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[Saints News] Mental Health & FaceBrowser - How Social Media Affects Us


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Image result for social media addiction

 

Mental Health & FaceBrowser

How Social Media Affects Us

 

 

By Miia R. Novak, Psy.D

 

In today’s society, social media has become one of the biggest factors in our lives. Since its debut in the early noughties, it’s been growing exponentially large in its scope and interactions with our daily lives. It makes communication between one another a lot easier. It makes job opportunities more accessible. It does a lot of things, however, it also has a massive downside that gets blind-sighted a lot in general.

 

Usually, when it comes to social media by right it’s designed to be helpful, let you contact friends and family from the comfort of your couch. However, in recent years, it’s become a platform to broadcast negative, angry thoughts instantaneously to masses of people. With social media being just that, said thoughts are archived pretty much for the whole world to see for an indefinite period - often being picked up as fact if echoed enough. Another issue is the cyberbullying and negative consequences that occur alongside the platform that can bring out the worst in someone.

 

Our native social media platform established here in Los Santos is Facebrowser - The platform serving as a means of communication between the people of Los Santos as a whole, and beyond the hills of Blaine County. Following its complete overhaul earlier in the year, the platform has boomed with new users registering since. As it stands right now, the platform has 3660 registered users, with 3622 of those users being active at some point in the last 3 months. On top of that, a staggering 48,000 posts and 44,000 comments have been made since its overhaul. But within these statistics, lies a more dangerous statistic that can, and does cause problems with a lot of these registered users. Some go unnoticed, others speak out about it on the very platform that creates it - that is the effect social media can have on one’s psychological health.

 

 

The argued benefits and consequences of social media concerning mental health

 

In recent years, there has been a ton of research studies into the connections between mental health and the use of a platform such as Facebrowser. To date, that research has provided varying, mixed results. Listed below are what is argued to be a benefit to one’s mental health, however, also are the consequences. Several studies do emphasize the negative aspects of using a site like Facebrower. They note that there is often an increase in anxiety, depression, ADHD, addiction and eating disorders among users.

 

The Benefits:

 

  • Social connections and intimacy in this virtual setting, via Direct Messages and IMs - in moderation can reduce depression and anxiety.
  •  Social Media/Facebrowser in this case, can be helpful for people who may be suffering from social anxiety, creating social relationships online instead of face-to-face, provided they don’t excessively rely on it and replace offline contact.
  • The connected nature associated with Facebrowser can make people feel less alone, offering a greater satisfaction with their life.
  • Facebrowser does offer support groups for certain groups of people. However, in recent times there has been a debate on certain groups being created that do more harm than good for a person.

 

The Negative Aspects:

 

  • Cyberbullying increases the risk of depression and social anxiety. It affects all ages.
  • Comparisons between a user and others can cause depression in someone. Envy and jealousy can all factor into this.
  • Social media can cause an increase in ADHD symptoms to those who may have it.
  • Body exposure on Facebrowser and social media, in general, can lead to cases of eating disorders due to the body image disturbance associated with such photos or videos. This has more of an impact on adolescent age groups, but it can affect any gender or age. 
  • While it is not technically included as of yet as an addiction on the same level as alcohol or substance abuse, researchers have already coined it as an addiction. Social Media Addiction can cause neurological complications in certain individuals and social problems. This, however, was typically found to only affect excessive use and borderline addiction cases. 

 

Image result for social media addiction

 

You mention addiction… But can someone be addicted to Facebrowser/Social Media?

 

As mentioned earlier, Social Media Addiction is not technically noted as such right now, however, it is internationally coined by the mental health community to be as addicting as any other form. Excessive use of a platform like Facebrowser can be quite detrimental to a person’s mental health and their social relationships with others. People who delay or disrupt sleep to engage with people on Facebrowser are not getting the rest and sleep they require. The lack of sleep can result in behavioural changes if done so over some time. Excessive use and time spent on a platform like Facebrowser can also retract an individual from other social interactions or responsibilities. Couples, families, and workplace relationships can suffer when someone might be excessively too focused on social media. It causes complications, disturbances and problems as a person might be too reliant on a platform like it. Detracting themselves from face to face interactions completely, and excessively using the platform can deteriorate relationships elsewhere off the platform creating a lack of meaningful relationships and connections offline.

 

So how does Facebrowser affect us?

 

As with any other social media platform, Facebrowser is designed to invite people to engage with one another. It allows you to stay in touch with friends, or with people you physically cannot keep in touch with. While activities like that may contribute to a sense of connection and wellbeing, certain ways were made evident that cause complex and potentially harmful experiences. Research warns us of the risks relating to cyberbullying and excessive use of Facebrowser, or the pursuit of Facebrowser activities that come to replace or heavily distort a person’s other form of social interaction offline. 

 

One such being the pursuit of ‘likes’ or ‘reactions’ a post can receive. For a person who delights themselves in sharing with others on the platform, an absence or a limited number of these ‘likes’ or ‘reactions’ can be discouraging. If the person depends on these likes for validation, or the post is met with negative comments, that person might end up in a depressive or anxious state. Similarly, it can happen with users who make a habit of comparing their posts with another person in terms of popularity. If they didn’t receive it, it might prove ill - making them feel more isolated. The more friends, or likes you have on social media doesn’t equate to being more social with those friends. This is what people perceive but often forget, feeling like the number of friends or likes helps with loneliness or isolation. Facebrowser communication is very limited in terms of what you can see and do on that screen. The lack of non-verbal cues, like gestures and facial expressions that we need to process in face-to-face conversations, are completely absent. This opens a door to where a person can carefully, or not so carefully, craft the image they wish to portray of themselves to the wider platform. Creating a false image of themselves as a person that they portray - can cause reliant on the platform. It may lead to absence in face-to-face conversations offline, as they’d like to keep that image. There’s a lot of factors that can cause issues. 

 

The platform can often find itself home to online ‘trolls’ and other factors that tot up the issues. These ‘trolls’ can often cause problems on posts where they post - often making the user feel regret or depressive over posting a certain status, be it an update, a video or a picture. While people say to ‘shrug it off.’ not many people know-how - and take it beyond a message on the screen. Other instances in which it can cause problems on one’s mental state is when it affects a large community as a whole - as seen recently this weekend. One user consistently uploaded photos of individuals, or crowds attending venues - violating their privacy and posted them under the daring status’. These sort of instances affect the mental state of a large community and often can lead to problems like witch-hunts. This, in turn, can often lead people to seek out people they believe to be similar in nature, pointing and calling out someone who has nothing associated with the incident and be dragged into it. This can cause a toll on one’s mental state.

 

Image result for social media addiction

 

So that’s how it can affect us in ways, how do I not get affected?

 

With Social Media pretty much being a stable of everyday life these days, it might feel hard to shake it. But one of the most sought after ways to not get affected would be simply to take a break or close the tab. Make plans with real friends, and head somewhere. Virtual friends do not have the same effect as time with real friends outside the platform. Studies do show and are known to help boost one’s psychological well-being by taking these breaks from platforms like Facebrowser. Moderation is key. But do not rely on it. In instances where you might find yourself requiring an emotional lift, do not seek them from a platform like Facebrowser as a whole. It can often be a bad idea, as you may not know who or what the person who comments back will say or even lack thereof - which can cause that emotion to drop once more.

 

So, if you find yourself sucked into the realm that is Facebrowser, and do not like the path it’s taking your psychological well-being and overall outlook of yourself… do yourself a favour, and close that social’s tab and go hang with friends outside the door, and sip a cup of tea.

 

 

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  • Upvote 1
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Name: TimyrrBlyat

Comment: Let me say that I'm glad I don't use really use social media other than for work. Most of it is fake anyway. The likes, the selfies, the compliments, are all worthless. I guarantee 90-95% of your feed is full of fake shit and stupid drama. Most of your virtual friends or if not all probably don't care about you at all. You're better off living in the real world. Social media's not worth ruining your mental health for.

Edited by KingstonThaIII
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  • Wuhtah unlocked this topic

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