Steemit Engagement Challenge / S13W2 - "Protect your Mental Health from Social media Dangers"

Image Source - Pixabay

In today's hyper-connected world, Social media plays a very important role in our daily lives. Social media platforms like Steemit, Online interactions, and digital technologies have transformed the way we communicate and stay informed. While social media had its own numerous advantages, it also has its own disadvantages one of them being its ability to affect our mental health negatively. In this post, I am going to explore the potential pitfalls of social media and offer 5 practical tips that may be very helpful to you in protecting your mental health and wellbeing each time you make use of social media.

In mordern times, social media has becomed a very important part of the human society. It serves as a platform for connection, information sharing, self-expression and a place to learn new ideas and skills. But, in recent times social media has now becomed a cause of public concern as many individuals now misuse it by spending numerous hours on it every day without realizing the toll it may take on their mental wellbeing. Let us now highlight some of the negative impacts that social media imposes.

1. Isolation and loneliness:
   Research has shown that when an individual makes use of social media excessively, he or she starts to develop feeling of isolation and lonliness. At some point, he or she begins to feel that no one cares about them and its "them against the world". Social Media often fails to provide the depth and authenticity of real life relationships so it shouldn't in any way replace our physical interactions with friends and relatives.

2. Comparison and Self Esteem:
   When a person is exposed to curated, idealized images and lifestyles on social media, he or she can begin to make unhealthy comparisons of what he or she is seeing eith their personal life. This can lead to low self esteem and feeling of inadequacy.

3. Reduced Productivity And Focus:
   It is difficult for a person who is always on social media scrolling and scrolling endlessly to achieve something tangible with their lives. Scrooling through social media feeds can be highly distracting and would probably lead to decrease in productivity and impaired concentration.

4. Anxiety And Fear Of Missing Out:
   Due to the continuous updates and notifications, one can begin to build anxiety and may have an excuse to stay online constantly so as not to miss out on anything. This have caused many teenagers to waste most of their years scrolling their phones and searching for new updates and notifications sometimes even disrupting sleep and relaxation. They Contantly scroll for new posts and stories that they forget to use their teanage years to do anything impactful.

5. Harassment and cyber bullying:
   Due to the anonymity of social media, any one can harass or cyber bully a fellow user and get away with it. This can have a serious negative effect on the metal health of social media users.

Image Source - Pixabay

If I were to create 5 rules or tips that would regulate the use of social media in my environment and make it more healthier, this is what I would do:

1. I would make make regulations as to what contents an individual may upload on his social media post or stories.

2. I would Advice users to regularly take a break and disconnect from social media. This break can h3lp them reduce anxiety and the constant need for inline validation.

3. I would ensure that users who misuse social media as a platform to harass, intimidate and cyber bully other users would be restricted from useing social media.

4. I would advice users to prioritize in-person interactions and hobbies, spend time from their phones to nuture genuine connections and self-care.

5. I would allocate speciafic time blocks each individual can make use 9f social media, avoiding aimless scrolling by setting clear limits on how much time you spend on social media can be very beneficial.

For someone like me, social media has been huge contributing factor in reshaping my life. Most things I know today, I learnt it from social media. It has its positive aspects but it is also important that we be aware of the potential dangers it poses to our mental health so that we can strike a balance between staying connected, protecting our mental health and staying productive. Th8s is what i try to do on a daily basis and I am seeing results. You too can try it out,