Social media is powerful. And it is not only invading businesses and industries; it is also affecting our minds as well. We live in a world of information overload, with a massive volume of social media conversations, pictures, articles and videos bombarding us every day.
We all do several things online, from searching for products, services, consuming content to sharing updates about our lives. As we engage in all of these several activities, they have effects on our time, productivity and mental health.
In a Forbes report titled Social Media Are Junk Food for Our Brains, Jonathan Baskin said the effects of social media included bad spelling habits and poor concentration, especially among students. Their interruptions impede workplace productivity, just as promoters of social media encourage us to get more involved.
More broadly, heavy social media use could lead to anti-social behaviour, increased social isolation, depression and bullying. In the face of these facts, mental health doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists are already contending with associated challenges and problems.
We devour information from people we know and create a life of illusions for others based on the information we get from people we barely know. These compound cases of depression, mental illness and crises around the world.
Here are some of the concerns mental experts are contending with:
Social media addiction
Sometime in August, Facebook reached an important milestone – a billion people logged on the site in a day. That does not only mean good business for Facebook, it also means that distraction and addiction is becoming a major challenge among different people across the world – from home, workplace and commuting. While likes and comments are a positive reinforcement from our friends, when people express negative opinions about us, they can also lead to depression.
Social media depression
The American Academy of Paediatrics has already raised the alarm about this. When we post on social media, it is common to assume we post those things that inspire us and others in order to engage our friends. The cumulative effect of this is that we tend to paint a picture on what is happening in our lives. Hence, those who feel we have left them behind tend to feel bad about their own progress in life. They become prone to depression. This is because users constantly compare themselves to others and ultimately think less of their own lives.
In a research carried out in the UK in 2012, 53 per cent of the respondents said social media had affected their behaviour while 51 per cent said they were exposed to negative behaviour because of decline in confidence as they compared themselves to others.
Information paralysis:
If you have more than 10 tabs on your browser’s window, then you should know what this is about. As the tabs continue to load, we tend to achieve nothing outside watching them come up with the information we are searching.
In 10 to 15 minutes during work hours, people switch from their task to a social media site or check an email. Research has shown that when we say we are multitasking, we are actually doing what is called ‘work hopping’, which basically wastes our time by making us spend longer time on tasks we could have achieve much faster.
Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is a form of digital harassment and many people engage in it without knowing that they do. In fact, it comes in form of directly harassing other people about an issue or even posting a gossip about a person on the Internet.
With increased access to the Internet, more people are exposed to cyberbullying, which is becoming an issue of global concern.
While there is no data about the number of people affected in Nigeria and Africa, there are indications that it is becoming a major threat. The Enough is Enough America said that 95 per cent of teenagers who use social media had witnessed different forms of cyberbullying while 33 per cent are direct victims.
The increasing Internet access across the world does not only mean we are making more friends, it also means that we need to be careful how we engage others. We need to be more knowledgeable on issues of mental health, what it means and where to seek help when we need to.
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