Is Social Media Affecting Your Mental Health?

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Last Updated on December 23, 2021

While you may feel like you don't have a reason to worry about the length of time you spend on social media, it may be important to take a step back and evaluate your situation. Read on to see some warning signs that may show you that it's time to cut back on your consumption of social media, and you will know the next steps you need to take.

While you may feel like you don’t have a reason to worry about the length of time you spend on social media, it may be important to take a step back and evaluate your situation. Read on to see some warning signs that may show you that it’s time to cut back on your consumption of social media, and you will know the next steps you need to take.

You Spend An Excessive Length of Time on Social Media

The first warning sign that social media is starting to affect your mental health is choosing to spend more time browsing social media than the time you spend physically engaging with friends and family. While it may feel like a harmless escape from the stresses of daily life, spending a lot of your time on social media may aggravate or mask other issues. Tiktok, the social media app, has been downloaded more than two billion times and has more than 800 million users, according to BBC. This is a large number of people creating content and consuming it, so it’s good to practice caution and avoid getting addicted to social media.

You Have No Time For Self-Reflection

When you start to realize that you have no time to think about who you are, what your dreams and aspirations are, and other things that make you grow as a person, it’s a sign that you need to cut back. This is because when you fill every spare moment engaging with social media, life will pass you by and you will be left unfulfilled in the end. It’s good to start cutting back at this point so that you can reclaim yourself.

You Engage in Risky Behavior For Online Popularity

The people who consume social media crave scenery and activities that they don’t experience in their lives on a daily basis. For this reason, people are constantly pushing boundaries and working hard to have their content get more likes and engagement. This can be an uphill task when you think about the fact that there were about 4.48 billion social media users in the world as of July 2021, almost 57% of the world’s population. This is a large number of people who have different preferences when it comes to entertainment. When you realize that you act more recklessly in a bid to get more engagement on your different social media platforms, it’s a sign that you need to cut back.

You Have Sleep Problems and Anxiety

Spending a long time on social media can make someone develop sleep problems and get worse anxiety and depression. This is because the light from your mobile devices can disrupt your sleep, especially when you look at your phone late into the night, early in the morning, or even in the middle of the night. While you may not realize it, social media can cause these issues or worsen them despite its feel-good effect which only lasts briefly.

You’re Distracted While At School or Work

Finally, you may be so engaged with following your top brands and influencers that you find your mind wandering while you’re at work or at school. This is a sure sign that you need to reduce the time you spend on social media in order to stay in good mental health. Even though LinkedIn, which has over 500 million members around the world, is primarily a social network for businesses and career professionals, it’s still good to consume it in moderation if you use it for networking and similar things.

If you have noticed one or more of the above signs of late, you need to put your mental health first by cutting down on social media. Take measures such as turning off your internet at certain times of the day and sleeping with your mobile device out of reach and you will start to improve.

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