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The benefits of technology have changed our lives and shaped them in a good way. But the negative sides of social media are as prevalent as the good ones... Are we becoming slaves of our screens? Do we use social media as an escape? Is it a good coping mechanism? Why are we feeling lonelier than ever? For social media, it came to a point where we are either not connected to each other emotionally, or we only care about the constant updates. When we are bored, we open a social media app and refresh until something new comes up. We are addicted to the buttons and screens of our phones, but most of us do not even realize that. Not being aware may be influencing us more than we realize. 

This article will cover the following points:

• Why does social media affect your mental health?
• What are the consequences of social media on your mental health?
• Tips for decreasing your screen time

Why does social media affect your mental health?

The research in this area is still new, but there are already many theories that suggest a direct link between social media usage and mental health. However, concrete findings are still lacking.

Here are some perspectives that are being used in social media research [10]: 

• Dispositional difference perspective - This idea is all about personal differences. People who have certain dispositions are more likely to be addicted to social media compared to people who do not have them. For example, if you do not believe that you can change your future actions, then you are more likely to be addicted to social media, whereas if you are someone who is driven by goals and future plans, then you are less likely to be addicted to it [10]. 
• Motivational perspective - People can be motivated to use social media more because of social satisfactions or for socio-psychological needs. For example, you may want to interact with friends all the time, get support from them. Other examples are the need for information, or wanting to relate to your friends or people you see online, to feel like you belong somewhere. These reasons can motivate you to check social media more often, and can develop an addiction [10]. 
• Decision-making perspective - Some individuals may use social media in an excessive manner even after looking at its pros and cons. The problem is that, as humans, we hold biased judgments towards these types of decisions. Thus, we may overestimate the value of social media channels and underestimate their disadvantages. This is especially true if the social media usage is done quite often and becomes a habit for the person [10]. 

What are the consequences of social media on your mental health?

It should be noted that in this article we are mostly talking about excessive use of social media. Some findings demonstrate that it does not always have to end up in negative outcomes. For instance, a study found that spending a lot of time on social media with online friends has decreased rates of loneliness. Therefore, how you use social media and what you do while you are on it matters a lot! 

But… most of the time it comes with negative side-effects, especially when the person compares their lives to that of others, on platforms such as Instagram [7]. 

Here as some of the most common negative consequences of social media on mental health: 

• Anxiety - Some studies have found that teenagers feel restlessness when they are unable to access social media apps. In addition to this, some younger people may suffer from phantom vibration syndrome (PVS, also known as ringxiety) [1,3]. Basically put, a person may perceive their phone is vibrating, when in reality it is not. Additionally, a research conducted on the prevalence of PVS found that people that are high in conscientiousness are less likely to experience it. Moreover, they observed that people who have high emotional reactions to getting a text message were more likely to get bothered by perceiving non-existent vibrations [3]. 
• Depression - A study done by Rosen and colleagues (2013) [1,8] showed that depression symptoms are most often seen in people who spend a lot of time online, trying to create a certain self-image on social media apps. Another study [2,6] found that people who use Facebook frequently have the impression that other people are happier than them and because of a “life is not fair” mindset. In addition, this study showed that people can be affected by two heuristics, which are mental shortcuts we use to solve problems easily, and biases. The availability heuristic explains how we rely on the first option that comes to mind when we need to give an example or an explanation. For example, those who use social media for a long time are more likely to say that other people on social media are happier than them, because that is the only thing they post about so it is the first “available” explanation they can think of. The correspondence bias is about inferring a person’s personality from behaviors that could actually be explained by the context, and not by the person’s disposition. In terms of the study, authors found that people who used social media for longer were more likely to make positive attributions about others who they did not know personally, simply based on their post content. All in all, social media does not directly lead to depression. However, if you have depressive predispositions, your symptoms are more likely to be enhanced by spending time on social media platforms [6]. 
• Loneliness - The consequence of loneliness is one of the tricky topics because it highly depends on how the individual uses social media. A study limited the use of social media to 10 minutes everyday for university students and the results showed that there were significant decreases in feelings of loneliness and depression compared to the group who did not decrease usage [4]. In contrast to this, another research showed that the relationship between loneliness and social media usage depends on how the individual tries to use it. When the individual uses social media as an escape from reality and withdraws themselves from social interaction, this increases how lonely they feel. However, when the person uses it as a social support mechanism to make new friendships and/or increase interaction with existing friends, this decreases loneliness [5]. 
• Fear of missing out (FOMO) - All of us probably experienced feeling like we are missing out on something. Looking at people’s stories or holiday highlights sucks us into the idea that maybe our lives are not as good as others. Then, we begin to ruminate, and negativity may eat us away. “Oh, x,y,z are hanging out together and they didn’t invite me. They are on a vacation, I wish I could go on a vacation right now. Look at how happy everyone is compared to me.” People who have FOMO are more likely to always check what others are doing (e.g., checking Instagram to see if they posted anything new). A study done in a German sample found that social network use disorders were linked to FOMO. In addition to this, FOMO can explain the link between social media and a negative impact on daily-life (e.g., not being productive at school or work) [9]. 

Tips for decreasing your screen time

1. Track how much time you spend on your phone and limit usage of certain social media apps. 
2. Turn off your phone when you are hanging out with people, when you work or when you go out for a walk.
3. Disable notifications for certain apps. Check them only when you want to, and not every time you receive a notification.
4. If none of these work, delete some apps from your phone and observe differences in your daily life.
5. Try spending time on hobbies that do not require a screen (e.g. reading a book, journaling, cooking...)
6. Filter out the people you follow. A lot of times we follow so many accounts we don’t really care about, or that we started following years ago - if you remove some, you will have less scrolling to do.
7. Embrace your boredom. This is very hard to do, and it’s a feeling we all try to escape, but as any other feeling it can give you many insights if you listen to it.
8. Don’t bring your phone to the toilet, you’re just risking it :) 

Additional Resources:

• Netflix Documentary: The social dilemma
• Ted Talk: Is Social Media Hurting your mental health? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czg_9C7gw0o&ab_channel=TEDxTalks 
• Youtube Video: I quit social media for 30 days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z8_YhWoq2o&ab_channel=MattD%27Avella 

References

1. Bashir, H., & Bhat, S. A. (2017). Effects of Social Media on Mental Health: A Review. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, 4(3), 125-131.
2. Chou, H. T. G., & Edge, N. (2012). “They are happier and having better lives than I am”: The Impact of Using Facebook on Perceptions of Others' Lives. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15(2), 117-121.
3. Drouin, M., Kaiser, D. H., & Miller, D. A. (2012). Phantom Vibrations Among Undergraduates: Prevalence and Associated Psychological Characteristics. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(4), 1490-1496.
4. Hunt, M. G., Marx, R., Lipson, C., & Young, J. (2018). No more FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 37(10), 751-768.
5. Nowland, R., Necka, E. A., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2018). Loneliness and Social Internet Use: Pathways to Reconnection in a Digital World?. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(1), 70-87.
6. Pantic, I. (2014). Online Social Networking and Mental Health. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(10), 652-657.
7. Pittman, M., & Reich, B. (2016). Social Media and Loneliness: Why an Instagram Picture may be Worth More Than a Thousand Twitter Words. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 155-167.
8. Rosen, L.D., Whaling, K., Rab, S., Carrier, L.M., & Cheever, N.A. (2013). Is Facebook creating ‘‘iDisorders’’? The Link between Clinical Symptoms of Psychiatric Disorders and Technology Use, Attitudes and Anxiety. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 1243- 1254.
9. Rozgonjuk, D., Sindermann, C., Elhai, J. D., & Montag, C. (2020). Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and social media’s impact on daily-life and productivity at work: Do WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat Use Disorders mediate that association?. Addictive Behaviors, 110, 106487.
10. Sun, Y., & Zhang, Y. (2020). A review of Theories and Models Applied in Studies of Social Media Addiction and Implications for Future Research. Addictive Behaviors, 106699.