Social Media and Mental Distress #causeachatter #mentalhealth #pebbleinwaterswrites @blogchatter

If you are pre 90s born, probably you had your childhood free of Internet and social media fever. But, if your birth year is in 90s or later, you were born with a smartphone in your hands, eyes on the screen, and fingers toggling between Facebook and Instagram. As a matter of fact, wherever or whenever you started your Internet and social media journey, if currently you are spending more than 50% of your waking hours on social media, and, you go blank or clueless without it, then you are either in a big trouble already, or are heading towards it for sure. Is social media pushing you towards mental distress? Lucky are those who have tasted the flavor of life with no interference of Internet. Once internet came into our lives, it completely changed our lifestyles and perspective towards life, family, friends, social, and what not.

Photo credit: History of Medicine Division - NLM - NIH on Visualhunt.com

According to Wikipedia - "Mental distress (or psychological distress) is a term used, by some mental health practitioners and users of mental health services, to describe a range of symptoms and experiences of a person's internal life that are commonly held to be troubling, confusing or out of the ordinary." Is excessive indulgence online on social media platforms harmful in increasing mental clutter? Or is normal? Or the new normal? Does it hamper self esteem? It's not about wait and watch long term consequences. It's already visible. Multiple studies and researches have indicated that there is a direct connection between heavy usage of social media and suicidal tendencies leave aside isolation, loneliness, depression, anxiety among many such behaviors. It's proven that people spending too much time on social platforms are prone to stay away from real life relations and realities. That is how their journey towards mental distress begins.

For those, the inadequacies in their life and appearance fluctuate on the basis of responses they get in the virtual world they have created online. Their mood goes off and on depending on the same factors. Life becomes completely insecure and inconsistent. There is something called FOMO, fear of missing out that compels a person to pick up phone every few seconds in order to check statuses or respond to every alert. These actions lead to sleeplessness, mental distress, indecisiveness, and a lot of other things. Many years back, an interviewer asked the great Indian cricketer Kapil Dev how he could create a record of zero no balls in his entire career. He answered very humbly - "I always know where my line is. " So, as long as we know where our line is while spending time on social platforms, we can stay healthy. 

This post is part of #CauseAChatter with Blogchatter