Social Media vs. Mental Health

Having good mental health is something we all strive for. It is also something that many people including myself struggle with. When you put struggling mental health paired with negative interactions, in this case on social media, it can have a very bad result.

People love to hide behind their anonymous online faces. No one knows who they are or where they live. In so many instances there’s no consequence for saying something mean online. Due to this nature on social media it becomes difficult to truly hide away from negative interactions.

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For people who struggle with depression, anxiety, and a myriad of other mental illnesses it can be challenging to function on a day to day basis. Some days you will see posts about positivity and happy things and other days you will be faced with cruelty and sadness. It can be overwhelming. How do we easily sort out the bad stuff?

Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this. The only way to truly avoid the bad social media stuff is to avoid the platform itself. It almost becomes a terrible addiction, wanting to see more but it continues to make you feel worse. Luckily as the world changes and evolves there are more outlets for people to use who need help. It’s definitely not perfect but it is a start.

For me I find every so often avoiding social media can be very good for the soul. I used to have a fear of missing out by taking a break but there really isn’t anything that important to miss. Sure I wouldn’t get to see that new post by my favourite content creator right away but it’s not like it disappears. They’ll most likely still be there tomorrow or the next day. At the end of the day you have to help yourself first.

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Unfortunately there will always be crabby, unhappy people that have nothing to do but complain but if you take care of yourself and be self-aware when using social media than it can work out in your favour. Do you struggle with negativity on social media?

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A big thing we hear about is how good social media is for businesses connecting with customers. Social Media can be a great source for a new audience and advertising but with all good things come some negative aspects. One thing not talked about often is how changes in social media can affect small businesses and artists for the worse.

One of the bigger platforms that cause the most issues with this is Instagram. They have made numerous changes over the years to keep up to date with new and trending but because of this many people are affected. Especially affected are people running social media for their business. In more recent news Instagram has announced that it will no longer be a photo sharing app. This is clearly to try and become more competitive with TikTok. Due to this change small businesses are faced with using more short videos or have the possibility of not showing up on timelines.

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I find this incredibly frustrating. This paired with their non chronological algorithm means small businesses or anyone trying to reach a larger audience has to work extra hard for not as many views. Not to mention this also affects the audience. Some of my favorite creators that I follow are no longer showing up on my timeline. This creates a dialogue of how creators are supposed to deal with these ongoing changes. Not to mention creators like photographers or artists who solely rely on the feature of photo sharing are struggling.

There are so many talented and creative small businesses out there and I just wish they had an equal shot at getting noticed. Obviously life isn’t always fair like that. I hope that in the future, platforms such as Instagram can evolve to help out smaller creators reach a wider audience. Technically speaking, helping out smaller businesses also helps out the economy. It’s a win win in my eyes.