By Zermina Khan
10 April 2018
After using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for majority of your life, you would think it’s pretty much difficult to take time off them. You’ve dedicated your whole life to posting selfies or updating your statuses, how must you quit and for how long?
A recent article on BBC (Galer, 2018), researched whether social media addiction constitutes as a mental disorder by asking their twitter followers, is there such a thing as ‘too much time’ on social media? But the real question is, why do you use social media? One of the responses on twitter was ‘I use it to forget about personal problems’ someone else said they got ‘restless or troubled’ if they were prohibited from using it which means it really effects people. I’d say it depends on what situation you are in, for example the response which said they used it to forget about personal problems, it is helpful in that sense but then again there are so many other things you could do to forget certain things, like being active, going out, reading a book or magazine, sketching, find a hobby.
For me personally, I felt that social media made me feel quite depressed, I spent most my time watching famous people or people who were always having fun and it made me question my life. I would wish my life was like that or I’d see someone else with something and I’d want it to be mine. It became unhealthy to the point where I had to delete all my social media for a month or two, until I felt like I was in a better place mentally. It helped as I found other hobbies and felt a lot happier in my own life.
A recent article asked if social media was causing childhood depression (Wakefield, 2018), which from my experience is a good question. A 2017 study showed seven out of ten people said Instagram made them feel worse about body image and half of 14-14 yr. olds reported Instagram and Facebook aggravated feelings of anxiety.
As for me, I was aware of what was happening to me and I acted upon it, but it can really affect the younger generation and things could get extremely serious for example this story I came across from the same article. A GP by the name of Rangan Chatterjee said he had seen plenty of evidence of a link between mental ill-health in young people and their use of social media. The article then introduced a story of a 16-yr. old boy who was referred to the GP after he self-harmed himself due to the fact his social media was having a negative impact on his health. The GP suggested he didn’t use social media too often and to limit using for at least 1-2 hours a day. This solution showed a significant improvement in the young boy’s well-being.
Young people should be monitored on how much they use social media as it does affect them and may become a bad habit. Using social media too often will allow children to lose focus on their school work and may also get addicted to being online all the time.
I spent a lot of time on Instagram scrolling through unnecessary pictures to the point where I couldn’t get any work done. When you’re constantly getting notifications from all these different platforms, using the do not disturb button helps a lot, it stops your phone from vibrating or showing notifications and there is also a setting for a time limit which is perfect for when you’re trying not to use your phone!
There’s always a solution, you just need to allow yourself to find it.
References
Galer, S.S., (2018), How much is ‘too much time’ on social media?, BBC, www.bbc.com/future/story/20180118-how-much-is-too-much-time-on-social-media- Accessed on 1 April 2018
Wakefield, J., (2018), Is social media causing childhood depression?., BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42705881- Accessed on 1 April 2018
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