How Social Media Damages Your Mental Health

Social media seems to have become a part of life today. Not surprisingly, the majority of Indonesians have accounts that are registered on one of the social media platforms. How about you?

No doubt, social media has indeed become a "consumption" for anyone, from children to those who are elderly. From a medical point of view, social media itself is actually like a double-edged knife: it can be useful, it can also have a negative impact on its users.

In terms of benefits, the use of social media can be used as land for business promotion or conducting various positive campaigns. In terms of harm or adverse effects, one condition that is very likely to occur is a mental health disorder.

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Social media and mental disorders

Social media and mental disorders

Social media lets you connect with people around the world, with old friends or those who have just met. However, not infrequently also found social media users who only have "virtual" friends. They only have friends on social media, but not in real life everyday.

In addition, there are also many social media users who always show off happiness, even though the life they are living is not as happy as they are exhibited.

These things must be stopped immediately or sought to be repaired. Because, if left on an ongoing basis, what happens next is:

• Problems of confidence

• Most social media currently contains traveling activities, eating in fancy restaurants, shopping for luxury goods, and doing other fun activities. Things like this can lead to feelings of envy and a decrease in self-confidence in those who see it, because they feel their lives are not as pleasant as other people who always look happy on social media.

• Don't have real friends

• The number of friends on social media does not correlate with friends in real life. The majority of people who are more concerned with relationships with friends in cyberspace do not have time to maintain relationships with real friends in their lives.

• Busy looking at the cellphone until walking forgot to greet the people around him. Even unconsciously, the person's empathy continues to erode. The proof is, when there is an accident, what is done is recording or taking pictures instead of helping the victim. These things will cause you to lose friends in real life. In fact, real friends are things you need when you are sad or difficult.

• That is why, even though you have many friends on social media, that doesn't mean you can forget friends in real life. You must be able to manage it in a balanced manner.

• Damaging moments and memory

• When on vacation to a place, you might be busy looking for a good photo location. Most of the time you might also spend taking pictures to upload and get responses from friends on social media. Unconsciously, these things have made you lose the moment of vacation.

• Not only that, too much focus on social media while on vacation or doing something can also make you really not get the experience and memory of those moments.

• Interrupting sleep and productivity

• Today many people spend hours surfing the social media, even before bedtime. If this is done in a sustainable manner, it is not impossible that productivity and sleep time will be really disturbed. At an advanced stage, the quality of sleep that is not well maintained can cause anxiety to depression.

Now you know that social media can interfere with mental health. What should I do then? Should you limit yourself entirely from social media? The answer: no. You just need to set and limit yourself so that you don't become a person who is crazy about social media. In addition, also apply a healthy lifestyle, consume nutritious balanced foods, exercise regularly, manage stress well, and get enough rest. Thus, your mental and physical health will always be maintained.

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