I reviewed 40+ social media studies on how your ForYouPage (FYP) Affects mental health.
By Aditya Shukla, Cognition Today
1. Overly positive self-presentation leads to bad social comparison
Social media allows a way to manipulate how you present yourself. Many choose to show an overly positive, quality life. Some choose to highlight victimhood. Then you end up comparing yourself with extremes.
2. Bad effects
Bad psychological effects of social media emerge through negative social cognitions like social comparison, FOMO, and poor self-esteem and poor body image.
Good psychological effects of social media emerge through positive behaviors like seeking out entertainment, sharing creative content, nurturing relationships, seeking out like-minded people, making content, helping, etc.
4. Getting bold and nasty
The online disinhibition effect tells us people get bold, uninhibited, and aggressive online because there is no direct human to human connection and high anonymity. This makes us nasty without feeling responsible for it.
A positive newsfeed promotes positive interactions and a negative newsfeed promotes negative interactions.-ve feed = -ve mind+ve feed = +ve mind
6. Memes protect mental health
Sharing memes is a powerful protective factor against depression and reduces daily stress. It let's people connect and form a bond. Even dank, dark, cringy, and inappropriate memes.
Loneliness, fatigue, cyberbullying, social comparison and feeling bad about yourself, poor sleep, social media stress, social exclusion, etc. link depression and social media.
Venting, ranting, and posting emotionally loaded updates can lower self-esteem & mood but posting daily activities can improve your self-esteem & mood.