Social networks reflect the human mental world as a kind of a mirror. People sign up on social networks with particular but not always conscious goals. Most users subscribe to people who seem important and interesting to them; publish content that it considers important to be published; react based on their picture of the world, etc. That is, people consciously or not, form their reality and in the end, receive from social networks what they came for.
Due to rapid application development, people can have multiple social media accounts on different platforms which can lead to social networks addiction and other negative effects.
In particular, dependence on social media is only one of the options for addictive behavior (the desire to escape from reality for one reason or another). If there were no social networks, a person prone to addiction would leave reality in some other way.
How social media affects a person’s self-esteem?
A person’s self-esteem is formed mainly in early childhood under the influence of a close environment. Social media can expose an already existing low self-confidence or body image insecurities but not form it from scratch based on the initial adequate self-esteem. For example, when a person sees “success” demonstrated by others and compares his life with someone else’s reality. In the same way, the parents systematically compared him with other children, not in his favor. Or a person can, using social networks, compensate for low self-esteem by demonstrating the desired self-image, attempts to evoke certain feelings in subscribers (recognition, sympathy, envy, anger, etc.).
Can social media cause depression?
Depression develops mainly for internal reasons – these are natural features of brain biochemistry and hormonal profile, and basic ideas of a person about himself and the world around him, and formed strategies for responding to life challenges and obstacles to achieving goals. Social media can be the trigger, the “last straw” that triggers the symptoms of depression, but not the leading cause.
How can a person independently recognize that social media affects his health?
Social networks can harm human health with the development of dependence on them. This dependence is manifested by the fact that a person constantly or most of the time thinks about social networks and everything connected with them. He falls asleep and wakes up with thoughts of social networks, checks notifications every minute, etc. All other spheres of life – personal life, creative realization, communication with friends – fade into the background. At first, a person does not associate negative changes in his life with social networks in any way, and this can continue for quite a long time. Then the person begins to suspect that negative changes in his life may have something to do with the constant presence on social networks. The next stage – a person realizes that it is the dependence on social media that is the main reason for the collapse of his social ties, the termination of his career, etc. After that, a person can decide to change something, but a significant number of people do not advance beyond the first stage – unawareness. Because addiction to social media is not something sharply socially unacceptable, such as alcoholism or drug addiction, and most often does not lead to such devastating consequences.
Can social media cause insomnia?
Insomnia can be a symptom of a wide variety of diseases and conditions of the body. Dependence on social networks is also a consequence of particular processes in the psyche. That is, dependence on social networks is one of the links in the pathogenesis (development) of psychological disorders, but not their leading cause.
Who is more influenced by social media: women or men?
Studies have shown that women are, on average, more emotionally receptive to information from social media than men. But it is important to understand that men and women are very different. The main thing here is not so much gender differences as the initial state of the psyche.
The other dangers of social media
On a personal level, social media can be dangerous to a person’s reputation and personal safety. For example, a person may get fired from their job for liking or reposting material or views that their organization considers unacceptable. A person can be harassed for his “unpopular” opinion, and this harassment can go offline, taking into account the open access to the user’s personal data (name, phone number, address).
At what age should children start using social media
The main thing is to understand why a parent wants to protect the child from social networks. Sooner or later, the child will enter this world without the knowledge of the parents. One of the most important tasks of parents is to help a child become independent – to learn how to solve life’s challenges on his own. Social media is a big part of a modern person’s life. Social networks help us to find like-minded people, realize our creative potential, and earn money. Therefore, parents should also be supportive teachers here, whom the child can trust. It is necessary to build such relationships with children so that parent is the first to be informed about important events in kids lives, asked for advice, and be sure that you are ready to understand and help them. Parents can become the very teachers of life in the virtual world, who by their example will show what netiquette is, what tasks can be solved using social media, how to behave in certain situations, how to protect themselves from possible troubles.
How to overcome social media addiction?
The first step is to recognize and accept the fact that you are addicted to social media. Then you can try to experiment – to arrange a “detox” from social media – not to use it, for example, for a week. To reduce the likelihood of an unconscious “breakdown”, you can turn off all notifications for this time and remove social networking applications from your phone. Having done this, observe yourself – how your body reacts to such a change in things, how it resists, how it tries to deceive you, etc. Even now, while reading this article, it may seem to you that this is some kind of nonsense, absurdity, idiocy, etc. It is okay – the disease resists. If you understand that it is difficult to cope on your own, you can turn to a specialist – a psychologist or a psychotherapist.
