Is your online addiction making you anxious?
Compare and Despair
A large item contributing to social media anxiety is the compare-and-despair factor; that is, doctored pictures of friends on a vacation in Mexico seems to make your Dairy Queen-filled weekend pale in comparison, which in turn can lead to unsettling anxiety (in short, fear of personal failure). Feelings of self-consciousness or a need for perfectionism can arise, which often manifests itself into social anxiety or pervasive thoughts indicative of Obsessive-compulsive Disorder.
Comparing can also lead to anxiety when it relates to followers. For example, teens using Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have indicated that it's more about quantity rather than quality; that is, the quantity of your followers, re-tweets, and "likes." Users can take these obscure numbers, and twist them to support negative thoughts.
Fear of Missing out
Another social anxiety triggered by online media is the fear of missing out; pictures of a party where the user was not invited, or yet another wedding they weren't able to attend thanks to their grueling work schedule can take a toll on self-esteem, say mental health specialists.
There's a flip side to this, however: it's been hypothesized that those that use social media are traditionally actually more anxious to begin with. And that the anxiety doesn't necessarily derive from the content itself, but not being able to access the content. In a sense, users become almost addicted to social media.
Social Media is More Addictive Than Cigarettes
Not only does social media attract more anxious users, but the University of Chicago found that it's also
@dreamSmiles34
I'll go weeks without checking most areas of social media. 7cups is the social media I use the most right now which is a good habit to form. I find games more addictive than social media which is different despite facebook having a gaming section to keep people on facebook for longer.
Cigarettes shouldn't be underestimated in regards to addiction level. Comparing it to social media in a single sentence can lead to some people interpretting it on the same level of health risk and some may feel more addicted to cigarettes than they are to social media from the first use and some people also have more trouble with addiction overall than others.
@dreamSmiles34
This is so well said! A lot of people don't even realize that they are comparing themselves and seeking such high numbers for the sole pleasure to be better than someone else! But I think not only does it create anxiety and cause symptoms of OCD, but also creates depression. Some people(like me) actually feel sad to the point where they just lose interest and devalue what they are doing because say they didn't get as many likes on their photos as their friend for the same vacation or if the vacation isn't as great as their friend. I become lazy, sad and I just lose interest in the things that made me happy when I was sad, which is depression. So I think this post is very well written and I hope this raises more awareness on the destructive compare-and-despair in social medias.
Yes, Even I do think that the online addiction makes us anxiety.
@dreamSmiles34 I am online because I got nothing to do, is that a sort of an addiction?