I took three months off from posting on social media. What a glorious three months they were! However, I also understand that removing oneself from using social media or from screens in general is near impossible in our current society, if we want to stay connected to friends and family who may live far away, or to run a business.
How do you feel about social media?
I feel a constant stress of having to post data/media on platforms to keep up with marketing a small business, but I am now choosing to share when I am ready to, rather than stick to a strict regime that either is time consuming or adds overhead costs to my small business. As for my personal use – I don’t post much, but I have to admit I use social media as a distraction at times and I end up staring at that screen for soooo long, doom-scrolling, feeling overwhelmed and that I’ve wasted a whole lotta time. So I guess it’s about finding balance – using these tools in such a way that we are using them, instead of them consuming us.
I performed a google scholar search on the topic of social media and mental health, and it resulted in tens of thousands of articles exploring the negative effects on us across many demographics in society. Things like heavy smartphone use and media multitasking results in chronic sleep deprivation, negative effects on cognitive control, and problematic social media use is associated with dissatisfaction and difficulties in interpersonal relationships, work problems, sleep disorders, depression, anxiety and poor life satisfaction.
But then on a positive note – looking to find that balance – I found a great article talking about how we can be proactive in our engagement with social media in order to intentionally experience its benefits. (I think the key word is ‘intentional’.)
Through a positive psychology lens, social media may influence us to ‘flourish’ through our psychological and social well-being rather than just avoiding its negative impacts.
This particular article/study reviews 118 studies broken down to a final six they divided into themes that contribute to well-being/flourishing outcomes. I would encourage you to read this rather lengthy article, but to give you a quick break-down of what the practical application is, I’ll give this a try:
Be intentional about using social media for positive social support.
Be aware of social comparison that occurs online. Channel comparison into inspiring positive change in oneself, or, use sites which are less conducive to social comparison (ie Twitter).
Experiment with levels of usage and periods of abstinence.
Increase well-being methods offline (such as meditation, time in nature, exercise), as this has a bi-directional relationship to supporting positive outcomes when online.
If you’ve been feeling a little screen-time stressed like I’ve expressed above, I hope these practical tips have given you some hope to improve your quality of life through habit changes. Here is a link to the article should you wish to read it yourself:
Comentarios