Is Your Social Media Accounts Having An Effect On Your Mental Health?

In today’s world, social media is a digital outlet that can allow us to off load and share different things about our lives, connect with others, a way to find out information and also entertainment. Eventhough it can be fun, it can also be unhealthy for your mental health and self-esteem.

Have you ever found yourself feeling not pretty enough whilst you were scrolling through your social media feed? If you answered ‘yes’, you’re not alone. In Dove Global Girls Beauty and Confidence Report in 2017, the survey data found that 6 out of 10 women believe that social media pressures people to look a certain way.

Feeling pressured by social media to look a particular way? Your social media feed might be filled  with unrealistic beaut content, and this could be influencing how you see you feel about yourself.

It really doesn’t matter what plateform you choose to spend majority of your time on (ticktok, facebook, twitter, instagram or snapchat) the bottom line is, is that the accounts you are following can cause you own worthy and self-esteem to be affected. Your brain is making notes unconsciously whilst your scrolling throguht videos and photos. This can all be happening, whilst probably being totally unaware. 

Does your brain have the ability to know what’s realy and what’s fake?? The complicated answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’ – you might be unaware that image are modified with airbrushing or flitters but your brain that collects the information doesn’t alway make the distinction. Even if a photo has been disclosed as being manipulated, it can still be very hard to locate the mainpulation. 

Ways To Indicate An Unhealthy Relationship With Social Media.

There are several tell, tell signs that can indicate you have an unhealth relationship with social media and that it might be time to change things up. Here below are few of clues that you should look out for:

+ Mocking Yourself –  Do you mock other peoples photos? Ask yourself why?! What’s the honest reason why you are tearing someone elses picture dow. Are you deflecting from your own insecurities on to someone elses lifestyle? Are you identifying that the image is unrealistic and that reall bothers you?

+ Depression – Are you experiencing feelings f defeat, self-loathing, exhaustion or an overall feeling of depression after being on social media. You may also find yourself becoming more and more discounted from people and they are posting. You need to truely ask yourself, why does the content make you feel this way? Is time to set new boundaries?

+ Altering Your Own Images – Do you feel like you need to keep up with these unrealistic beauty standards by what you are seeing on your social media feed, and therefore altering pictures of yourself. Really ask yourself, why are you feeling like you need to change your appearance?

+ Zooming in Onto Pictures – Are you zooming in onto pictures, so you can get that little bit closer to a women’s features and their body appearances. Why do you feel the need to compare yourself? 

+ Comparison – Do you look at other people’s photo’s and compare ourself. Really pay attention as to why you feel the need to compare. “Why am i comparing myself?”

Does This Ring True For You??

The kind of content you are engaging with online can be one of the main reasons why your self-esteem and mental health all together is being effected and wreaking havoc with appearance-related anxiety. 

Ways To Stop Letting Your Social Media Feed Affect Your Self-esteem.

+ Take Regular Social Media Breaks – Pay close attention to how much time your spend on social media platforms. For a healthy balance, turn off notifications on our phone, track your usage time and take scheduled days off from social media all together. 

+ Follow New Accounts That Make You Truely Happy –  Some of the accounts that you probably have being following, might great thing for one situation but might turn out to be one of the reasons that your mental health is being effected.

+ Build Up Your Self-esteem Offline –  By investing so much more time on yourself and finding out what your need are, will carry over into your body image. Making time to purse hobbies, activities and passions; which can really make you come alive. 

+ Practice Your Digital Welness –  You need to determine a stricit, healthy balance of online and offline time that works for you! Plan ahead and write it down so you can maintain your digital boundaries, digital wellness and then mointor how you feel.

+ Learn About The Media Literacy –  It’s almost unavoidable to not see unrealistic beauty strandards and photoshopped bodies across social plateforms. So please educate yourself on how media messages and content can shaped your perception of reality.

+ Remind Yourself That You Are More Than The Way You Look – The pressure from social media, it’s super important to remind yourself you are more than your appearance. So use more positive affirmation and write down in your journal what you like about yourself; whether that being that like your personaility,  your looks to what you’ve achieved during your life. These kinds of exercises will really help you to counteract the influence of social media beauty standards. 

As social media is here to stay for the foreseeable future, it’s more important than every that you feel empowered to make healthy choices when it comes to your digital wellness. Also your self-esteem and body image are essential part of our overall happiness, and don’t fall into the trap of spending too much of your time on social media. 

You have full control to protect your own self-esteem and body confidence, plus your experience in the virtual world. If your experiencing low self-esteem and mental health concerns, then call Samaritans. They available to talk to at anytime and are there to listen to your worries being feeling. A charity called ‘Mind’ is all there for your but there helpline is only available Monday-Friday 9am-6pm. Remember you are not alone x