Is Social Media Good for Mental Health?

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Social media is a platform that allows people to create or share content and to connect with people all over the world. In today's era, with an increase in population, there is also an increase in the use of social media. Social media platforms can have their benefits but there are many drawbacks as well. There is a connection between excessive use of social media and worsening mental health. Using social media frequently can make a person unhappy and isolated. There is also a movie named "Airplane Mode" based on excessive phone addiction and how the female lead got rid of her social media addiction. 

A study has found that Facebook makes people unhappy and depressed. Facebook also makes the user think that their friend's lives are more interesting than theirs's which is termed as "Facebook Envy". When we spend too much time on our phone, we tend to forget things in our day to day life and as we get involved in the world of social media, we cut ourselves out from the real world. Everyone has their share of self-esteem and social media compels the user to compare them to other social media users which affect their self-esteem. 

According to a study conducted in 2018, 41% stated that social media made them feel depressed, sad, unhappy and anxious. People often forget that it is very important to communicate and have a personal connection with one another but because of social media addiction, people forget to be active in real life. There are also cases where people create fake accounts and troll other social media users which affect the mental health of the person being trolled. An author named Mellisa G. Hunt carried a study and stated that when social media usage of a person decreases, the depression and anxiety rate automatically decreases. Using social media is like being an open book in front of the whole world. Social media has increased the rate of social bullying which has gone to the extent of young teens committing suicide. The University of Glasgow stated that teenagers found it hard to sleep at night because of the excessive use of social media. 

In social media platforms, there are some irrelevant posts containing graphic contents which disturb the mental health of the users and to control this, Instagram has come up with banning most of the graphic content. Instagram in a blogpost said that they have banned photos and videos that promote self-harm. People start comparing themselves with others to such an extent where inferiority complexion hits them leading to psychological imbalance. Just like drugs, social media is an addiction. Using phone not only affects us mentally but also physically like no sleep, bad eyesight, etc. Social media is like a fallacious world different from the real world. People fake their profile to look appealing and happening in social media. Sometimes people who are active on social media are not that active in real life which makes it difficult for them to adjust in the real world. 

The main concern of today's parents is their child getting addicted to social media. Studies have also shown that the overuse of social media may lead to mental health problems, loneliness, suicidal thoughts, social anxiety, etc. 

Sometimes people suffering through depression or anxiety rely on social media and to avoid problems they overuse social media and end up getting bullied which affects them the most in the future. Social media affects everyone differently. A person needs to know how to use a social media platform. People should use social media in limit and wisely and not let it harm them mentally.   

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I feel my title is search-engine optimized because "mental health" is more popular than "mental well-being" and I used "Social Media" as it is mentioned in the topic I chose. I decided to ask a question in my title to make it interesting for the readers. I have used the term "anxiety" in place of "anxious" as the word "anxiety" is more popular.