To start off, I’ll put my perspective on this topic and how it has affected me.
Pre-COVID-19 pandemic statement, I was still in high school and was scrolling through social media as an escape. And so, it came to a real surprise to me that when COVID was declared as a pandemic (which was on my birthday) that social media would become a hinderance to my life.
When stuck in my room, I had no motivation to do school work which made me turn to seeing social media as an escape since school was the only other thing I knew. And oh my goodness, was I not expecting for it affect me the way it did.
Most of the posts I scroll by would have me idolise those who had more than I did and aspire to be them with none of the advantages they had and I was driven to thoughts of being inadequate and unworthiness of this world.
Now would this be a result of my own thoughts being overdramatic? Absolutely, but I’m not in this alone.
Studies
Many studies show that social media can be a detriment to one’s mental health.
Experts put out that sitting is the new smoking and that it triggers more sadness and less well-being, puts us in a vicious cycle of jealousy and gets us caught in a delusion that it will help.
Studies that span from 2017-2020 display different aspects of how it brings that dismay with a certain amount of time on it, such as:
- fair or poor mental health
- disrupted/delayed sleep (leads into depression and memory loss)
- rumours spread
- cyberbullying
Experiences
Now, laying out my experiences with social media and connecting it with studies are a decent way to convey a point, but not the most reliable source that can relate to everyone. So, for those who care to comment on whether their experiences were similar or different, feel free! I would love to know how you handle these cons or whether you do at all!
P.S. I’m not saying that all social media is bad for mental health in every way, just kinda pointing out some factors that can make it bad. I hope I don’t come off as objective.
References
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/social-media-and-mental-health
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 
I totally agree that social media definitely takes its toll on your mental health, I’ve seen it first hand. And I agree not all social media is bad, I use Pinterest when I’m stressed!!
Social media definitely has an affect on our mental health. It’s interesting that I’m at a place where I’ve deactivated my accounts to be able to focus on an online course, about social media. Sometimes we need to take a step back and evaluate the content we are seeing on our feeds. News sites were becoming overwhelming and upsetting for me, and all these happy influencers stringing together content showing how amazing their life was, I began questioning their authenticity. It’s nice to come across other blogs where someone can be authentic. So thanks for being real in a world that can appear fake!
Hi,
It is so good of you to share this post. The situation of COVID and the isolation that went along with this is was horrible. So many people were feeling the isolation and I think that it was especially hard for the students.
I have a sibling that started university during COVID and he too found that it was hard to stay focused. There was a miss for the students in the social aspect.
I am very glad that you were able to utilize social media in such a positive way. We too also used Social media for our younger boys to keep their relationships. Our house burnt down in September and then we had to move 4 times through out the year and internet was the only way that the kids could connect with their friends. They were also able to continue in the same school even though we had moved out of the district. This was a benefit because the fire was traumatic but changing schools is also traumatic for children so it was a huge benefit to be able to use the internet in this way
Thanks again for sharing your experience.
Billie