Opinion: Raise your #StatusOfMind

Royal Society of Public Health in the United Kingdom published a report, #StatusOfMind which surveyed 1,500 individuals between 14-24 years old. Instagram was found to be the worst social media app for deepening feelings of anxiety in young people. Social apps are worsening body image worries, bullying, anxiety, depression and loneliness.

While social media receives a bad rap, I can’t help but play the opposite’s advocate. As a user of social media, I enjoy the unification I find and how people are using the platforms to spread positivity and knowledge. This does not mean that I’m not aware of the negativity that occurs online. The low esteem and depression that I see spreading on social media saddens me. On the other hand, when do we stop blaming things outside of us for how we feel internally? Further, do these lower emotions of anxiety and depression occur as a result of social media or does social media just magnify what already exists within us?

The president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Professor Sir Simon Wessely, states, “I am sure that social media plays a role in unhappiness, but it has as many benefits as it does negatives. We need to teach children how to cope with all aspects of social media – good and bad – to prepare them for an increasingly digitised world. There is real danger in blaming the medium for the message.”

Indeed, we have started to shoot the messenger. We see the negativity on social media and blame social media when it’s merely a symptom magnifying a deeper problem. And when people do attempt to fix the problem, the message is still not seen clearly. For example, parents may try to protect their children by blocking social media access. So if there is no social media, there would be no teen anxiety and depression, right?

When I was in grade school, social media was not yet around. For me, Myspace was becoming popular in my first years of high school. However, me and my peers still experienced low self-esteem issues, anxiety, bullying and depression. I don’t know any generation that hasn’t had similar low vibrations while growing up but the energy existed, just not through social media. That energy was ventilated through other outlets, like addiction and rebellion. For me, that energy was released in poor and excessive eating habits and self harm.

I believe that social media was created to connect the world. While social media can be used to create connection, a lot of people are experiencing a loss of intimacy in social interactions. Young people will most certainly choose texting over a phone call or spend most of their time on the phone when “spending time with friends.”

The disconnection young people are experiencing with others is only an extension of the disconnect they feel from themselves. Social media makes it easier to compare our lives’, bodies and experiences as superior or inferior to others, thereby causing a disconnect within us. When we realize that we are all connected and each of us have and are on our own path, only then can we experience self love and reduce feelings of inadequacy and anxiety. If that self-love in each of us grew, there would be no room for negativity on social media.

Everything in our lives is going to have a positive and a negative side. We have to choose which side of the spectrum we’re going to focus our attention on. I have the potential to create a negative or positive reality, on social media or otherwise. We all do. And we create this experience whether we are aware of the ability or not. Will you choose to add to the spread of negativity or positivity on social media?