Twenty years ago, people would wake up, have coffee and maybe take a look at a newspaper. Today, we wake up and the first thing we do is check our phones and refresh our social media accounts for new updates.
Whether we like it or not, social media has become an essential part of humans’ lives in 2022, with social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, etc. seeing thousands of users flock to their websites in search of new content and entertainment. While these apps offer benefits when it comes to marketing and connecting people, they can also become addictive and lead to negative effects, one of them being social media anxiety.
But what exactly is social media anxiety and how does it manifest itself? We’ll discover all of that together in this article.
First of all, let’s begin by stating that social media anxiety is very real and its diagnosis isn’t very difficult. This ‘condition’ often surges when being away from any social media account starts to bring about major anxiety and due to the nature of their job, influencers often find themselves prone to it and should definitely be wary of its causes and effects. For example, you could be around your friends and be on full alert until you receive a new notification, and when you do, you interrupt them or ignore them to immediately check your phone.
Also, losing interest in activities that you previously used to enjoy is another sign that you could be suffering from social media anxiety. When going on adventures is no longer satisfying (or only satisfying when you post about them) and when you’d rather see your friends online then go out with them, you should know that there’s a real problem.
It is also worth mentioning that a person who spends over six hours a day on social media is someone who most likely suffers from social media anxiety; having FOMO, also known as the ‘fear of missing out’ on what everyone else is doing, thus feeling a need to always check your feed, is also a common feeling that becomes even more rooted in your mind the more you give social platforms importance in your daily.
If you’ve found all the previous symptoms relatable, then you should know that you can still reverse the effect of social media on you and stop it from controlling your life. To do so, users should first and foremost create a balance between the time that is spent on social media with time that is spent out in the real world.
To give a few examples of what can be done, we can mention the following: set a limited screen time, which is an option that is available on most smartphones and apps nowadays, meet up with friends that share the same interests as you, check your social media at the end of your day, turn off push notifications and also stop relying on social media as your only means of communication (phone calls are still in fashion).
However, this is not to say that social media is completely bad for people as it has proven to be very effective when it comes to connecting people from around the world, helping small and big businesses thrive and even creating new careers that did not exist a few years back. Thus, it is always possible to erase social media anxiety and build a positive relationship with social apps (alone or with a professional) by learning how to put your real-life social circle before your virtual one and regulate your usage of different networks.