Mental Health: Rising rates of Anxiety and Depression

What does your screen time say about your relationship with social media? How many hours did you spend on it today? The time that we spend on these sites impact us in the smallest ways but with continued exposure the impact increases. Something that is greatly impacted is our mental health.

The constant comparative state of mind we are in during our sessions on social media can cause us to view ourselves as ‘less than enough’ because we see someone online who doesn’t have the flaws that you view in yourself, which makes them an ideal for yourself. Like so, social media makes us hyper aware of our flaws and fills us with a feeling of inadequacy during our scrolling sessions. This continued feeling of emotional dissatisfaction results in issues with self-esteem and anxiety about one's appearance in the long term.

On the internet, there is a certain level of anonymity that everyone has as they have the option to hide behind a social media profile. Due to this anonymity, it becomes convenient to express controversial or hurtful opinions without facing direct consequences, but these opinions can be targeted towards someone who does not wish to cause any harm. These opinions can either be perceived as constructive criticism or as plain bullying but the receiver of these comments sees them as the amplification of their flaws. There opinionated personalities can cause great amount of emotional distress as their appearances or their way of living is being criticized. This creates the need to please everyone that views your content, but the subjectivity of this matter makes it impossible to achieve. Ones' dissatisfaction with their appearance has raised the anxiety and depression rates due to an attempt to achieve the unachievable.

Social media has also promoted several other mental health issues such as eating disorders, as Instagram influencers have been accused in the past of propagating a diet that included diet suppressants, fitness teas and meal replacements. When looking at the physical features of the Instagram model selling these products gives hope to their audience that they themselves use the product to look like that. In reality, that is far from the truth because firms now use influencers as means for advertising. Why do influencers promote them? Well, being an influencer with a large following increases one's opportunities to receive goods and services in exchange for promotion. While Instagram harbors the attention of most teenagers, the number of potential buyers increases on it and businesses begin looking at it as a marketing opportunity. It remains wrong for them to sell a false idea to their audience but it is also important for us to cater to our bodies needs.

Illustration by pikisuperstar