Social media users should focus on the positive

In a recent HelpGuide.org article, “Social Media and Mental Health,” Lawrence Robinson explains the indirect and the direct negative effects it has on mental health. Social media is a tool for people to see the world and the rise of this tool was a game changer, maybe the game changer.

Usage of social media depends on the individual, but social media has a built structure and algorithms to try its best to keep the individual’s attention away from reality. Promotion of mental health in communities can help to keep an individual’s attention to real life.

Common effects of social media are feeling inadequate about an individual's personal life, depression and self-absorption. As I scroll through TikTok, I notice trends of people commenting, “Looked at myself and sighed,” or posting their certain features and saying, “Let’s compare our features to see which one of us is better,” with captions like, “Let’s go nose for nose; let’s go eyebrow for eyebrow; let’s go teeth for teeth..”

It is an impossible goal to achieve the perfect brow with the perfect body with the perfect teeth when everyone has their own version of perfection. In a mental health study at MIT, comparison between limited access and unlimited access across college campuses showed that through social media, severe depression increased by 20%. The time that people spend on social media is the same amount of time lost in experiencing life.

With huge companies profiting from people’s insecurities, it is important to promote mental health by creating communities that revolve around the idea that social media is not real but rather a depiction of an idealistic life.

To build a community as such, time spent on social media should be reduced to focus on personal growth and expressing gratitude.

Mari Zoljargal

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