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It can be quite shocking how the little kid called social media grew to an adult dictating our lifestyle and perhaps every thing we do. Not just influencing our life online but also offline in many ways than we imagined it would. Although a lot of people may want to deny this fact but its actually a fact. Influencing everything we do, from the way we dance, what we eat and even the kind of trends we joined. Most of these things we would never have imagined doing if not for social media. Humans as the social bees that we are, we enjoy every bit of connection especially the thrill of connecting quite well with someone on the other side of earth. While some enjoy every bit of it, some loath it but the percentage of those who do is actually so minimal.
Being connected socially boosts our mood, makes us happy , reduces loneliness and eases the stress of life. It is easy to just log in on tiktok to unwind and laugh after a very long day or chat with our loved ones who are miles away for one reason or the other. Even with the numerous benefits social media provers, the effect it has on our mental health cannot be ignored. Even though it connects people from different corners of the earth together it robs you of spending quality time with the ones closer to you. The feeling of connecting on the physical cannot be compared to social media connection no matter how you look at it. And so by spending time alone with your social media friends, gradually the physical ones move away and before you realize it, you are alone. This creates a sense of loneliness and may even cause you to go into depression.
A lot of people think they have it all under control until they find themselves deleting a particular post because they didn't get as much likes and comments as they expected. By spending too much time on social media, your thinking is influenced greately by what you see and this affects your sense of validation. You start to bother about not meeting the social media standard. Making some people break personal rules which they once held dear just to get more likes and retweets. With time your self worth and esteem gets entwined permanently to what others think of you.
Funny enough you will nerr measure up because social media houses million of people with different views and perspectives and its definitely impossible to please them even if you go naked. Trying to please them constantly will ruin your mental health and possibly push you into depression.
A lot of people confuse social media life with real life. Although a few things on social media are real not everything is. Most people are not living the life they portray on social media because they know the world won't validate it. While those who are envious try to be like them and by doing so put themselves in a state of anxiety because they can't stop comparing and this steals their joy. They belittle the real happiness they have because it doesn't measure up to social media and this just takes their happiness away entirely.
The benefit of social media can get lost in the darkness if we don't take time to pause and enjoy the world and people around us. Taking breaks regularly will help reduce the effect social media has on our life.