I’m sure by now we’ve all heard that social media can affect our moods. And yeah, it’s true—at least for me. Spending time crafting a funny tweet or pouring my feelings into the Internet, only to have the post go basically unnoticed, can be irksome.
“Did they not see my post?”
“Nobody else thought this was relatable?”
“Come on, that was funny!”
As a middle-aged mother and full-time working professional, I even get sucked into how well-received my school-related discussion posts are doing!
Social media (and other forms of social post boards) has definitely turned me on and off over the last few years. I find my mood is influenced by what is happening or not happening on social media! If my posts don’t reach a respectable engagement level, I often find myself comparing my posts to others’. I wonder to myself why my post isn’t performing as well as someone else’s on a similar topic.
The nature of “just one more like” has done a doozy on our self-psyche. Studies have indicated a strong link between heavy social media use and an increased risk of depression, loneliness and other mental health concerns (Help Guide, 2020). Well, I can’t say I have any of those things—at least not yet—but I am disturbed for sure when my posts are not liked by certain people, or I was not invited to that event that was plastered on social media. Do I hunger for attention, do I need accolades—what is it? It seems so odd, but I know others can relate to what I am talking about. Research has shown that we naturally yearn for positive feedback (Castellacci, 2018), so we may get a psychological boost when our posts are validated by our online social networks. In any case, the correlation between social media and mood is evident, at least for me!
Social media is definitely part of our lifestyle, but are our lifestyles becoming social media? It’s tough to tell. But I can tell you that even as an adult, there are long-lasting effects on my mood. I can’t imagine what the effects on younger adults will be, but I do know most teens have phones in hand and are “on” 24/7. It’s unreal how much our social media accounts influence our wellbeing, or lack thereof.
There has been so much written and many studies executed on the negative role that social media plays. I wonder why we don’t seem to turn it off? If excessive social media is not good for our mental health, why do we do it? Are we addicted as a culture? Well, that’s my guess. No matter your age, I think we as a collective are addicted to our devices (social media). I have not educated myself to know if we have enough long-term data proving the effects of social media’s negative impacts (would imagine Facebook, 2004 would have been the “soft-start”), but I can bet there will be some soon.
Now, can I get a “like?”
References:
Castellacci, T. (2018). Internet use and well-being: A survey and a theoretical framework. Research Policy, 47(1), 308–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2017.11.007
Social media & mental health (2020). Help Guide. https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm
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