Are you or someone in your life noticing a negative change in you? Maybe you aren’t sure where it is coming from, or maybe you are deducting that it may be from social media.
So how do you know whether social media is affecting you? Well here are some questions to consider to figure out if social media is changing you.
Questions to ask yourself
1. After you get off of social media, how do you feel?
Do you feel anxious? Depressed? Lonely? Angry? After seeing thousands and thousands of people and their content, we start to gather information about ourselves as we compare ourselves to others. Or we may become overwhelmed by seeing a certain type of content over and over again. If this is the case, maybe you need to take a step back and reassess.
2. What are the things you think about the most, and where did they come from?
When you are not scrolling through social media and you are at school or work, what do you find yourself thinking about the most? Is it people on social media? Is it the things you have seen and heard on social media? Depending on how they make you feel and think about yourself and the world, you may need to slow down on your social media consumption.
3. Are you feeling isolation, dissatisfaction, or loneliness?
We were not meant to watch all these different people and their lives for hours and hours on end. Social media is a facade that most of us tend to believe. Do you feel these feelings of isolation, dissatisfaction, or loneliness? If so, social media may be creating a reality that is unhealthy for you to live in.
Conclusion
Social media can affect your mental health with all of the content you may see that you don’t see yourself in. You may feel as though you are unhappier than you used to feel because you don’t have what you didn’t even know you wanted.
Take a break from social media for a week. See how you feel. If you feel different in your mood and self thoughts, maybe you should take a step back from social media altogether.