Social media affecting health care is a hot topic nowadays. The research conducted by RSPH provides insight into the effects of using social media on individuals’ mental health. They discovered that Instagram caused mental issues. Mental health is essential for the well-being of any individual. People must be aware of their circumstances and should not compromise on mental health being. For more information on how Instagram affects people’s mental health, do visit Instagram pages psychology.
The Problem
The question here is, why does Instagram cause so many mental health problems? The truth is that our mind continually gathers information about our current circumstances without us seeing it. It does this for different reasons, for example, analyzing a threat nearby. It does this for various reasons, such as making sure that we are not vulnerable. On the other hand, the most important reason is that people want to access their position on the hierarchy pyramid by looking at the pictorial signs.
The Social Hierarchy Pyramid
People look at someone’s muscle or body build to determine how strong they are, materialistic things people own to analyze how wealthy they are, and look into their social circles to access how they influence people.
Spending more and more time on Instagram pushes our brain into a camouflaged state of fantasy life. The social community on Instagram is perceived as our real social circle, making it difficult for our brains to anchor everyday life’s reality.
The Mind Game
Spending more time on Instagram derails our mind as it notices that people we follow on Instagram are so much better looking than us mainly because of photoshop, filters, angles, and lighting. People see others living happier lives with hundreds of pictures smiling as if every second of their lives are filled with bliss from where all of the mental health problems are stemmed. This increases levels of anxiety drastically and causes things like insomnia, panic attacks, and depression.
What We Need To Change
People need to spend less time on Instagram as about 45% of teens are frequently online, and in the journal of abnormal psychology, a 52% increase in depression is reported, with a 56% increase in suicide rates over the past decade. So the increase in time spent on social media results in correlation equals causation. There is less time to sleep and physical exercise, and that affects mental health.
Humans have a natural cognitive bias or a thinking heuristic that makes people view the world relative to other things instead of in the absolute form. For example, when people try to view something’s price, their minds will compare that price relative to the other option on the table instead of just viewing the value of that in only. The same goes with Instagram pictures, as people are busy comparing themselves with others neglecting their health care. The amazing flawless selfies have become the norm. Nevertheless, the truth is that if we see them in real life, they do not look anything like that in reality.