There are good and bad sides to social media.
There is no denying the fact that social media affects health. Physical, psychological, or a combination of these can have some pretty serious consequences for our health if left unchecked. The health effects of social media range from small things to scary possibilities like changing the structure of the brain. Social media and technology are not all bad. They can bring connection, ease, information, and excitement into our lives. However, we should all put our devices down more often. So, if you have a little screen addiction, here are some ways social media and screen time can ruin your health.
It Can Become an Addiction
Scientists have created a scale with the sole purpose of measuring Facebook addiction. It is called the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale, or BFAS. Researchers in Norway first developed this scale to measure problematic behavior related to Facebook use. The basic premise of the BFAS is based on a fact that is a consensus in the scientific and psychological communities: screens and social media are addictive. According to the BFAS, women are more likely to be addicted to Facebook than men. Additionally, people who suffer from anxiety are more likely to be addicted. Because the site relieves boredom and provides positive reinforcement, some people find it difficult to stop using it, even if they don’t want to. The University of Chicago also found that social media is more addictive than cigarettes.
Restructures the Brain
According to Psychology Today, there are now numerous studies showing gray matter atrophy in people with internet addiction or gambling addiction. Gray matter areas of the brain are where information processing occurs. These are the areas of the brain where planning, prioritization, impulse control, and organization occur. These are the areas of the brain that allow us to achieve our goals. If these areas atrophy, they become smaller and less functional, which is not a good thing. Screen addiction also promotes white matter restructuring. White matter is the brain matter that connects the hemispheres of our brain and helps our brain communicate with our body. Recent research suggests that the brains of developing children are particularly susceptible to these potential problems.
Promotes Anxiety
Social media creates and increases our anxiety in two significant ways: it makes us compare our lives to others, and it taps into the fear of missing out, or FOMO. Even though we all know in theory that most people carefully create the most idealized versions of themselves and their lives for their social media personas, it is still hard not to compare your life to theirs. Feelings of envy and inadequacy are linked to the fact that we see other people’s lives through the lens of social media. This can lead to low self-esteem, failure in your love life, and anxiety, giving rise to obsessive-compulsive patterns of thinking and behavior.
Causes Sleep Problems
There are many reasons why too much screen time can lead to sleep problems. First, there is a hormone called melatonin, which helps control your sleep-wake cycles. The blue light emitted by our screens inhibits melatonin production and makes it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. Sleeping with technology in the bedroom is bad for your sleep because the ringing, alerting, and beeping sounds can wake you up. Sometimes, even if the beeping sound is not heard, technology in the bedroom can create an expectation of the beeping sound, making it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. Experts recommend turning off all screens at least thirty minutes before bed and leaving technology outside the bedroom to get a better night’s sleep.
Causes Vision Problems
Many of us feel like the more time we spend staring at a screen, the worse our vision gets. It turns out that this isn’t just a personal feeling, but a medically proven side effect of too much screen time. The condition, known as computer vision syndrome, or CVS, describes the visual effects of living in a computerized modern world. Symptoms of CVS include dry, itchy eyes, blurred vision, eye strain, headaches, and neck, back, and shoulder pain. If you work on a computer all the time, is there a benefit? There are strategies you can use to reduce your risk and symptoms of CVS. Reducing contrast and glare on your computer screen, creating a work station that reduces strain on your head and neck, and following the 20/20/20 rule (taking your eyes off the screen for 20 seconds every 20 minutes and looking at something 20 feet away) can all help reduce your risk of developing CVS.
Advertising for Dangerous Behavior
It’s worth mentioning that at least one study has linked social media use to an increase in poor health decisions in teens, such as smoking and drinking. According to a study conducted by Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, “hypertexters” are young people who send 120 or more text messages in a school day. Hypertexters, who are also more immersed in the world of social media, are much more likely to engage in illegal or unhealthy behavior. For example, they are 41 percent more likely than their non-hypertexting peers to have tried a drug of abuse, and 43 percent more likely to drink alcohol. These are just a few of the unhealthy behaviors tested in the study. While the researchers are careful to note that the correlations they found are not cause and effect, their findings create a new category of health risks for teens.
Social media and technology have positive effects. They can bring people together and add excitement to our lives. However, social media also has many negative effects. It can cause problems with your sleep schedule, your posture, and make you doubt yourself. If you feel like social media is negatively affecting your life or how you see yourself, it may be time to take a break. Remember that most people only post what they want people to see, not what is going on in their lives.
