According to Youtuber, Casey Neistat, he took a break from all form of social media as it created a family disconnect and he felt that he was becoming a distant father as well as husband. After a month of not using social media, he states how it “changed his life” because he became more aware of things around him instead of always looking at a screen. Even some studies were done to prove that getting off of social media for either long periods of time or completely getting off it changes a person’s mental health. Students who participated in these tests showed lesser signs of depression and loneliness and overall a stronger mental outlook.
The effects of social media
10 things that stress you out due to social media:
- “Comparison” stress
- Other peoples stress can rub off of you
- Fear of missing out (FOMO)
- Family disconnect
- Low quality sleep
- Relaxing becomes difficult
- Addicting
- Stress accumulated from following an ex online
- Procrastination
- Feeling trapped in yourself
These 10 factors are things that I also agree with as things like FOMO and being compared can lead to stress within yourself. Sometimes, indirectly, people compare themselves to others by seeing how they are doing things that you wish you could also be doing, thus creating stress inside of yourself as you feel you aren’t doing enough to show your friends that you also have an amazing life. Even this stress from social media can affect your personality and traits and mold you into a different person because, again, you feel the need to one-up other people making life almost into a competition.
Second Life
Online you are like the God of your own life. You get to choose what you want to show to others, you can choose what you like, you can basically choose everything that makes you a perfect person. Being able to do this to yourself turns people to making profiles and facades of themselves which reflect on what they want and what they desire compared to who they truly are. Keeping up this facade of yourself doesn’t come with no cost as it affects your mental strength to a large extent.
How does social media affect you?
Social media allows people to create a second version of them online because of several reasons. Whether it may be to keep up with friends or to keep up with world news, most people with social media accounts also post onto their accounts. When you meet someone new, most times you will ask for their social media and vice versa. Due to this, most people only show things that will attract people to them and show only the outer layer of who they truly are. In order to make themselves seem so “perfect,” many people go to great lengths to do make a different persona of who they truly are. By posting and uploading certain things that they either would not normally do in person or things that do not resemble themselves in real life, it gives that person a second identity to live by online.
What makes up a human persona/identity?
People are all born with a personality and born with certain traits that make them, them. As you grow older your traits develop and change your personality which also, makes you, yourself. Social media is one thing that influences your personality and if not, then it allows you to show off a side of yourself that people can only see online.
What is social media?
Social media is a platform where people can post online, and keep up with people that they cannot see on a daily basis.
According to Google: “Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.”