long that people used to miss out on so many things, the feelings disturbed and gone until the other send the answers to those letter but now this obstacle is now gone as social media is running the world, people are now less worried about how they will get in touch with their loved ones because now we can contact with them via voice calls , messages and video calls in no time. Staying connected and feeling less parted from our loved ones has made peace in peoples mind, easing the life of an individual.
• RAISING AWARENESS:
Back in the days majority of the people were unaware of their surroundings, as social media has come to life it has become way too easier to have knowledge about what’s going on globally while we sit at home sipping coffee, the trends or say hot topics, the controversies, constructive criticism, political rivalries, latest collection of brands, philosophical insights and too many to name, the point is with the insights about the things we can raise awareness about it and have our opinion or review typed down, staying updated for the responses and the reviews and enlightening people with the right direction to pursue their whatever goals.
• ENGAGEMENT IN SOCIAL ACTIVITIES:
Lately social media has become a platform for showcasing ideas and bringing up creativity, help rejuvenate the art people are making and having a freedom to express their ability to create ideas and make explicit content out of it. It not only benefits the artist but highly serve the means of learning for individuals eager to make their dreams happen that too in a short and smart way. This current era is more about skill development than doing 4-year bachelors with no practical and productive out comes, a vast majority of individuals are inclined towards the online courses provided online and some of them are audited so anyone can get privilege of getting it done. Other than that people are engaging in various social activities that delivers the bases of keen learning and increasing of knowledge that helps emerge new talents and faces of fierce and exotic artist.
• CONVENIENT FOR EVERYONE:
Social media is an easy way out for the modern generation. It is less difficult and more convenient element for everyone in the world. It is now easier to access any valuable information about any specific or common information in the society.
• MARKING A POSITIVE CHANGE:
Recently many brutal cases were posted on social media, earlier people would rather close their doors than to raise their voices about the brutality increasing in society but now more and more people are emerging and loud their voices and speak up for the victims and stand up for the rights of a common human being without fearing anything, that itself spread a positive change in society and raise awareness among people and giving them the courage to speak against the evil. The power of victim blaming and empowering oneself by playing the victim card is longer empathized by people as the truth comes out in no time and the oppressor gets handcuffed. It has not completely wiped away the negativity but the positive and good is gradually building up in society.
CONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND MENTAL HEALTH:
Now staring into some negative impacts of social media and unfortunately this scale is higher than the positive one.
• ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION:
When an illness like anxiety and depression is not being treated but rather suppressed down then the results are not very good and the illness spreads in way too deeply and getting out of it can sometimes get out of hands. Not facing the problem but rather running from it is not the answer. Almost all of the youth uses social media as an escape rather than seeing that as an opportunity to grow, the situation gets more worsen, the irony is most of the people don’t even realize that they are ill and tired, they don’t assess the poor functioning insides, which tells us how people are unaware of themselves and more aware of the gossip going on social platforms, sabotaging their mental health and later regretting about it.
• SOCIAL MEDIA AS ADDICTION:
Just 5 more minutes, yeah that eventually turns into hours of meaningless scrolling without having us being known about the books and journals resting on the tables waiting for us to get started with the studies. Highlighting our youth, it really has lost sense the importance of education, they rely more on the consumption of social media than to make notes and learn, ignoring their academics and engaging into social apps for hours, getting exhausted at the end of the day. Addiction of anything is a downfall itself, and this social media addiction is getting higher day by day making us lose the importance of studies and ow it directly effects our future.
• LOSS OF TIME:
There’s this great saying “the time gone, never comes back” and it’s our illusion that we have time, but the truth is we are running out of it, spending hours on social media is majorly playing role in demeaning our health and body functioning system, people of any age should realize the importance of time and organize their life and make it more collected. This disrupted balance is going get us all down if we will continue to keep ignoring the red flags.
• COMMUNICATION GAP:
The negative impact of social media is so much that now many individual prefers to stay at home rather than talk on phones rather than taking out time to out and gather around their friends and have a quality time, this causes major communication gap without anyone realizing it and when people have to speak up publicly they sound hesitant and lack of self-confidence. Socializing with right people is not bad and getting to know and exploring our society is a great way to boost up the confidence and gather loads of information but it seems that no people choose an easy way out and prefer to stay indoors without even realizing the consequences.
• INSECURITIES TOWARDS COMPARISONS:
The biggest defect in personality development is comparison, he who compares himself with anyone is just down grading and insulting himself, it pushes up an individual’s insecurity and force them to indulge in self sabotaging activities. Insecurity is the root cause of mental illness and many people don’t secure this information really well. Social media has lead this phenomena way too far where every other individual is in a competition and building up insecurity in themselves, self-assessment is very necessary and people are not up for that.
• ONLINE BULLYING:
Online bullying is escalating way too quickly because If the predator’s purpose is not being fulfilled then they mock people with bullying and worse if it escalates to threatening, people are not really safe even when they are in their homes, the people who threat can also get anyone’s information out and use them as the means to online blackmailing and threatening.
.CONCLUSION:
Summarizing the topic, no one is naïve enough to not know the pros and cons of social media, and one should be selfish enough to take care of their mental health. Our life depends on the decisions we make consciously and unconsciously, no matter how big and small they are. According to https://backlinko.com/social-media-users, currently 56.8% of population in the world use social media which really depicts how many lives are suffering from mental freeze. If we really care for the betterment of an individual, we should spread awareness about the right and wrong usage of social media and how it directly impacts our precious lives.