Our lives were simple and peaceful before ‘social media’ until the mid-2000s. But the emergence of social media gave birth to many problems. However, social media never intended to bring negative influences in our lives, rather; it was meant to connect the world with a few clicks. It intended to provide a platform where we can stay connected with our friends, peers, and family.
Unfortunately, the case is vice versa. The intentions with which social media platforms were made have been fading away. More and more negative influence can be observed with every passing day. People were unaware of the term ‘cyber-bullying’. But, now you would see youngsters, celebrities and actors getting bullied on social media platforms. This cyber-bullying is one of the biggest causes of depression, anxiety, and stress, in short, mental illness.
Social Media itself is not a bad thing but the excessive and unnecessary usage has been ruining the mental health of many out there. It seems like people can live without food but they cannot live with social media. It has penetrated our lives and captured it so badly that even if we want to disconnect, we cannot. It would be safe to say that Social Media has become an addiction.
Do you feel uneasy and anxious when you don’t find any Wi-Fi or Internet connection to check your Facebook or Twitter? If your answer is a ‘Yes’, then, believe it or not, it is a real disorder; Social Media Disorder. This mental condition is somehow, similar to social anxiety disorder. In today’s world, most of the anxiety cases are linked with the usage of social media. The more and more we use social media, the more we become anxious and stressed.
Expert says that 20% of people with social media accounts cannot stay away from checking their Facebook and Twitter for more than 3 hours. Isn’t it alarming?
Hence, those who need to check their socials after every 5 minutes to see, if there is any notification, are going through severe forms of social media anxiety or disorder.
Here are 10 symptoms of a person having social media disorder:
1. You would find them checking their social media accounts frequently. They won’t mind interrupting or pausing an ongoing conversation for it.
2. If they are confronted for being spending too much time on social media, they would come up with lame excuses and would lie about their usage of social media.
3. Such people will be always glued to their social media accounts, leaving family and friends behind.
4. People with such disorder will slowly and gradually start losing interest in other activities or should we say other Productive Activities.
5. If your child is found on smartphone using social media more than paying outside or doing homework, then, he is developing social media disorder. Stop him/her there. Reach out to them before it’s too late.
6. People with Social media disorder will start throwing tantrums and will have a withdrawal behavior if they are unable to access social media.
7. They would be going nuts to share everything on social media. You would see them putting almost everything on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, etc.
8. They will be sticking to their cell-phones all the time.
9. They would be spending more than 6 hours on social media accounts than spending time with family indicating social media disorder.
10. Too much usage of social media has a severe negative impact on such people’s lives.
These are some of the symptoms of people with such anxiety and disorder. Their behavior changes drastically. They will be sleep deprived. There will have mood swings and withdrawal behavior.
Such people need our attention. Reach out to them if you observe these symptoms in someone inside your circle.
Using social media is not a bad thing. But using it wisely is important!