Social media is pretty much woven into the fabric of most people’s daily lives these days. It’s a way to keep in touch with our loved ones, get entertained, and even find online communities that can support us when we’re feeling blue.
Even with all of these perks, however, social media tends to add stress to our lives and leave us feeling anxious, like we’re not good enough, or just generally overloaded.
Learning about the underlying reasons for these feelings can make you a more intentional user of social media and help you safeguard your mental health.
So, how exactly does social media create all this anxiety? A significant factor is social comparison. Every time you log onto Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and so on, you’re bombarded by polished photos and status updates of your friends’ and strangers’ recent vacation, success at work, relationship status, and overall life achievements.
Even if you remind yourself that this content has been heavily edited and is an inaccurate representation of reality, your brain automatically compares your own life to these carefully curated online profiles.
This comparison can fuel self-doubt, diminish your self-esteem, and result in FOMO (fear of missing out). A study has found that young adults who frequently viewed idealized images on social media reported increased levels of anxiety and depression.
In our digitally saturated world, social media is a breeding ground for anxiety: The endless scrolling, the comparison traps, the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO), the constant bombardment of information. It can feel overwhelming. Understanding what’s going on under the hood of your anxiety is the first move toward gaining back control. Boundaries are your friends, you get to curate the content you consume, and practicing mindful engagement can go a long way in helping you enjoy the good stuff without allowing it to take over your emotional well-being.
It’s okay to feel anxiety in the online world. Taking action isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a step towards a healthier you.
On top of that, social media has become the gateway to a never-ending stream of information: news alerts, notifications, messages, and so on. Keeping up with information is important, but there can be too much of a good thing.
The sheer volume of upsetting and alerting information can cause our nervous system to go into hyperarousal. We’re stuck in a state of alarm, unable to relax and experiencing increased symptoms such as restless legs, racing thoughts, and tension.
And then there’s all of the information, news, messages, and alerts that we’re bombarded with on social media 24/7. Being informed is good, but once we see too many bad or scary things, our nervous systems can become hyperaroused.
That means we get stuck in “alert mode,” preventing our nervous systems from unwinding and causing increased levels of anxiety – restlessness, racing thoughts, and muscle tension.
