Social Media and Mental Health
Research shows correlations between excessive use of social media and mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, loneliness and sleep deprivation. According to researchers, red flags that your social media use may be detrimental include:
- Excessive time spent on social media detracts from other areas of your life
- Feeling addicted to social media
- Comparing yourself to others
- Compulsively checking for updates[3]
The importance of losing sleep shouldn’t be underestimated, either. Lack of sleep can negatively impact social-emotional functioning and cognition, making healthy decisions increasingly difficult as you grow more fatigued with each passing night.
Why Social Media Can Feel Addictive
The promise of social media is the connection it offers. It allows far flung friends and family members to celebrate births, weddings and graduations. It offers platforms for learning and creates opportunities for like-minded people in disparate communities to interact and organize.
However, that relentless promise of connection and external reinforcement can activate the brain’s reward system in ways that are similar to gambling—with accompanying feelings of withdrawal or distress when you try to stop, according to a study in BMC Psychiatry.[4] The unpredictable rewards of likes and comments or the possibility of stumbling on stories that boost your mood reinforce the impulse to continually check in or post online.
Social media platforms are engineered to keep you engaged through features like infinite feeds, push notifications and algorithms that can precisely predict what content will keep you captivated and scrolling.
If social media helped you deal with stress or loneliness in the past, turning back to it when you’re feeling down makes a lot of sense. The urge to check in can become habitual, and each time a click relieves negative emotions, odds increase that you will crave that source of relief again, night after night.
How to Cut Back on Social Media
To break the pattern, consider the prompts below. I recommend physically writing down your answers. You can type them if you like, but many people I work with find that writing longhand helps them take their time and reflect on their answers more fully.
The insights you gain can help you find alternative ways to relieve stress and enjoy your evenings.
What Benefits Do You Get From Scrolling?
What are you gaining from time spent on social media at night? Is it entertaining? Distracting? Are you hoping to connect with other people? Is it how you get your news?
Once you understand the reasons you’re drawn to the phone, you can find other ways to meet those needs.
Clarify Why a New Routine Would Feel Better
What are some of the negative repercussions of overusing social media? How is it affecting your life?
What might be different if you spent less time on your phone at night? How would you prefer to spend your evenings, and why? How would these changes positively impact you?
Answer in as much detail and as clearly you can.
Identify Triggers
You already have one of the most essential tools to dial back your social media use: self-awareness. You know when you tend to start scrolling (after work) and how long it goes on (most of the evening), as well as when it comes to an end (when you finally drift off to sleep).
In your case, it sounds like time of day is a trigger. There may be significant stressors playing a part earlier in the day as well. Are there other internal or external cues that make you want to pick up your phone? What contributes to that need for distraction or entertainment?
Find Healthy Replacements
Odds are the desire for distraction or entertainment isn’t going away. You’re likely to need those things, so what are some alternative ways to get that relief? When the trigger sparks the craving to curl up and zone out, how might you respond? What are some healthier ways to cope or spend your time?
Get creative. Brainstorm anything and everything you can imagine, from big, ambitious changes (take an online fitness class or enroll in graduate school) to small ones that seem almost meaningless (step outside for a deep breath, start a load of laundry, turn on a movie or pick up a book with the goal of reading a single page). Call a friend. Pick up a new hobby. Give yourself as many options as possible.
Substitute Habits
Now you get to play. When you’re triggered, choose one specific option from your list of replacements and give it a try. If it feels good, repeat it to see if it can be the anchor for a new routine. If it feels unmanageable or irritating, try something else.
Keep experimenting until you find ways to fill your evenings that serve you better. When you get derailed, revisit the reasons you’d rather not spend all night on social media and how making a change could benefit you.
Set Boundaries
If you need external reinforcements, set boundaries around when and where social media is available to you. Put chargers on the other side of the room, use app timers to limit your hours online or remove the apps from your phone entirely so they can only be accessed from a computer browser.
These techniques can help, but in my experience as a coach, people often discard them over time because they feel too restrictive. Use them as needed, but if they make you feel rebellious, let them go. Remember: You’re scrolling on social media for a reason. The habit is filling a need.
Rather than blaming yourself or trying to prohibit unhealthy habits, see if you can find new and interesting ways to cope or to stay engaged, distracted and entertained—in your way, on your own terms.
Sources:
Footnotes
- Digital 2023 April Global Statshot Report. Datareportal. April 27, 2023. Accessed May 27, 2024.
- Americans’ Social Media Use. Pew Research Center. Accessed May 24, 2024.
- Karim F, Oyewande AA, Abdalla LF, Chaudhry Ehsanullah R, Khan S. Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic Review. Cureus. 2020;12(6):e8627.
- Tullett-Prado D, Doley JR, Zarate D, et al. Conceptualising social media addiction: a longitudinal network analysis of social media addiction symptoms and their relationships with psychological distress in a community sample of adults. BMC Psychiatry. 2023;23:509.
References
- Khalaf AM, Alubied AA, Khalaf AM, Rifaey AA. The Impact of Social Media on the Mental Health of Adolescents and Young Adults: A Systematic Review. Cureus. 2023;15(8):e42990.
- Montag C, Hegelich S. Understanding Detrimental Aspects of Social Media Use: Will the Real Culprits Please Stand Up?. Front Sociol. 2020;5:599270.
Important Notice: This article was originally published at www.forbes.com by Sarah Hays Coomer where all credits are due. Fact checked by Jessica Lester
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