According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental and behavioral disorders account for about 14% of the global burden of disease and as many as 450 million people suffer from these illnesses. Moreover, numerous studies not just here in the Philippines but in other countries as well have linked these to high social media use with these high levels of anxiety, depression, and stress. And the scary thing is that high social media uses by almost everyone we know… our friends, our family, our colleagues.
3.96 billion people use social media today, which accounts for roughly half (50%) of the global population according to digitalmarketing.org. On average, global internet users spent 144 minutes on social media sites every day. When it comes to countries with the most time spent on social media, the Philippines is at the top with users spending an average of 4 hours and 12 minutes on social media per day according to wearesocial.com.
71% of the Philippine population is on social media. Imagine, our voter turnout isn’t even 70%. Anything we do this often is worthy of critical observation. Anything we spend this much time doing has lasting effects on us. The following are the most common stressors on social media which were presented by Bailey Parnell that if go unchecked have the potential to become full-blown mental health issues and this is by no means an exhaustive list. The highlight reels, social currency, FOMO or fear of missing out, and online harassment.
Regardless of the four most common online stresses, Parnell does not advocate banning social media. Instead, she advocates reshaping each user’s social media experience in a way that is most supportive of mental health.
Recognizing the problem is the first step in restructuring your social media to fight its detrimental impact on your mental health. One of the most difficult stages is realizing you have a problem. As a second step, you should “examine your social media diet”. Each user will see this stage in a different way. To discover each person’s social media makeover strategy asks a series of probing questions. ‘Did scrolling through Facebook make me feel better or worse?’ “How many times do I really check likes?” ‘Why am I feeling this way in response to that image?’ After that, reflect on whether or not you’re satisfied with the outcomes. The results of the user’s audit led to recognize that the sense of self-worth was overly dependent on celebrity endorsements on social media. When faced with such a huge challenge, people like Bailey Parnell and many other pioneers have refused to allow their natural fear of change to scare them into submission.
It is not the social media that affects our mental health, it actually the people who use the social media themselves. So, when talking about the dark side of social media, it is the dark side of people. Is social media having a negative impact on your mental well-being? The answer is no, it does not have to.
