Social Media and Mental Health

Reflection 8

We often hear stories and negative stigma around social media and how it affects our mental health. Often times we hear about people who struggle with anxiety and depression form excessive social media use. But what we don’t often hear about is the positive impact social media can make in our lives. Social media and internet use isn’t going away anytime soon so it’s time we learn how we can utilize it to our best abilities and get the most out of our time spent online.

The Mental Health First Aid released a post on their website in June of 2019 highlighting three key ways that internet users can use social media positively. The first being connecting with loved ones, second being following and sharing inspirational stories, and the third being creating balance.

The Help Guide also highlights some key features of social media such as communication and staying up-to-date with friends and family, finding new friends and community, joining worthwhile causes, seek or offer emotional support, maintain vital social connections, creativity and self expression, and discover value information and learn new things.

A huge area of growth and opportunity in the social media realm is creativity and the influx of inspirational stories and messages that can be passed along. Social media is an area where users are given a free platform to share their creativity such as photography, videography, music, and digital art as well as promote their business, whether it is an online store or an actual storefront.

Social media can serve a higher purpose than we often realize and it’s important to help educate people how to safety and productively use social media so they gain the best experience possible.

Our world lately is constantly changing and this article by The New York Times shows the large percent change in social media apps such as Nextdoor and Houseparty that allow users to video chat with others. This is just another way we see social media growing and shifting with the times to best serve the user.

To best gauge social media use and how users are creating a positive experience online asking citizens to partake in a survey about their social media use pre-covid and currently. They could be asked to highlight apps and websites that they have been enjoying them and in what ways they utilize them. Another resource could include some local businesses and how they have enhanced their online presence to best suit the needs of their business, such as local restaurant owners, or gym owners converting their in-person classes to a virtual format.

With social media continuing to grow and change throughout the years it’s important to educate the 4.20 billion social media users around the world, according to datareportal.com, on how they can best maximize their internet use to its fullest capacity and turn something that has a bad stigma into something good.