Does the extensive use of social media sites, channels and tools cause some kind of disturbance or another to our mental stability? What are the psychological issues and disorders that social media can help breed, promote and encourage for both kids and adults? How can we control our social media presence to contain such a serious dilemma?
A Brief Prelude…
No one can underestimate or try to deny the power of social media and its ability to raise awareness for important issues and spread the word about various causes, but is that it? I mean apart from the privacy related problems and the work related concerns, are there no other negative “side effects” that we seem to be overlooking?
So, what other concerns could I talking about? Mental stability negatively influenced by social media, and here is how…
The top 7 psychological disorders social media helps promote…
In addition to their ability to brainwash us, I think social media channels and social networking sites pose the following psychological threats on our mental health and personality:
1. Schizophrenia: “a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. Distortions in perception may affect all five senses, but most commonly manifest as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking with significant social or occupational dysfunction”.
As the above definition clearly suggests, perception disorders are a mental problem, especially when it comes to certain complexes such as the “God complex” and claiming that one is someone he/she isn’t! Social media can help encourage such disillusion perceptions due to the fact that they allow for claiming to be who you are not and describing yourself differently using various channels!
2. Insomnia & Sleep Disorders: insomnia is “difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or both”.
In general, lack of sleep can be very problematic and I believe social media can cause it as well as insomnia at a more advanced stage. I take myself here as an example. I use social media from morning till after midnight and I confess Twitter has kept me up for early morning hours on several occasions. Not only is that not healthy, but it also can stress the mind and further cause lower level outputs.