Hello all, welcome back.<\/p>\n
Today’s post is gonna be more\u00a0of a laid back ramble. Work with me here.<\/p>\n
Do you think social media is causing anxiety? It’s not one anyone would want to admit anyway these days, since we all use social media. However, let’s think about this together for a second and break it down to what exactly it could be causing anxiety when it comes to social media…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Is it an addiction? Of course, this doesn’t mean one has an addiction just because they check their phone every morning, however, what if you weren’t allowed to access your social media for a whole day? Perhaps a week?\u00a0That changes things a bit now doesn’t it.<\/p>\n What if I miss some big news? Everyone could be talking about it and I would have no idea!<\/em><\/p>\n What if there’s gossip or drama? I’ll miss out on it all.<\/em><\/p>\n I’ll be out of the loop of what’s happening!<\/em><\/p>\n There might be a party, I could be invited, but I won’t know!<\/em><\/p>\n Oh, the possibilities of our wondering minds are endless, it could really get one’s anxiety riled up. Maybe it is possible for social media to be addicting just like cigarettes or drugs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fear of missing out?<\/strong> BUT could this be because of over-using social media? Linking it with the addiction of it all. I know, a lot of rhetorical questions being thrown here, but stay with me, it makes sense if you think about it and questioning makes you think!<\/p>\n To avoid becoming anxious by going on social media and ‘not missing out’, we could actually be feeding our anxiety the wrong way by doing exactly what it wants! (confused? That’s anxiety for you, it messes your mind about, a lot.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Comparison<\/strong> I won’t bore you with multiple examples,\u00a0I’m sure you have the idea from the one above. We see a friend\/someone we know or even someone we don’t know like a celebrity\/blogger\/etc., sharing their ‘life’ on social media. Chance’s are it looks pretty exciting or extravagant, making you compare your own life (social media life, or real life) to what you see.<\/p>\n My life is so boring compared to theirs. Seeing these for some may not even phase them, but someone with anxiety? Seeing that can cause them to feel self-conscious or feel a need for perfectionism. This can brew into a social anxiety disorder\u00a0or even another disorder like OCD. (Find out more about OCD and other anxiety disorders in my ‘Did You Know…?’ blog post. Click here<\/a> to access it.)<\/p>\n Even just comparing how many like\/retweets\/shares\/etc. you get can make you anxious. Someone could post a great post, but only get one or two likes, someone else could post something similar and potentially get more. It’s not hard to compare yourself to another, we all do it without realising, add anxiety to the mixture and it can create a big mess.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Have a think for a minute or two, have you ever done any of the above? <\/p>\n No more questions now, thinking is over, take a deep breath in and out, and relax.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Until next time, ~ Behind The Mask<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello all, welcome back. Today’s post is gonna be more\u00a0of a laid back ramble. Work with me here. Do you think social media is causing anxiety? It’s not one anyone would want to admit anyway these days, since we all use social media. However, let’s think about this together for a second and break it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[91,10,3,6,63,88,90,11,87,89,8,16,29,15,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/simranflora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/simranflora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/simranflora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/simranflora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/simranflora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/simranflora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/simranflora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/simranflora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/simranflora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/simranflora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Go on your phone and check…Twitter? Maybe Facebook? Or Instagram or Snapchat, or maybe there’s even a new social media platform out when you are reading this, so you might go on that.
\nIf you said you don’t do that in the morning, well, either you have great will power, have no social media whatsoever, or you are lying.<\/p>\n
\nContinuing on from one of my\u00a0inner thoughts<\/em> examples. Fear itself creates anxiety no matter what caused the fear, in this case, it is fear of missing out when not on social media since a lot could happen in twenty-four hours so even being away for just a day you could become anxious about missing out on whatever is happening in\u00a0the world of social media.<\/p>\n
\nWow! My old secondary school friend is traveling across Europe with her boyfriend of two years.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n
\nI want to do something more like that.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nChecked your phone in the morning for your morning social media intake?
\nNot been able to check your social media for a while and feared you’d miss out on something?
\nOr have you ever compared yourself to someone else’s social media profile\/post?<\/p>\n
\nStay safe. Stay strong.<\/p>\n