Social media is destroying our brains. Now let’s begin!
Editing our lives
Number one editing our lives. Life is full of important moments. Thanks for your favorite vacation on holiday, dinners with your family, on the biggest stepping stones in your career. Also, Check- how to get snap streak back
These are the kinds of moments that you want to remember forever right? But for many people just remembering isn’t good enough. They want a physical reminder of what those moments felt like this. So they take pictures, record videos, and keep souvenirs.
These reminders transport them back in time. Letting them relive the joy beauty or surprise of a single moment from their past. But when you start posting those photos on social media something strange happens. You stop focusing on the moment itself. You stop remembering what really happened.
And you start thinking about what you can change. You start cutting photos, you don’t look your best even if that photo makes you laugh or cry you start doctoring. How do your experiences look or felt?
Why is that because you want other people to see how perfect and powerful your life is? Many people on social media are so focused on displaying perfection that their real-life gets lost in the mix. The person on their profile may resemble an idealized version of themselves. Also, Check- how does snap score work
They’ve changed their whole life just to impress a bunch of people on the internet. If you start editing your life, you stop appreciating how imperfect it can be. If you look at the sunset you might focus on taking the perfect picture brightening the colors are creating.
In the right mood instead of actually enjoying the sunset in real-time, you pay less and less attention to the powerful moments as they happen and you stop appreciating experiences for what they are. Each one just feels like another opportunity to brag on social media.
Dependence on reinforcements
Number 2. Dependence on reinforcements. Views, likes, and comments are all different kinds of positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is when someone gives you a reward for doing something good.
Imagine a parent who gives their kid ice cream for behaving at the doctor. They’re reinforcing their child’s good behavior with a positive reward. Ends with the name positive reinforcement.
Now on social media virtual compliments are no different than someone handing you an ice cream. Each one makes you feel good about yourself, it tells you that someone in the world likes you, admires your issue, or even envisions you.
It gives you a boost of self-worth, which motivates you to keep going. You might feel special after posting a picture online. So you post another and then another until you’re posting on social media every single day and just like that you become dependent on positive reinforcement.
You start relying on these platforms to make you feel good and that can be dangerous. If you don’t practice appreciating yourself, it gets harder and harder to do it on your own. You forget how to value yourself. So don’t let social media take that away from you. The occasional boost never hurt anybody, but if you’re fishing for compliments online it can really mess with your brain.
Wastage of Time
Number 3 wasting our time. Social media is a notorious time-waster without even realizing it, you might spend hours every single day browsing through different platforms.
Some people lie awake in bed scrolling through page after page until it is suddenly 2 in the morning. Others use social media in small bursts they might spend only 5 minutes at a time on their phone. But they do this every single hour of the day.
It seems like they’re barely ever on social media but those 5-minute increments really add up by the evening time you lost an hour or more of your time, which you could have spent on work, hobbies, or with your family. Time is one area where social media becomes especially destructive. It twists the way you think, it distracts you with all those buttons, pictures, and videos and your brain loses track of time.
The motivation killer
Number 4. The motivation killer. Social media and motivation are natural enemies. In fact, social media is one of the most common ways that people procrastinate when they’re feeling stressed or insecure.
Our social media offers you the chance to get lost in other people’s lives and leave behind the stress of your own. But there are plenty of other time wasters that do the same thing take like watching TV or playing video games. Both of these activities distract your mind from whatever it’s supposed to be doing.
But social media hurts your motivation in a way that no other bad habit does. It destroys your productivity and your self-esteem. Each time you browse through social media you see people doing amazing things, maybe they’re traveling the world, are chasing their dreams.
Now on the surface, these kinds of profiles seem inspiring right? But deep down they make you feel worse about yourself, you can’t help but compare your life to theirs. So you hone in on all the ways you wish your life for different.
These comparisons tear your motivational part not just because you’re procrastinating with social media but because you don’t feel as satisfied with the life you’re living. And that makes you lazy. So do yourself a favor and cut down on social media. So this bad habit doesn’t ruin your motivation.
Blocking our happiness
Number 5 blocks our happiness. Social media changes your mood, the most social media seems harmless. It’s just something you do when you’re waiting in line trying to fall asleep. But social media isn’t just a way to pass the time, it can actually stop you from being happy.
A 2013 study from the journal PLO S. 1 discovered that avid Facebook users feel less satisfied not just with their jobs or social circles but with their lives in general. People who frequently used Facebook or are lonely here at lower self-esteem and they felt less supported.
Now on the other hand people who rarely used their accounts were more fulfilled and confident but it’s not just a Facebook no-no. Another study from 2017 published in the American Journal of preventive medicine tested this on 11 different media platforms.
They tried everything from Instagram to read it. They even collected data from career-oriented platforms like LinkedIn but no matter where they looked the results were always the same.
Social media had a negative effect on people’s happiness and avid users at higher perceived isolation. In other words, even if you have a lot of friends you’ll still feel lonely and less satisfied. I know social might seem like a fun way to pass the time but the truth is it can stand in the way of your happiness.
The cycles of jealousy
Number 6. The cycle of jealousy. Every time you log on to your account you participate in the jealous cycle. In fact many social media users try to create that jealousy in other people.
The cycle of jealousy starts when you browse through the profile of someone you admire. Now in your eyes, they’re doing something amazing and you respect or envy them. So you try to make your profile look amazing too but that just means someone else is gonna look at your pictures and think wow I wish I was doing that and they’re going to carry that feeling into their own virtual lives.
Just like that, a chain of jealousy can span across dozens or even hundreds of people. So how does that jealousy impact your brain? Suddenly you’re not thinking about the life you want, you’re not living for yourself anymore, you’re living to make other people jealous. You only feel satisfied when people envy you and you get better.
When they don’t my point is social media pulls you into this vicious cycle. If you’re not careful you lose sight of what really matters.
Forecasting errors
Number 7 forecasting errors. Many people make a basic cognitive error every time they log on to social media. They expect social media to have a positive impact on their lives, expected to be fun, helpful, and satisfying.
But it rarely ever is when you expect to feel one thing and then end up feeling another. You’re making something called a forecasting error. In this case your forecast, so you’re going to have fun but in reality, had something different.
In-store forecasting errors are incredibly common in combination with bad habits. You convince yourself this time is going to be different and then end up regretting it. Your decision to do this once or twice is natural but what happens if you make the same forecasting errors over and over again.
Well not surprisingly it’s gonna make you feel worse and it’ll take its toll on your self-discipline. So be realistic with yourself just because something seems like a good idea at the moment, it doesn’t mean it actually is.
Rifts in our relationships
Number 8 rifts in our relationships. Social media impacts more than just your thoughts, in your mood, it also damages your relationships.
It pulls you away from your friends, creates a whole bunch of unnecessary tension, and weakens the bond that the 2 of you share. Okay, just imagine you’re grabbing lunch with your friends. You’re excited to see them and tell them what’s been going on in your life but they spend the whole time taking pictures of their food and updating their story.
They smile when other people like their posts but they’re barely paying attention to you. Now would not drive a wedge in your relationship? This happens all the time to people who overuse social media. Their friends feel neglected and social media changes their priorities.
They start to value virtual connections more than real ones and before they know what their actual friends start to fade away.
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