Social media is a two-sided coin. It encourages community spirit but also fosters competitive thinking. It connects friends, family and loved ones but also acts as a conduit for aggression and unkindness. It’s been a great enabler in myriad ways for so many but across its 15 year incumbency, its ability to induce metal health issues has grown exponentially.
Developers working at the likes of Facebook and Instagram spend a great deal of time testing the efficacy of certain functions. Our ability to like and share content has been carefully optimised to ensure our brains’ pleasure and reward centres are firing on all cylinders each time we open these apps. This is no secret. We know that social media platforms are built to be addictive but what effect does that have on us in the long term?
What is social media anxiety?
When we repeatedly view content on social media our brains are bombarded with whatever the algorithm serves us. Whether or not this content has a positive or negative effect on our emotional wellbeing, the sheer volume of it is overwhelming and sometimes our brains struggle to cope with this.
When combined with the addictive effects of seeing multiple notifications – and subsequently, the dip in dopamine associated with seeing very few notifications – our brains not only feel overwhelmed by whatever content we’re viewing, they struggle to attribute value appropriately and our ability to make accurate judgements becomes skewed.
Technology has developed at such a rate that it can be used to influence our natural responses, and unfortunately, we’re fairly helpless in the face of it. The constant urge to be checking social media, our skewed attribution of worth and our judgement of personal reality against a deluge of augmented photos and videos results in what is now known as ‘social media anxiety’ or in layman’s terms, consistent feelings of sadness, anxiousness, fatigue and worthlessness.
We know that social media use is directly linked to mental health issues among people of all ages, but that it has a particularly negative effect on users under the age of 35. So what are the indicators that you may be suffering from social media anxiety and what can you do about it?
Compare and Despair Syndrome
Feelings of loneliness and exclusion were rife in 2020 as social calendars were entirely totalled to control the virus and keep people safe. This prompted a spike in social media users admitting to experiencing FOMO – the fear of missing out. And why wouldn’t they? With social media essentially acting as a highlight reel of beautiful and exciting moments experienced by others, being trapped indoors while viewing this reel would inevitably elicit negative responses in the brain.
Many of us are familiar with the compare and despair phenomenon – a parlance used by social media experts and psychologists to describe the act of making ‘upward social comparisons’ and then experiencing feelings of anxiety, sadness and worthlessness.
If you find you can’t look at your social channels without feeling like a failure or jealous of others, miserable about your own life and wishing you could be living someone else’s, you’re likely experiencing social media anxiety.
Feeing lonely and dissatisfied with your home, your surroundings, your lockdown situation and feeling envious of those who seem to be living their best life is normal to an extent, but if these things seem to be all that occupies your mind after looking through social media, it’s likely your anxiety may be becoming a problem.
Obsession and Self Esteem
The problem with social media is that while it connects us with millions of other people, it also encourages us to look inward. As humans we centre ourself and our experiences at the apex of our personal universes and use our own bodies, achievements, failures and memories as a benchmark by which to measure others. When we use social media and our brains are exposed to a rush of perfect, usually edited, images and videos, our sense of self is affected.
Social media can trigger obsessive thinking and obsessive behaviours. Some commonplace and unthreatening, some far more insidious. Much of this personal anxiety is connected to body image and over the last five years cosmetic doctors have witnessed a surge in people below the age of 35 requesting treatments to mimic the aesthetic of social media filters and their favourite influencers.
Of course, a little lip filler isn’t the end of the world but issues with body image can become extreme as a result of social media anxiety. The effects of feeling unhappy or worthless when scrolling Instagram or Snapchat can include obsessive dieting, purging and exercise, agoraphobia, self harm and extreme body modification through surgery as a result of dysmorphic and disordered thoughts.
Dr Paul Banwell, a leading plastic surgeon and founder of The Banwell Clinic, says “I have seen increasingly over the last couple of years how social media images of perfection can create overt (and hidden) pressure with respect to self esteem and mental health. Whilst cosmetic surgery can be life-changing and have a significant impact on wellbeing it should only be entered into after careful thought and consideration.”
Authenticity and Reality
So with its own dedicated segment on the anxiety spectrum, social media needs our attention in so far as we need to be able to recognise the signs of social media anxiety and its potentially harmful effects on our mental and physical wellbeing.
Not everything is as it seems when we’re scrolling social media. It sounds so obvious to say this, but when you consider that social platforms are purpose built to keep us hooked, engaged and scrolling, you’ll begin to acknowledge the inauthenticity and inconsistencies, the patterns and pitfalls of the algorithms and the lack of value that scrolling adds to your real life and experiences.
That’s not to say that social media doesn’t have its merits – it’s been an essential tool in keeping us all connected throughout lockdown – however, it’s important to remember that it’s a tool and nothing more. Social media is not something on which we should rely to validate ourselves, or a means through which to view our reality.
How to beat social media anxiety
If you feel that you’ve experienced any of the symptoms, side effects or phenomenon mentioned above, there are small changes you can make to ensure that social media doesn’t continue to affect you in these ways.
The first is to take regular breaks from the apps. Try to limit your time on them to once or twice a day, if possible. You can set alarms on your phone or use apps that only allow access at certain times. It’s also a great idea to think of a few distractions that you can turn to when you feel the urge to check social – like a walk, a cup of tea, reading an article or tidying up.
It’s also worth telling yourself that you know how horrible it’ll make you feel if you spend the next hour doomscrolling, despite how much you want to do so right now. Turning off notifications and opting to batch check your socials and emails instead of opening them as they come through is also a great move.
Remind yourself of why you use social media. What does it mean to you? Is it for interiors inspo or staying connected with friends abroad? Is it inspiring quotes, cat videos and memes? Focus on the good stuff and unfollow and block accounts that make you feel sad, anxious, obsessive, envious and worthless. Seek out more accounts that make you feel uplifted, inspired, happy, grateful and motivated.
Check in with your community privately, away from the performative feeds on social channels and message your friends directly if you’re feeling low and want to connect with someone. The one-on-one feel-good factor of a phone call has a different and lasting effect on the pleasure centres in your brain to the addictive reward-style feeling that notifications provoke.
Take a longer break and delete your apps and deactivate your account if you need to. It’ll still be there when you’re ready to come back to it and you won’t miss much. Do what you need to do to feel calm and happy in your own mind and your own body.
Cross check your reality with augmented reality daily and remind yourself that almost everyone has a real life and an online life. There’s no point comparing your real life with someone else’s online life, the two are different beasts, they’re incompatible, they can’t be compared.
And if you’re still struggling to reconcile your feelings about social media and having issues with limiting your use, despite it making you feel awful, speak to someone about it. Whether a friend, family member, a social media influencer, a counsellor, GP or therapist – social media anxiety is common and affects almost everyone and you’ll find that other people will understand your concerns if you’re able to open up about them.
