Social media depression: comparing your day to other people’s highlights.
It’s almost impossible to stop comparing yourself to others on social media. What starts as an attempt to relieve boredom, quickly turns into a gut-retching feeling of depression as the green-eyed-monster, takes control. Everyone is out having fun, looking gorgeous and achieving their dreams.
You may have signed up to social media to stay connected with friends, but now it’s leading to feelings of inadequacy, depression and loneliness.
So could your social media use actually cause depression?
One study in the US suggests exactly that; with a significant association between social media use and depression. Of course there are alternative explanations for this kind of finding, such as people may use social media more when depressed.
Stop the comparison.
It’s natural to compare ourselves to others but social media is more about image than truth. How often are we posting pictures of us in our trackies just after waking, our Friday night spent on the couch or our recent failure?
Comparisons can motivate us to improve ourselves, strive for new goals and achieve dreams. However, often the flip side is depression, dissatisfaction and low self-esteem.
Just remember:
“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.” ~Steve Furtick
So how can you protect yourself from these nasty comparisons? ·
Reduce your time on social media.
Avoid/unfollow the feeds of those that particularly trigger you
Redirect your focus on to the things that really matter.
Make changes in your life to directly deal with the root of the problem
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