How Much Is Too Much for Social Media?
How Much Is Too Much for Social Media?
What do you do when you are stressed out? I know what I like to do; I like to light a candle and meditate. I also like get out my frustrations and stress through a grueling hour long workout. Before my 9 to 5 job, I cooked quite a bit, and it was an amazing stress reliever. However it seems like most people like to get de-stress my going on to many social media platforms and just venting, which I definitely have been guilty of when I was younger. However, is this healthy? There have been many articles like this one, recently that talk about the dangers that social media has on our mental health. It begs the question: is there such a thing as too much social media?
Like, chocolate, stilettos and even Justin Timberlake, too much of a good thing can be really bad for you. While studies do show that Facebook can help your mood by reminiscing with your friends with comments and likes, it also can hurt it too. In fact there are more claims saying that "people who opened at least four times as many links as average users - or who “liked” twice as many posts – reported worse mental health than average", according to an Oxford study.
What does this mean exactly? It means like everything else in life we mustn't consume things in excess. The benefits of unplugging are well documented, and it's something I have yet to do. In fact, even the mere presence of a cell phone can get us distracted at this point in our technology obsessed universe. This begs the question, why are we so obsessed with what other people are doing? From a business perspective, Facebook has just gotten to know their customer in a different setting. Rather than the small business owner that is coming out to visit each customer or sending them an email letting them know how much they love you, they do it on their business page. Promotions are sent out to customer via Messenger and they will use the promotion on the next visit.
This doesn't answer the question of why are we so obsessed with what other people are doing. The truth is, haven't we always been? It's true Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media completely revolutionized the way people communicated to each other, making the world a smaller place. However, if you take a look at history, people were burying their faces in gossip magazines, trash romance novels, and newspapers to avoid talking to people. Self portraits were the selfies of the early 2000s and videos were uploaded in real time on Myspace, before that they were emailed.
The question is not whether or not social media is bad for us, but whether or not we could handle what is to come. The internet is changing at a rapid pace and our society may not be ready to adjust. What we need to figure out is what kind of stuff are we demanding as a society to have social media outlets like Facebook make the changes they need to make everyday. Once we figure that out, then maybe we can change how we view social media.