Anxiety and depression
are certainly not new for people who have been suffering from them. Even though
it’s a relatively recent phenomenon, social media
also isn’t completely brand new.
One question that comes
to mind is whether or not social media causes anxiety or
depression. Research studies thus far haven’t shown a causal relationship
between going on social media and the symptoms of anxiety and depression, but
Caroline Miller, the editorial director of the Child Mind Institute wrote that
studies have shown that social media use is related in some way to anxiety and
depression.
The Royal Society for
Public Health studied 14- to 24-year-olds in the United
Kingdom. According to Child Mind Institute senior editor Rachel
Ehmke, the survey found that the commonly used social media platforms
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat led to increasing feelings of
depression, anxiety, poor body image, and loneliness.
Ehmke’s article touched on some of the problems. One
thing she pointed out is the absence of verbal and visual cues in social media
when compared to in person communication.
“It’s
easier to keep your guard up when you’re texting, so less is at stake,” Ehmke
wrote. “You aren’t hearing or seeing the effect that your words are having on
the other person.”
That
isn’t all. The anonymity of the screen or the electronic device means that, “it has gotten easier to be cruel,” Ehmke wrote. “Kids text
all sorts of things that you would never in a million years contemplate saying
to anyone’s face,” said Dr. Donna Wick, a clinical and developmental
psychologist quoted by Ehmke.
The effects also touch on another difficulty
that has also affected so-called adults. Wick pointed out that girls are
especially reluctant to disagree with each other in “real life” interactions,
but her example could easily expand to adults regardless of gender identity or
expression.
“You hope to teach them that they can disagree
without jeopardizing the relationship,” Wick said, “but what social media is
teaching them to do is disagree in ways that are more extreme and do jeopardize the relationship. It’s exactly what you
don’t want to have happen.”
Beyond clinical considerations or psychological
implications of social media and its effects on its practitioners, there are effects
that people who are active on social media see: People who report feelings of
anxiety and depression related to interactions on social media and either swear
off entirely or take breaks from it.
But what about people who don’t report anxiety
or depression either as the result of social media or being aggravated by
social media? Pragya Agarwal, a contributor on Forbes.com wrote
about ways to overcome social media fatigue geared toward people who
already have it, but the methods can also be used by people who don’t report
the same levels of anxiety caused by social media.
She suggested taking a break from social media,
concentrating on one or two specific platforms that appeal to you, adopting a
less is more approach to social media posts by limiting what you share to
quality as opposed to posting to meet certain metrics, being creative in ways
that don’t involve a computer, a phone, or a tablet, and simply being
authentic.
Social media can present a challenge for
anyone, young, old, or in between. It has its good points in being able to help
forge relationships that otherwise never would have happened otherwise, but it
also has its downsides. Learning to navigate social media in a healthful way is
a challenge, but it’s a rewarding one.
