Ever since social media came into existence, it has managed to touch and impact the half of the inhabited population on earth. By this year 2020, social media has gained a user base of about 3.81 billion so far. According to Digital 2020 reports, an average internet user now spends 6 hours and 43 minutes online each day. According to the report, if the average sleeping time of 8 hours is deduced 40% of the time in day is spend online.
Social media gives accessibility to un-ending information and is boon for not just millennials but for every age group of people. But a click and plethora of free flowing information opens gateways to over exposure as well as social media toxicity. Results from various studies conducted at globally acclaimed universities suggest that use of social media can inflate the risk of mental health issues. Apart from that to run in the rat race of posting everything right from dining to toxic positivity messages and updating the social world with chunks of the daily routine to personal lives are becoming a ritual leading to comparative analysis amongst the peers.
How is social media impacting our health?
1. Unfavourable social comparison leads to stress, which in long term could hit the mental health hard leaving the user into the trauma of inferiority complex and eventually into depression.
2. Higher number of followers or friends is considered as higher social acceptance or support, in order to seek more social media attention user tend to walk into the social withdrawal which alleviates loneliness.
3. A study published in American Journal of Epidemiology in 2017 directly correlates the rise in BMI (Body Mass Index) among the Facebook users.
4. Addiction to the social media is leading to the lack of sleep and causing DES (Digital eye strain) and impacting the vision.
5. Large amounts of health related information has made every one a self-acclaimed doctor which could lead to indecisive conclusions as said in “Little knowledge is a dangerous thing”, could actually delay in required medical consultations and cause negative impact on health.
6. The body dissatisfaction caused by comparing everything on social media is leading to disorders like bulimia and stress eating both causing health issues.
7. Lack of exercise and getting outdoors is being compromised by the usage of social-media.
8. Being distracted by usage of social-media has reported driving distractions as well as reported cases of accidents while walking and texting.
9. Too much usage of keys on laptop and phones has increased the incidence of Carpal-Tunnel Syndrome.
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