Social Media Surfing and Depression
INTRODUCTION
In today’s fast-paced and quickly turning upside-down digital space, there is no upper or lower limit for the age group that travels in the social media empire. Statistics show 25% of women and 12% of men of any age, are at risk of developing depression.
Let’s first understand the universe of depression, and then move onto why and how social media can cause it.
DEPRESSION
Depression gets enveloped by three feelings-
- Worthlessness
- Hopelessness
- Helplessness
Worthlessness comes when you see a post having a brand-new Lamborghini. Hopelessness sweeps in when you like a story you did not want. And, helplessness pounces on you when you see your acquaintances celebrating the marriage of your close friend. These are just examples. Some people genuinely feel it in varicolored emotions. Are you too one of them?
Read on to find out more about it.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn came into existence to make our lives better. They wanted to help humans communicate better.
But there is so much miscommunication happening in the forests of social media that nobody understands. Just depressed souls do. For example? #FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) runs in the blood and swims in the brain pool of the depressed souls. Depressed souls question their existence, attempt to quit their lives, and walk on eggshells because of social media.
AFTERMATH OF DEPRESSION DUE TO SOCIAL MEDIA
In most people, depression gives rise to feelings of body-image dissatisfaction, lowered or nil self-esteem, and questionable self-concepts. Their world collapses if they do not get many likes, comments, subscribers, or reactions to the posts. They take it as if the women or men who got the maximum number of likes, comments, or subscribers were equivalent to Miss or Mister World. Or, they probably get treated like the King or Queen of the social media platform.
PSMU
Nowadays, a new term has got coined for depression. It is called PSMU- Passive Social Media Use. One merely keeps on scrolling through the various social media platforms on looking for a ray of hope or post that would make them feel happy about themselves. PSMU gets closely linked to depression.
A study was conducted on students to help understand PSMU better. It led to the belief that the students who spent more time scrolling suffered from loss of interest and concentration, loneliness, fatigue, and an inferiority complex. In the past 25 years, the episodes or prevalence of anxiety and depression have increased by 70 percent in young people.
SOCIAL MEDIA- A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
Let’s say that some social media leads to addiction, but on the other hand, it helps some people through catharsis. Catharsis is the act of opening up emotions and feelings to someone or the world.
Some mental health doctors over the social media platforms use scrolling through the patient accounts to understand them better. A person usually posts about what they truly feel. Some might mask their depression- that is a whole new topic altogether, called the masked depression. We can talk about it later.
Depression is a genuine health condition, and it needs monitoring and treatment immediately. Thanks to the widespread awareness of depression through again, the double-edged sword- our very own- social media platforms.
DEPRESSION IN CELEBRITIES
Depression does not necessarily affect only the general population. It has gladly affected the celebrity clan as well. Celebrities like – Robin Williams, Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp, Chris Evans, Dwayne Johnson, Marilyn Monroe, Katy Perry, Sia, Lady Gaga, Angelina Jolie, J. K. Rowling, Deepika Padukone, Sushant Singh Rajput, and many others suffered from depression.
HOW CAN YOU COPE WITH IT?
Give sound therapy a chance. It might seem funny at the moment, but music has the power to heal a deadened soul. It has proven to be beneficial and healthy in healing depressed souls. For starters, how about you listen to music by Dr. Karen Olson?
CONCLUSION
As often as possible, move from observing life to fully living it! Change to inside out thinking rather than outside in. Use movement, vibrations to help shift your mood. Stagnant energy can be a definition of depression. Find your flow and follow it. Vibrational sound therapy is energy in motion traveling through the sound and music to your heart which frees stuck places inside. Being able to move, listen and flow through music and sound therapy is an effective way to combat the harmful effects of social media.
Using sound therapy can help to raise your energy, vibration, and mood level. Depression can cause you to be feel lethargic. Simply listening to your favourite music can be one form of sound therapy that can help you counteract the sadness that social media can create.
Another suggestion is to find uplifting people to follow on social media. Make a point to unfollow or pass by posts that take you to a dark place. And, of course, it would be a fantastic goal to gradually decrease your time on social media. Do your best to create posts with that will uplift people, and move away from the urge to feel you need to impress others. Create a community of support in your social media “family” of friends and followers.
Choose to social media surfing with uplifting music, dancing, going for a walk, journaling, watching a positive video, anything that you enjoy doing. Find the ways and activities that bring you joy and notice more light coming into your heart and life.