Maintaining mental health in social media age

Today’s generation is highly connected with the digitization of business, education, and communication. This changed social perceptions and increased social pressure. (Photo: wila-arbeitsmarkt.com)
Today’s generation is highly connected with the digitization of business, education, and communication. This changed social perceptions and increased social pressure. (Photo: wila-arbeitsmarkt.com)

IT’S easy to get misled by the things that we see online. At the same time, it’s also easy to mislead people. Without keeping our reality in check, social media can easily become a vicious cycle of pretending we live the same lives that we see other people lead online, and having our followers attempt to do the same.

Posts about travels, food, relationships, achievements, and more may seem happy, but can still impact viewers or the original source negatively. Being caught in this spiral can negatively impact our mental health.

Here are tips to help you stay afloat.

1. Take a break.

Disconnect with the outside world and reconnect with your inner thoughts for at least 1-2 days and see the difference in your overall mood.

2. Mute and unfollow.

Social media gives us an option to mute and unfollow anonymously. If certain people and content start to make you question your worth, hit the mute or unfollow button. Filter the content that you absorb.

3. Change your mindset

The right mindset is not conditioning yourself to do better than everyone, it’s being happy even if you’re at the bottom end of the line. It’s not about what you have, but how satisfied you are with what God blessed you with.

4. Be nice to people.

How you treat people is a reflection of your self-esteem. Learning to treat everyone fairly despite differences in appearance et cetera will help you develop self-assurance.

5. You don’t have to look good.

You don’t have to look good – or as good as those that you see online. Just be your best self.

6. Do not compete.

A flower does not sit next to a flower and question its beauty. It just blooms.

7. Focus on your career, however humble.

Don’t compare your skills with others. There will always be greater and lesser persons than you.

Technology has changed the landscape of our lives. People right now have never been more connected. If put in the right perspective, our generation can be the most empowered. And taking care of our mental health can empower not just the present but also future generations.

One way to take care of our mental health is to change the way you see life especially those pictured online. So if you see someone who seems to be doing better than you, regardless whether it’s real or not, you have two choices. You can either push yourself to change and improve things, or stay happy with exactly the way things are. Just because other people have what you don’t doesn’t mean you have less. You just lead different lives, and you are just as important as everyone else.

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