The case to be made for Facebook is that it helps us stay connected. It is really good for keeping up to date with family events in general. When I was traveling, this was the case. I could not call every single family member so Facebook made it really easy to check on everyone. I believe it is beneficial in that case, however, my overall experience with it is negative.
When a teenager or adult posts something, they post it for the satisfaction of receiving likes and comments. They want everyone to see how well they are doing in that particular picture. As a viewer, you look at the image and acknowledge the beauty or the significance, and understand that person from that perspective. You make an assumptions about a persons’ life from the pictures that they post. (stay with me here). Social media (SM) is a platform that enables our friends to keep up with our lives. The pictures that we post create the perception that everyone has about our lives.
A person looks at social media and sees all of their friends’ happiest moments. Nobody is going to post about how they just lost their job and can’t pay rent. A person wants to post for the satisfaction and response that they will receive. They want their profile to increase their personal image. This results in a false sense of reality. The images we see are the best of everyones’ lives. Regardless of how content a person is in life, they look at social media, and begin to believe that everyone else is better off than them.
I call this the broken mirror complex. Every single person on SM is part of the broken mirror. When we look into this mirror, we see thousands of happy moments and no dull ones. Everyone they see is doing so good; they are attacking life without any issues or so it seems. This makes people overwhelmed by the high expectations of society. People compare themselves to the images they see on SM and realize that their life does not equate to that of their peers. The mirror creates an unrealistic image of the ideal person. Nobody is perfect and SM makes it seem like everyone is but you.
There have been many studies on the association between SM use and depression among people. The link is pretty prevalent in modern day studies. Lin and associates took participants from ages 17 to 32 and put them into four different quartiles ranging from least SM use and most SM use. In the group that used SM the most, they saw significantly greater odds of having depression, anxiety and mood dysregulation. They believe that passive communication such as scrolling down a feed decreases social bonding and increases loneliness. This is due to the fact that a person sees highly idealized representations of peers which increases feelings of envy. This distorted belief that others live happier and more successful lives becomes prevalent when SM use is increased. (Lin et al) I believe that SM use significantly impairs people in society. It makes it so we are constantly compared to our peers and this is not health. In the past few years, there have been substancial increases of mental health issues in the United States. I believe there is a connection and I am going to do my part and stay away!
I am going to limit my use of SM in order to cultivate a positive environment for myself and others. For people that really want to keep up with my life, they can come here. This site makes people actively seek out my life achievements as opposed to passively scrolling down through them. I do not want to promote SM because it negatively impacts people and that does not fly with me. So this is my Blog and it will be about my life.
Here are some interesting statistics provided by The National Alliance on Mental Health:
- 19.1% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2018 (47.6 million people). This represents 1 in 5 adults.
- 4.6% of U.S. adults experienced serious mental illness in 2018 (11.4 million people). This represents 1 in 25 adults.
- 16.5% of U.S. youth aged 6-17 experienced a mental health disorder in 2016 (7.7 million people)
- 3.7% of U.S. adults experienced a co-occurring substance use disorder and mental illness in 2018 (9.2 million people)
- Major Depressive Episode: 7.2% (17.7 million people)
- Schizophrenia: <1% (estimated 1.5 million people)
- Bipolar Disorder: 2.8% (estimated 7 million people)
- Anxiety Disorders: 19.1% (estimated 48 million people)
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: 3.6% (estimated 9 million people)
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: 1.2% (estimated 3 million people)
- Borderline Personality Disorder: 1.4% (estimated 3.5 million people)
Sources of information:
Lin, Liu Yi et al. “ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA USE AND DEPRESSION AMONG U.S. YOUNG ADULTS.” Depression and anxiety vol. 33,4 (2016): 323-31. doi:10.1002/da.22466
“Mental Health by the Numbers.” Nami.org, National Association of Mental Illness, Sept. 2019, http://www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-by-the-numbers.
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