Here's Why Social Media is Making You Feel Blue
By Genevieve Cunningham
You wake up in the morning and immediately reach for your phone. You open Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat. You catch up and mindlessly scroll through people's lives. You do this again later in the day, and then again and again and again. Our social media habits are truly out of control. And while this might not seem like much of a problem -- only a waste of time -- our addiction to social media is making us feel down. Blue. Depressed. If you've noticed that your mood and perspective isn't what it once was, take a look at these three reasons why social media is the cause of your poor mood.
You're Watching Instead of Doing
Social media can open our eyes to new things to do and new ways to live. The problem is that we spend way more time watching other people do it, and very little time doing anything ourselves. At first, we enjoy this. But over time, we get that sinking feeling -- the one that tells us we're missing out. And we are! We're literally missing out on life so that we can watch other people live their lives. It's madness. If you want to use social media responsibly, watch a little, but do a lot more.
You're Constantly Comparing Your Life
We spend a lot of time on social media subconsciously comparing our lives to other people's. We see the perfect family photo, but we don't see the 15 outtakes before it. We see the vacation to Disney World, but we don't see the months of savings it took to get there. And since we don't see the before, we start to think we're not good enough. If you want to eliminate the bad feeling, you have to remember that social media isn't real. It's like a movie, and the bloopers stay hidden for the most part.
You're Spending Too Much Time on a Screen
One of the biggest problems with social media is that we spent massive amounts of time on it. We wake up and look. We check it when we're bored. We check it at stoplights and when we're stuck in traffic. We check it before bed. And anytime you spend that much time on a screen, you're going to feel blue. The only good way to use social media is in moderation. Scale it back a little, and then scale it back again.
Social media isn't the enemy. It's a good thing. It connects us to people all around the world. It exposes us to new ideas and cultures. But if we're not careful, we'll only get the bad without the good. We'll soak in the negatives without the positives. Use social media responsibly, and you can improve your health and mood in no time at all.
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