Social media destroys mental health – and it’s getting worse

The advent of social media has brought a dilemma – we want the benefits it brings so badly, but at the same time it is destroying our mental health with all the hate and criticism. The old saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never hurt me,” has finally become outdated, because whoever coined it never predicted a constant barrage of hate 24/7, seven days a week. Our bodies aren’t meant to handle this level of insults and criticism, which increases with more “friends” and platforms. (Are they really friends if they’re constantly criticizIng you, bringing you down? It’s overdue to call them “connections.”)

At the same time, social media has added so much busyness to our lives that most of us don’t have the time to constantly research and keep up with it; how to stop the nonstop notifications, some which are related to our jobs that exacerbate the anxiety. It seems like every day there’s a new reason to notify you popping up from some platform, ridiculous time-wasting dots always in red to make you tend to them, like “you haven’t posted in a while,” or “thought you might be interested to see what Joe has posted,” etc. Those notifications on Facebook used to be blue, but the company changed them to red when psychologists found that people were more likely to click on them if red. And piling on, we’ve all learned by now that even our real friends say hurtful things on social media that they would never dare say to our faces, popularizing the phrase “armchair warrior.”

It has turned politics from the days of friendly, fun, educational entertainment like William F. Buckley Jr.’s “Firing Line” to cancel culture and threats. Although we all know that most “threats” are merely words, not threats of violence, people have become so thin-skinned due to being in a constant state of anxiety from social media that they are no longer reacting rationally. The left is canceling conservatives for using words that clearly do not intend violence, but are meant metaphorically.

I happened to scroll through all 54 responses to a rather innocuous tweet by an elected official the other day, and was disturbed to see that every single one was rude. That elected official, along with others I’ve talked to about this, said he never reads any responses on social media – smart guy. But most of us don’t have that discipline; our interactions have become part of our jobs or hobbies. – READ MORE