Social Media Anxiety


I came across this article that unfortunately has started to seem a little too relatable for many. It talks about social media anxiety and the obsession over likes, follows, what other people are doing, and all other feelings that are a result of us being over connected with the rest of the world. The article showcases examples of people who even become physically sick when logging on to social media sites. While that may seem as an extreme example, the scary truth is that more and more people are reporting social media anxiety everyday because of pressure, fear of missing out (FOMO), and ‘Compare and Despair’. I found this to be very relatable to the article we previously read about Katherine and her obsession with her phone and social media. Katherine was constantly worried about getting online approval from her friends, how many likes she got on her photos, how many comments and so on. While the article never directly claimed she had social media anxiety, many of her actions correspond to a person with social media anxiety which is worrisome but not all that uncommon with the growing use of social media these days. I would love to hear your thoughts about social media anxiety and how prevalent you think it might be in our society these days?

https://metro.co.uk/2016/11/11/social-media-anxiety-is-a-real-thing-and-heres-what-its-like-to-have-it-6248947/


Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 18, 2018 at 2:03 PM

    Hi Mira! Wow, this is a very powerful blog post and an important topic to openly discuss. I definitely think that this is incredibly common as young teens are very impressionable and are vulnerable to comments and judgement on themselves. Self-esteem is very fragile during puberty and now within the digital era, teens only get more criticism and eyes constantly on them; evaluating with likes. Great post!

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  2. UnknownOctober 19, 2018 at 2:20 PM

    Hello! I really enjoyed your post. I definitely think social media anxiety is something that many teenagers feel growing up. Now-a-days people feel the need to post everything they do on social media. Many individuals feel that if they don't get a certain amount of likes or comments on their pictures it should be deleted. This can create stress for individuals as often times, people fear that people will be judging what they have posted online. Posting anything online does put you in a vulnerable position.

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  3. Sierra NardellaOctober 21, 2018 at 2:06 PM

    Hi!

    Your blog post was very interesting to read and the article that you attached a link to was such a good representation of social media anxiety and depression. I see a lot of parallels between this article and the article on Katherine, being that both are focused on the obsession over social media and the feeling of constantly needing to keep up with it. There are so many people that have social media anxiety and depression, and it seems that this number is constantly growing as time goes on and more children are getting a hold of smartphones. I think that social media anxiety is incredibly prevalent in our society today and I think this is something that needs to come to an end.

    This leads me to ask the question, do you think it is possible for social media applications like Instagram to put an end to social media anxiety and in what ways could this be done? My answer to the question would be maybe. It obviously depends on the social media user, but by promoting less usage of social media and having functions such as Instagram's page where it shows hours and minutes of daily activity on the app, users can view their usage and hopefully realize that they are spending too much time on these apps. When viewing that I spent 2 hours on Instagram one day, I automatically put my phone down and stayed off the app for a while.

    Overall, great post!

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  4. IbbyOctober 21, 2018 at 2:50 PM

    Hi Mira, this is a really important topic and one we don't talk about enough. Social media anxiety is something I feel almost all of us have felt but don't talk about at all. It also feels like something no one wants to believe exist so they just ignore any signs of it. I think as we evolve in our communication methods there will be new issues and illnesses developing that older generations wouldn't understand such as how it was with cyberbullying. When it was an issue in the early stages of the internet adults had a hard time believing or taking the issue seriously and I think it is the same with the effects of social media.

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  5. Jenny WilsonOctober 21, 2018 at 3:37 PM

    Hello Mira,

    I really enjoyed reading your post and I agree this is something a lot of us can relate to now a days. I think most people have experienced anxiety from social media on all different levels so this was a very relatable article for you to bring to our attention. The article you attached to your post was very intriguing and interesting to learn about. I never knew how far social media can push some users into extreme anxiety. I agree completely that this relates to Katherine and the article about her. Considering how much Katherine relies on social media for validation and happiness, she could one day end up like this woman in the article. If Katherine continues to let social media dictate her life into her adulthood, then she is going to have some major problems in the future. I think it is crazy how the anxiety that stems from social media is rarely talked about yet is such a major problem in teens and even adults in out society and generation. I think it is not spoken about so much because people assume you can just "stop opening the app" or "stop listening to what people say about you online" but for some people this is nearly impossible. I am really happy you choose an article that spoke about this issue and I hope we all encounter articles like this more frequently in the future.

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  6. Liv KellyOctober 21, 2018 at 5:24 PM

    Hello!
    I really enjoyed reading your blog post as well as the article that was attached to your blog! I feel like every teen can relate to this topic about FOMO as I feel social media only adds to the possible FOMO one may feel. My thoughts particularly on social media anxiety are that it is what social media is based on. It is the constant fear of not seeming “good enough” online which creates social media in the first place. Basically, what I am trying to say is that social media anxiety and social media just create this circle where the users follow along with social media which causes the anxiety, and when that anxiety hits they turn back to social media to help “fix it”.

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