For starters, social media lowers one’s self-esteem. Multiple studies have confirmed this. On social media, we see people owning a horde of luxury cars, basking on the warm and sandy beaches of Tahiti, or viewing the breathtaking, multicolored sky during an aurora borealis in Iceland. As viewers and consumers of this media, we see these people having an awesome time away from home, while we are stuck at work and are still figuring out how to paying our electric bills this month, with little to no down time to enjoy such tantalizing indulgences. Truth be told, we only see people’s projected self. They do not bother to post the other 99% of their mundane lives, creating a facade, a wall between what is real and what is projected as the norm. And what we are essentially doing is comparing our day-to-day life to other people’s projected, and often, false selves.
An article written by Penn State states, “We associate the number of likes and comments we get on our posts, with and as a symbol of acceptance and verification in our society.” Our psychology, as humans, works like this, the more likes we get, the more we feel welcome in a group, in society, and the more we feel accepted by others. And the more confident we are in ourselves.
According to Harvard University researcher Trevor Haynes, social media significantly increases one’s dopamine levels. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that the brain releases when it’s happy. The increase in dopamine induced by social media usage (and smartphone usage), in general, is only a tad less than the dopamine induced by consuming harmful drugs.
What can WE do about this?
Although social media may seem like a dark and dingy boat, there are ways we can clean it up and make it brighter. All hope is not lost. A first step is to educate our youth about safe social media usage and the negative impact excessive exposure could have.
Social media revolves around and idealizes the concept of “being the perfect individual.” It reinforces the notion that an individual that has their life put together, looks “pretty” according to the beauty standards set by social media, buys all these expensive clothes and accessories, etc. The perfect individuals or “influencers” of social media are usually devoted to it (as it may be their full-time job or main source of income). They are known as “influencers” because they receive the greatest number of likes. This ideal and these “influencers” have negatively affected many people, especially teens (more specifically teen girls). And has pressured them in thinking that they need to act, look, and eat, like that “influencer.” Some people, according to “social media,” who have not reached that standard have been affected emotionally because of the backlash they receive from others, about not looking, acting, or eating, a certain way. This backlash is sometimes received in the form of hate comments and cyberbullying.