Social Media Mental Health

[Music]

it’s 2021

and never before have we been so

connected to these things

the devices that were originally just

for calling

or maybe sending the odd text have

become our one-way

lifeline to all things media

specifically

social media my name is pereiritos joshi

and i’m a research assistant at the

northwestern

feinberg school of medicine and i’m here

today to talk about the relationship

between social media

and our mental health before i get

started with my talk let me get a quick

show of hands how many of you say

that you currently use at least one

social media site

facebook twitter instagram snapchat

great now how many hours a day would you

say you use social media on average

let’s go zero to two hours

how about two to four hours

great how about four plus

awesome now last question how many of

you say that the amount of time used

social media has gone up

since covet hit

great so here’s a chart of the percent

of us adults who currently use at least

one social media site

and as you can see not very many people

use social media about a decade and a

half ago

but about 70 of us adults use it now

and we could see that social media use

has dramatically risen over the past

decade and a half

there’s about one billion monthly active

instagram users

and based on current projections for

social media use the average person

is estimated to spend six years and

eight months

of their life on social media now don’t

get me wrong

there’s many benefits to social media

it’s easier to communicate with friends

it’s easier to share content and it’s

also easier to develop relationships

with like-minded people it’s also

created a space for us to be vulnerable

and really connect

with other people such as the till

tomorrow challenge that happened last

year

where everyone posted a goofy picture of

themselves on instagram and left it up

for 24 hours

for the record this is what i would have

posted this is me

back in high school trying to look super

tough i know i know

it’s pretty cringe worthy luckily this

picture is only staying up for five

seconds

and i bet if some of you saw that you

laughed and that’s the point

social media is intended to bring us

together through our collective

human experience now while there are

benefits to social media there have also

been some drawbacks as well

for example research has found that

greater social media use

may result in negative mental health

problems and worse in stress levels

personally i started using social media

due to peer pressure in part

everyone said i had to get instagram

so i could see all the funny videos that

were being posted

or that i had to get snapchat so i could

see all these cool pictures or any cool

posts that people were making

and as i got these apps i told myself

that i had to maintain strong

self-control

in order to make sure that i wouldn’t

keep on checking them so often

but even as i tried to limit my time

and not check social media so frequently

i ended up refreshing my screen every

five seconds

just to see who liked my post or just to

see

who commented and if i

as someone who was intentionally

regulating the amount of time they were

spending on social media

was struggling and what was it doing to

other people

and it raised the question is social

media bringing us together

or dividing us further and further apart

as a society they’re applying this idea

known as the butterfly effect

we can see that incremental changes in

social media use over time

have caused larger macroscopic disorder

in society

today i would like to talk about three

main factors

influencing the relationship between

social media and mental health

and by fighting their impact we can take

back our agency

the first being how social media can

lead to anxiety or envy

and acts as an avoidant coping mechanism

now i’m sure all of you are aware that

social media has

clearly had a very big impact on us and

it impacts how we feel about ourselves

but frequently it goes too far

for example there are specific mental

health issues related to specific

applications such as facebook envy which

is the tendency to be jealous of your

friends activities on social media

there’s snapchat dysmorphia which is the

tendency

for people to want to resemble their

filtered images

in real life and there’s instagram

anxiety which is

application users anxiety related to

instagram itself a recent study

found that when people experience

instagram anxiety

or engage in social comparison it is

associated with poor psychological

well-being we could see that when people

use these platforms it can amplify

their insecurities as they constantly

desire to know what is going on

but there’s another factor to this and

it’s that social media can act as an

avoidant coping mechanism

how many of you are guilty of wanting to

go on snapchat or instagram for five

minutes you end up being on there for

about 15 or 20 minutes

right we’re all guilty of this because

these

apps present a way of escaping oneself

from the realities that exist in the

world

and we could see that this leads to a

vicious cycle of

wanting to go on social media for an

extended period of time

going back to your actual task and then

wanting to go back for more time

on instagram snapchat tick tock whatever

app you’re using that will distract you

from your actual responsibilities

but social media use can also be linked

to other

harmful behaviors which is why recent

research

hints that emerging adults who

frequently engage in substance use

with their friends may spend more time

documenting these behaviors

on snapchat that’s probably a good thing

because you most likely don’t want to

post a video of yourself

taking a shot of tequila on linkedin

unless you never want to get a job

regardless social media was never

intended to have these negative effects

so what is the culprit that makes us

feel this way about ourselves

well it’s actually the way we use these

apps

while we are on them which is why next i

would like to talk about

passive versus active involvement

now it’s clear that social media does

not just impact

our mind it impacts our entire body

and we can see this reflected and how we

engage

with these platforms passive involvement

refers to

scrolling through social media feeds or

monitoring others without direct

engagement

active involvement on the other hand

refers to

commenting messaging maybe even sharing

your favorite meme

any behavior that allows you to directly

engage

with users active social media

involvement is considerably better

than passive involvement in a recent

study on adolescents

active involvement was shown to be

related to

fewer symptoms of anxiety while

passive involvement was shown to be

related to

greater symptoms of anxiety and

increased emotional

distress passive social media use is

also linked to greater depressive

symptoms

and loneliness so we could see that

allowing ourselves to succumb to the

content

on these platforms will bring us

negative

emotions and it’s more meaningful to

actually have real

deep conversations with other users

there’s a third and more important

factor to assess

and it’s that these apps do not unite us

at all

but inevitably foster a climate of

animosity

towards other people which is why i’d

like to talk about

competition and comparison

now i’m sure you all are aware that

people go on social media to at least

some degree

for validation or just to see how much

clout they have

it’s because these applications

provide people with an opportunity to

constantly measure themselves against

others

right how many of you are guilty of

wanting to go and check how many

instagram followers you have

or how many people last feed your

snapchat story

right it’s very very tempting because

we care about getting the right image

the right angle and taking it at the

right time

you know the first picture you’re taking

for instagram will not be

the last you might take even 5 10

20 more who knows you might even fill up

your whole camera roll just trying to

decide

it’s because we care about how we

present ourselves to other people

and we have standards for how we judge

everyone

because we live in an appearance based

society

and at the end of the day we care about

our presentation and getting that

degree of acknowledgement from other

people that we look attractive

regardless of whether we like it or not

social media affects how we view

ourselves

as well as others and it can hurt our

own

body image social media

exploits the innate vulnerability of

ourselves to

want to have what others have

and as a result it can have long lasting

impacts

on us at the end of the day it makes us

place this

undue burden of always having to be

at our best and always having to look

attractive

because if we don’t the whole world

might laugh at us

and that is the last thing that we want

so what does this mean for all of us

we screwed social media just gonna

control our lives

for as long as we know it no

in fact social media has done

very very beneficial things for us as

well

am i saying we need to hashtag abolish

social media and totally eliminate it

no and i don’t want to see that trending

on twitter social media performs

many important functions for us such as

allowing ourselves to communicate with

family

or even just following the news

all we have to do is take charge of the

platforms

ourselves and not allow social media

to control us but allow ourselves to

control

social media in fact there are three

tangible solutions

we can implement right now the first

being

restricting the amount of time spent on

social media

a recent study found that restricting

the amount of time spent

on social media to 30 minutes a day is

proven to decrease loneliness

and depression now i know what some of

you are thinking that well

30 minutes that’s less than half an

episode from season 8 of game of thrones

that is way too little all right that’s

a fair point

but i bet a good number of you who

said that you use social media use it

for multiple hours a day

and by slowly decreasing the amount of

time you spend on these platforms

you will take charge of not only the

amount of time you spend

but free up time to dedicate to

other initiatives or other things that

originally

being displaced by the amount of time

you spent on social media

second it’s important to prioritize

active social media involvement

over passive involvement comment tag

someone in a post

even share your favorite meme just make

sure

to interact with other users while

you’re on these platforms

do not sit and stare because that may

make you more anxious

and stressed remember social media is

intended to be

social and by going back

to what social media was intended to be

used for

we can maximize the amount of time

and the amount of satisfaction that

these platforms

were intended to bring upon us

number three it’s important to minimize

the use of social media

as an avoidant coping mechanism and

instead use it to learn

through online forums such as facebook

twitter read it by having meaningful

conversations with other people

where we can actually talk about ideas

we can

maximize human connection and avoid less

shallow conversations and through any of

these little changes

you will not only improve your mental

health and feel better

but you will engage other people and

cause them to feel better

as well and through applying the idea of

the butterfly effect

we can cause a ripple effect and enhance

the status of everyone around the globe

to take charge of these platforms

thank you