Social Media Makes People Unhappy

[whyisitso]

Is it really SOCIAL media?

The name "social media" is maybe a little misleading, because even if it includes ways to contact people it does not usually make us interact more with people in real life. Is it considered being social if you can post a lot on social media? Does it count as socializing, if you send a message on an app and the other person reads it but does not reply?

Urban dictionary definition for social media:

Online networks where both adolescents and young adults go to express one of two statements:

1) "I'm complaining about my boring, shitty life." Used as an alternative to actually making life interesting.

2) "Look how superior my boring, shitty life is to your boring, shitty life" Used to passively belittle the only 250 people the individual knows.

Also used by middle aged adults mostly to post pictures of cats.

Popular websites are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Modified truths and loneliness

There’s even scientific evidence that suggests social media use is bad for your psychological health. Some results show that people feel lonelier—and experience drops in self-esteem—after using Facebook. These reports about the dangers of social media use have even made it into the mainstream media. You might have read some of these stories on Facebook. (See this)

When you open the internet, whatever media you are using, you see a lot of posts about this and that happening, people interacting with each other and being all perfect and happy. Pictures of people doing fun and adventurous things with their friends and family, posts about their achievements and marriages. Deep down, you might end up comparing your life to them.

Include a caption for your image…

Everyone probably knows, that most things posted on the internet are not even fully true and are most likely at least modified truths of a more complex picture. People post about things that make them feel proud or happy or at least try to make it look like they have those things. It is not the real world, and you know it.

Yet, I think most of us do get a little lonely sometimes when scrolling through social media. In these situations you do not always think about how the likes and comments on their posts does actually not mean they are at all less lonely.

Social media is a time thieve

If you do not feel lonely or compare your life while using social media, you might feel this way because using it takes up all your time. Sometimes this happens.

Many people get addicted to some social media, it is so easy to use while you have your smartphone always with you. Sometimes I actually leave my phone home or turned off just to take a break from social media.

It has started to be a trend to quit some social media. For example a lot of young people quit Facebook, because it has been overtaken by their parents or some annoying teenagers. Some think it is just completely useless to be on any social media. That is actually true at some level. I prefer to use social media as a tool and not make it a problem.

Hope you enjoyed this MyTake

[courtney06]

I completely agree. I deactivated Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter back in September and I am keeping it that way for a long time. I am prone to depression so I found myself catching the blues after comparing my life to others, losing time, getting upset over unreplied messages, not getting the amount of likes or comments I wanted, etc. Something was ALWAYS triggering me and I am pretty sure I annoyed people who I thought were my friends in the past when I vented about this.

My life is a much more peaceful now. It isn’t 100% better but leaving especially FB made a huge impact.

Social media also helped me realize that most of those people weren’t really my friends and if I really want to socialize and have true connections, it’s better to put more emphasis on seeing them in person. Liking and commenting someone’s post is not equivalent to spending quality time with someone. It just boosts their ego for a small period of time because it helps them feel seen, heard, and acknowledged. I personally apply the same rule to texting and phone calls.

Thank you for the MyTake it’s nice to see someone else shares the same views.

[whyisitso]

Oh, interesting to read your point of view. It's always nice to hear someone shares a problem/opinion, even though you don't want anyone to be in trouble. :) But you are doing the right thing to leave the SOME for some time. :D

[5yrup]

yeah social media can be awful, depends how you use it, im into art so try avoid anything superficial that might hurt my self esteem. i want to be different, not follow the crowd of pretty, successful people.

[whyisitso]

Yeah, and sometimes those artist-communities on different kinds of social media has those superficial and crowd following people, who try to masquerade as artists. I mean, anyone can paint something and put it on facebook, then get likes and comments about being a magnificent artist. That sometimes hurts my feelings as an artist.

[5yrup]

im not interested in that nonsense lol i try consume the most original, interesting artwork and people i can. i write poetry and try shoot conceptual photography, which is heavily underrated

[5yrup]

i shot a concept called "ambrosia" a couple months ago. there were 2 parts. in the first set of photos, i am holding a pristine apple, painted in see through nail polish to give it a glossy look. my hand is clean and neat. in the second set, the apple is crushed in my hand, and bleeding (fake blood of course) my fingers are drenched in 'blood', as well as dripping down my wrist. the apple is so mangled it almost looks like i'm holding a piece of animal guts. i'm into morbid imagery like that! i called it ambrosia because ambrosia means food of the gods. it's on my instagram page if you wanna take a peek @intorgenesis

[passinby]

Great take. As you say, social media is the same mental processes as drugs according to leading psychiatrists. I have seen people spend so much time on trying to impress everyone and make their mundane lives look exciting. What is actually happening is that they begin to live their lives vicariously through the media and they find that the power of words and cropped and edited photos are more enticing then the real thing and so it becomes an obsession and an escape that becomes an addiction. So, the drug analogy is much more than an analogy because the same pleasure centers are being stimulated with social media. So with all including this site, keep it on a short leash.

[DesertCreature]

Meh.. I blame Millennials; my gen used the internet for important stuff like porn, chat, and pirating stuff. Some of it might have been illegal but we were all happy. Oh... here's a pic of my cat.

[whyisitso]

😻 this was a good reply

[VIVANT]

So fuckkng cute wow. I don’t even like cats.

[meowcow]

A decent take, but in my opinion, you've missed the target. You've identified a symptom, and not the real problem.

Social Media (SM) is not the CAUSE of people's unhappiness. The lack of meaningful relationships with friends and family is the true cause.

We know that people who come from broken families, or have few/no friends are deeply unhappy with their lives. We know that people who are lonely or chronically single, are much less happy than their counterparts who are in relationships.

People are HAPPY when they are surrounded by strong family/community bonds, and true friends that will go out of their way to look after you. Even in the face of financial difficulty, job insecurity... etc.

What you are actually seeing is a combination of several factors:
1. The erosion of the family unit - Families today are not like what they were 50 years ago. Families SPOKE to each other. They sat around the dinner table and TALKED to each other. Marriage among couples was encouraged, and children out of wedlock were discouraged.

Today's family is much different. Families often do not speak to each other. Families sit at the dinner table, GLUED TO THEIR PHONE. If there's a problem, you text it to people rather than sitting and talking about it. Young people frown upon marriage, as you see in the rising of MGTOW and women who hit the 30-year old WALL and remain single forever. Single motherhood is GLORIFIED by feminists as being "Strong and brave", when in fact it produces children who are disadvantaged in so many ways. Gay couples are allowed to adopt children, creating children who grow up in a very atypical family, where they know that their family unit is not a normal one.

And so this generation grows up with weak bonds to family and friends. Even millennials acknowledge that many of their "friends" won't go the extra mile to help them out.

Social media is the crutch that the new generation is using to trick themselves into believing that they have friends. 50,000 "likes" makes a person feel validated, but nobody actually knows 50,000 people. And among those 50,000 likes, not a single one will lift a finger to help you when a real life tragedy hits.

So if you want to become a happy person, you don't need to put away your social media. What you need to do is to go out and form real bonds with real people.

Trust me... there are many people seeking stronger ties with friends and family. Its not hard to find a good friend.

[JMghow]

Ignorance is bliss for a reason. Knowledge burdens us, shows us truth regardless of whether that truth matches our desires. Knowledge kills our fantasies and leaves them bleeding out before our eyes. How, then, can any system which shows us so much of each other, which bares reality to our eyes and lays out our darkest sides, not end up making us miserable. The question is not whether or not it makes us miserable, but if we want to (or even can) go back to sticking our heads in the sand and try to forget these awful truths, or if we try to build something else and change the world. It may be better, it may be worse, but it will always and only be what we make it.

[howlyz]

It's a nice one, keep em coming!

I also notices that some social networks are kind of toxic, a delusion. We're plugged in like the matrix :D lol
Anyway, it's just a tool and it's a shame that younger people grow up living on social media and they form their life based on it, literally, while never experiencing some real life experiences, in my opinion.
I think one should use it if you can make actual content, quality content which is productive and really inspiring and helpfull, everything else is abuse kinda

[ThisDudeHere]

Considering that I have no friends and all I see on social media is people spending good times together with others, I don't use that shit anymore. I'm thinking of just uninstalling Instagram altogether. I'll keep facebook around though since it's pretty handy for registering on certain sites and for the occasional need to communicate with someone.

[Prof_Don]

Like anything else, social media is a tool that is useful when used correctly & a detriment when used incorrectly.

For me personally, I use social media as a means to keep contact with all my family/friends/loved ones. Whether it's a talking through messenger, posting pics of us in our daily lives, or sharing funny/informative stuff from the internet... we all keep in touch.

There are people who overindulge in social media, but then again those people are using the tool incorrectly.

[IlyaTheImpaler]

Well the only friends I have in my social media are my professors and a Czech String theorist 😂
I mostly use it to keep track of their blogs, which have a lot of interesting stuffs

[whyisitso]

Hahah, that's weird :D

[whyisitso]

Hahah, that's weird :D

[IlyaTheImpaler]

not sure what that gif is supposed to mean...

[VIVANT]

I think you use of media makes the most sense 😊😊

[ROCKS128]

Totally agree.
This site too is becoming more like Facebook, people share ridiculous things here!
The happy ones dont need to socialise in internet.
Mosy people here (online) have some kind of mental illness or problems, most come here to avoid reality!
I quit Facebook, i even leave this site for good for months.
I never went with Insta or twitter.
I have seen how/what my friends being too much on social apps.
They know it, they didn't realise it soon, not they can't leave it essily!😂

[VIVANT]

I agree except people come here also to sort out problems and solve them without bothering friends or family or exposing things that are private. You can have mental problems or just have problems. Most people have some problems, thets life🙂

[ROCKS128]

@VIVANT sounds like u have problems!😂
Well i do have problems too! But you see once those problems are done with or this site is no longer helpful, we still do use this site... isn't that where all these things get worse?
And i have realised that most problems are good to be solved on our own, by help of real people around us. Internet isn't that good in helping. But there are some , where such sites come handy...

[Calzone2018]

The more friends you have online the less you have in real life. Social Media is a horrible things the political discussions alone will give you a heart attack.

[whyisitso]

True, very true. Sadly

[Calzone2018]

I really want to unplug so it can be like before

[courtney06]

Well you certainly can. I deactivated in Sept. and it has been less stressful. You need to pin point what is holding you back from unplugging.

[Calzone2018]

@courtney06 but this is just a Facebook where you can be anonymous you didn't actually unplug lol

[Kiran04]

Social media makes people unhappy because it attempts to, and often succeeds, replace real social interaction. So in reality, it's ANTI-social media, because it makes people less social and interact with people less. Instead they interact with their phones.

[Gambit3]

Unrealistic expectations from social media makes us unhappy

[whyisitso]

That too, but there is so much more. Like waiting for likes or replies from people you never even met etc.

[Gambit3]

It emanates from the fact that they might have not got attention and love.. perhaps are shy and hence when they see the swiftness of social media apps.. they think otherwise..
Unrealistic expectations 😊
Many more too as u pointed out 👍

[Jltakk]

I find social media cringy as a whole. Great for attention whores, but I just don't care whatsoever. Haven't even so much as looked at Facebook or Twitter in months.

[whyisitso]

That's true, it is a little cringy. Cool that you have not used them more than that :)

[Anon-ymous1]

Yeah this is all true, but... don't you think it's odd to make this point on a social media site?

[whyisitso]

No, this is where it reaches the right target ;)

[Anon-ymous1]

Yeah but it's still using the source of the issue.

[whyisitso]

This post is certainly not the source of the issue

[Anon-ymous1]

Okay.

[Kaneki05]

I can tell you this social media does not affect my mental health at all and i am pretty depressed screwed up person.

And when i hear that at school that time away from social can help or shit like that.
I just laugh at the idiots.

[whyisitso]

Yeah well, it depends on your way of using social media, how it affects you. What social media you use for example. It is not like some people really wouldn't need a break from it. Some others it might be a good tool for.

[Kaneki05]

Yea but i am pretty addicted to facebook and insta and other sites, in my opinion there is no way it can make some one feel worse, if the person who used it seemed to get sad after or when using it that is because of other reasons with themselves that they already have.

In the end i believe socail media don't really effect people, only the people who make it so because of there other problems.

It's like cyberbulling this only effects people who allow it cause if they didn't want there is thing called block, report and turn it off for a bit.

[whyisitso]

Addiction itself makes people feel bad. And an addiction is always a problem.

[Kaneki05]

Addiction is not always a bad thing.
Addiction is only a bad thing if that thing can kill you.
Plus we are all addicated to something like choclate, coffee, pizza or any of are hobbies and that's not always a problem.

[whyisitso]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_and_suicide

www.ranker.com/.../whitney-milam

[monkeynutts]

No I'm here to converse with lovely young ladies like yourself. That is not a bad thing.

[whyisitso]

Haha, good answer! 😄

[AbdKilani]

Nice take
I can see that you hit some nails here
I am only here on G@G for most of my time
At least helping people out rather than just posting pictures or status... etc

[Unit1]

I agree entirely. Social media is cancer.

[Alfa_Male]

But you shared this on social media. :D And of course you are right. We are all addicted to the social media sites.

[Unit1]

@Alfa_Male depends on the definition of social media. For me it's websites without a "real" purpose like Facebook and twitter and Instagram.

[DeeDeeDeVour]

The envy & jealousy grows even more because of social media.

[Jupiter1]

Absolutely true

[whyisitso]

Yeah, and that's why people fake their posts on social media more and more.

[Rexxx]

It makes me happier because I can stay connected to family and friends local or long distance. I am mostly and introvert and don 't like more than 4 hours at a time of socialization. I'm much more social on the internet.

[MasterKey18]

I loved it, girl!
Also, this makes people more mean and more opinionated.

[Angelluvs2ride]

I marvel at how much importance we put on the title. Bad behavior is the cancer. We put a lot out there to be seen and scrutinized by many. I've seen some articles and things about woman being able to use texting and social media to have men eating out of their hands. I'm not sure it's true but that sounds like the ladies finally get the power back. You can tell me what you think. Is this real? https://adefishingwa_57ea. gr8. com/