Not so social media
IT is difficult to imagine our lives before social media.
Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist before 2005, and it took until 2010 for Instagram to be invented, meaning it has taken very little time for social media to become an integral part of our everyday life.
The rapid rise in popularity can be largely attributed to both the proliferation of smartphones and the aspects of social media that help ease the pressures of day-to-day living.
Don’t have time to catch up with friends over the phone? Post an update on social media that gets your news out to all your friends at once. Looking to buy a cheap coffee table? Pick up something on your local buy, swap and sell page.
Today, people across the world connect with others, make announcements, ask questions and even post snapshots of their daily lives on various social media platforms. But the dangers and downsides of this modern wonder are becoming increasingly worrying.
Today we report on the growing mental health fears associated with body image messages being propagated on Instagram as well as the widespread concerns with Facebook’s privacy boundaries and link to depression.
With so many people putting carefully edited snapshots of their lives out for public consumption every single day, it can create an unrealistic view of a mass population of people living idyllic lifestyles. When someone is confronted with the fact that theirs doesn’t match the picture perfect life being presented by their peers, it can lead to feelings of inadequacy and ultimately depression.
Similarly, glamour shots and heavily filtered photographs on Instagram are not necessarily a true indication of a person’s life.
There’s enough pressure surrounding body image on young people without their feeds being inundated with unachievable imagery.
The world is changing and so is the way in which we interact. But more and more we are realising the mental health minefields that come with social media. Perhaps that phone call to friends is worth making time for after all.