Social Media Addiction and Mental Health

We are being exposed to screens and electronics from a younger and younger age. The impacts on our brain and eye development have not been fully investigated. But what we can see in our homes, is that social media addiction creates anxiety and depression in children and adults alike.

social media addiction

Cyber Bullying Wherever You Go

Back in the day, when bullying happened on the playground, it happened face-to-face. A child bullying another student would see the effects of their actions physically. The victim may have a sad face, or be emotional and show tears. When we see these facial expressions, they create a sense of guilt, even if only on a subconscious level. Nowadays, when bullying happens on the internet, there is no exposure to the facial expressions. In fact, there is no visual cue of hurting someone at all. This allows a bully not to feel any remorse and not be held accountable. 

Home was always a safe place. A place where bullies didn’t exist and a child could go to be with their family. Today, children must submit homework electronically, and social media accounts are encouraged. This also means that children are exposed to bullying at home, at school and wherever they go

We can all agree that saying something mean out loud takes a lot more courage than typing it out. Things we read are at far greater risk of misinterpretation because they allow us to read the message in a certain tone or intention that may not always be accurate.

However, if our bully is taunting us about things that are already areas of insecurity, we are more likely to internalize the message and let it affect us. 

Comparisons Enhance Our Insecurities

Scrolling through pictures on social media rarely makes anyone feel great. Social media is more or less a popularity contest, where everyone posting is winning and everyone scrolling is losing. As mentioned above, we all have our insecurities about ourselves and our lives. If two people were to look at the same picture on social media, both would internalize very different messages based on their insecurities and the way they see themselves.

For example, a picture posted of a person in a bathing suit on a beach. A person struggling with their weight might feel bad about their own weight, whereas a person in desperate need of a holiday may feel financially insecure. These may be things we already struggle with, but social media highlights them, makes us more aware of our flaws and creates a competition in which nobody ever wins. 

Screen Time Changes our Brain Chemistry

All screens have a blue light background. When we look at a screen, the production of melatonin is suppressed and the production of our stress hormone, cortisol, increases. Through most of the day, we face stressful situations. In the workplace, this could be a difficult boss, a deadline or a large volume of work to complete. At school, this could be a difficult subject, an angry teacher or an exam to write. All these examples increase our production of cortisol throughout the day. When our stress hormone is already high, sitting down to work on the computer in the evening, further increases our production of cortisol. This will in turn affect our quality of sleep, emotional regulation, pain management and puts us on edge. This is definitely not going to help someone who already suffers from anxiety

social media addiction changes the chemistry of the brain and increases anxiety

Internet Addiction is REAL

We can’t say for sure if social media addiction is real. But we know for sure that someone quitting electronics goes through a withdrawal period on a physical and mental level. Getting “likes” on social media causes a rapid release of dopamine, similar to smoking a cigarette or other addictive behaviours. When people move away from their electronics for just a weekend, there is a drastic increase in rates of anxiety. Some say it is the need to be connected, but when we can’t even connect with the people sitting in front of us, I think we have a problem. 

Like all things, social media can bring us joy and connection, but can be easily abused and detrimental to our health. Practising discipline by limiting our screen time and our social media time is a very important part of calming our nervous systems, lowering our whole body stress response and allowing us to connect with the people around us.