Social Media: How does it really affect our mental health and well-being?

Aritcle: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.php

Image from: "Unhappy girl using computer." Images. Medical News Today. Web. 6 April 2015.   

Throughout this article written by Honor Whiteman, he described the negative effects of people’s mental health and well-being when users access Facebook on a daily basis. Whitman uses statistics to get his points across of how serious social media can have an emotional impact on individuals. He declares that Facebook can increase anxiety, low self-esteem, and also addiction. Being an active Facebook user myself, I agree with a lot of Whiteman’s arguments. 

I use Facebook to maintain relationships with my family and friends, to keep up with events and information for my Fraternity, and also to acquire information from reliable news. I am on Facebook every day, but I do not post, but every once in a while. I post important information that I feel like I should share and I feel other people may find interesting or pictures of the family/events. I am on Facebook just looking through other people’s posts, articles, and pictures. As Whiteman says, “we use social media…for self-distraction and boredom relief.” I agree with this, because half of the time I get on Social Media I ask myself, “Why am I wasting time looking through posts that I do not even care about?” 

I agree with Whiteman that Social Media may cause anxiety and low self-esteem as well. Many of my Facebook friends love to complain about their lives on the social media on a daily basis. With their comments, it is obvious that a lot of these individuals have very low self-esteem and can even post really hateful comments about themselves or others. Reading these comments, I always start feeling angry and even uncaring. This makes me feel awful because I should offer support, but when I try they will not listen. I guess they use Facebook as their rant box just to let everything that is bothering them out. I feel like it is their own personal business and should not be posted to the public every day. I also noticed that people begin to not care and comment less and less on those individual’s posts. 

I believe there are pros and cons to Social Media. I think it is a fantastic way to keep up with friends, family, and events. It also lets individuals express themselves to others through the internet that some cannot in the real world. But Social Media can also have very negative effects on individuals. They can become very addicted and have to log on to Facebook daily, become aggressive after being online for a certain amount of time or from what they have read, or increase their low self-esteem from posts. Despite all of the negatives, I agree with Whiteman that social networking sites are not going to fade anytime soon, because people have come to depend on it so much in the past few years.