Samantha Momeyer | Lifestyle Content Director
Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, you name it. Social media has quickly become a huge part of our everyday lives. It’s informative, entertaining, educational and sometimes just a mindless activity we crave to wind down after a long day.
But what is this mindless activity truly doing for us? Is it helping us release stress, or is it not unknowingly building up more stress and anxiety? First, if you were to check your daily screen time, is it something you would be ashamed or proud of?
If you were to take a step back and check in with yourself to see how social media was impacting you on a mental level, do you think that you could confidently say social media not affecting you in any sort of negative manner? Now don’t get me wrong, I am an advocate for social media, and since I use it for work, plan to use it for my career, and heavily use it to be social, I can’t talk too badly about it.
If I’m being honest, I truly don’t think myself or anyone else could live without it.
On the contrary, I am not afraid to admit that I don’t always feel as if it complements my life. Generally, this generation has similar opinions to my own, and it’s not unfair to say that social media is in fact toxic on occasion. These occasions are when it is overly used, used to seek bad or wrong information, used for drama and used for self-comparison. There may even be some more occasions that I left out, but you get the gist.
Furthermore, the covid pandemic also played a role in causing some to have negative connotations with social media. Everyone was spending way too much time glued to their phones since it was the only thing to do. We couldn’t socialize or even go too many places throughout the pandemic.
We start to become dependent on the satisfaction we receive from scrolling. Dependent on the fact we can watch other’s lives instead of living in our own. Dependent on the fact that it’s easier to look up something rather than figuring it out. Dependent on the fact we can rely on communication through a small box and not worry about socializing face-to-face. Overall, just way too dependent on these apps that allow us to live vicariously through our phone.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, our little boxes have many benefits that we have become very accustomed to. For example, being a long-distance relationship, text messages and phone calls are the only available form of communication for me in this circumstance.
Additionally, my current situation and future plans are heavily involved with working in social media. Therefore, I have to be grateful for the fact it’s an enjoyable and creative area of work that provides a job for me.
All in all, there’s no doubt that social media has its benefits while always having its downsides. But I feel as though it truly comes down to how you chose to use social media. You control your life and it’s okay to need a break from our life inside our phones every now and then. While it’s also okay to spend some time talking to loved ones that live far away by using social media.
You get to make these decisions for yourself and social media can be a tricky subject. Although, it’s pretty easy to relate amongst others in our generation, so never be afraid to reach out to those around you if you’re struggling with anything that has to do with social media.
