Ever found yourself mindlessly scrolling through social media just to find yourself feeling more anxious and overwhelmed? You’re not alone in this, close to more than 5 billion global population is glued to social media today and it holds a huge chunk of their daily life and time, leaving behind it’s critical impacts on overall mental health. Let’s really understand how we can protect our mental health while also being connected to social media.

What exactly social media anxiety is?

It is an uneasy feeling comes through virtual experiences we get from social media; we keep on scrolling through a lot of content that results in certain mental behaviours and responses as we compare ourselves to others, another big issue is FOMO (Fear of missing out) on something important, the constant pressure to keep ourselves up with the trends to sound relevant. This constant hyper-activity on social media infuses bad feeling like we are not good enough, and my friend that’s where anxiety kicks in.

The Mental Health Impact of Social Media

Outside of positive aspects of social media as keeping in touch with friends, sharing memories, discovering new interests, there are also the darker sides that follow along.

Comparison Trap: Seeing others’ seemingly perfect lives can make you feel like you’re falling behind, not doing enough, even if what you’re seeing is just a highlight reel.

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): Social media showcase others’ trending feeds to us in a way we began to feel we are missing out on important and exciting event, information and activity.

Validation Seeking: The constant lust for engagement on post, feeds, stories we share. The need to likes, comments and reactions makes us feel validated and liked, this need for engagement increases and we begin to feel anxious if we didn’t get reactions we hoped for.

Overstimulation: With so much penetrated content all across the social media makes our brain constantly process information, go through unwanted and unchecked emotions and experiences that comes with it, which impacts on our mental well-being, leading to lack of focus, clarity and hampers our sleep and quality of life.

How to Protect Your Mental Health on Social Media

Limit Your Screen Time: Set a healthy time limit on usage of social media, use in-app feature to send you the reminders or apps like Stay Away that helps you cater productive usage of any social media and mobile apps.

Unfollow or Mute: If certain social media handles make you feel uncomfortable, anxious and unwanted, go straight unfollow them as you might find them not adding value to your experience anymore and also you can mute people without them knowing so you won’t receive any of their post on your feed and yet you stay connected.

Curate Your Feed: Follow and engage with accounts that bring real value, follow accounts that educates you, inspire and uplift you. Whether it’s motivational, educational content, mental health resources or hobbies you love. Make sure your feed is a space that brings you joy and not stress.

Practice Mindfulness: Be mindful of how you’re feeling when using social media. If you notice feelings of anxiety creeping in, step away for a bit. Take a few deep breaths, go for a walk, or simply put your phone down and focus on something else.

Focus on Real-Life Connections: Make an effort to connect with people in real life, too. Social media is great, but nothing beats face-to-face interaction or even a phone call with a close friend.

Take Social Media Breaks: It’s okay to log off for a day (or more) to reset your mind. A digital detox every once in a while can help reduce anxiety and give you a fresh perspective on your social media habits.

All in all

Negative impacts of social media lead to social media anxiety and other mental health related problems. We must train ourselves with higher self-awareness like setting boundaries, making intentional choices on social media, deciding block timings, this way we can protect our mental health. Take control of your time, how you use these platforms and enjoy benefits of staying connected without compromising your well-being.