While I think social media can have a mixed affect on people and their
wellbeing, I overall believe social media negatively impacts
psychological well-being. Social media is a great tool to stay
connected, make new connections and keep individuals social
interactive (especially in times like the pandemic), but it goes far
beyond that. We see people posting things and then deleting when it
doesn’t receive enough likes, or if certain people do not interact or
react to a post delete it. Often times people, especially women base
their self-worth off social media. “Social media have become primary
forms of social communication and means to maintain social
connections among young adult women. Although social
connectedness generally has a positive impact on psychological well-
being, frequent social media use has been associated with poorer
psychological well-being. Individual differences may be due to
whether women derive their self-worth from feedback on social
media. The associations between reasons for social media use,
whether self-worth was dependent on social media feedback, and
four aspects of psychological well-being (including stress, depressive
symptoms, resilience, and self-kindness) were assessed among 164
U.S. undergraduate women who completed an online questionnaire.
Results indicated that having one’s self-worth dependent on social
media feedback was associated with using social media for status-
seeking. Women whose self-worth was dependent on social media
feedback reported lower levels of resilience and self-kindness and
higher levels of stress and depressive symptoms. Additionally, women
whose self-worth was highly dependent on social media feedback
and who were seeking social status in their online interactions
reported higher levels of stress. The present findings suggest that
women whose self-worth is dependent on social media feedback are
at higher risk for poorer psychological well-being, which has
implications for practice and policy regarding women’s mental
health.” (Sabik et al., 2019)
Social media's effect on psychological well-being is linked to the
course theme self-care. If someone finds themselves and their self-
worth dependent on social media and the interaction and attention
they get there, it would be wise to abstain from social media use for
self-care reasons. Just like I steer clear of negative news and bad
things that trigger unwanted thoughts on social media because I
know it is not healthy for me because it often sends me spiraling. So, I
try my best to follow only people I know personally and positive,
funny, upbeat pages that do not post content that I do not want to
see. That is a form of self-care and self-awareness. Same could be
said for someone that needs validation through social media. Don’t
post a picture and constantly update the feed to see how many likes
you get. Post it and leave it. If is gets 3 like or 300 leave the post. Or,
don’t post at all.
Resources
Sabik, N. J., Falat, J., & Magagnos, J. (2019, July 4).
When Self-Worth
Depends on Social Media Feedback: Associations with Psychological
Well-Being
. SpringerLink. Retrieved October 6, 2022, from
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-019-01062-
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