Mental Health: Heal By Deleting Social Media

Social media used to be the way we stay in touch with each other despite our busy lifestyles. We’d use it to follow the lives of friends who had moved away, keep family members close despite not having as much time for them, and share our day-to-day accomplishments. But now it has gotten to the point where we’re so consumed with social media that it takes control of our mental health and not exactly for the good.

With all the anger and depression in the world, we see it as a way of escaping the daily struggles, but now it only adds to it. The best advice I have received to get my mental health back in order was to delete social media. While I haven’t completely scrubbed the internet of my social presence, deleting it from my phone has already been a huge improvement.

With social media, it’s good to see just how well our long-lost family and friends are doing but it also gives a peek into other people’s lives. The biggest problem here is the constant success and failures being put on display for daily consumption. The constant comparison to how well others are doing is destroying your mental health. Every single day seeing how others are succeeding and where you’re failing gives us a false sense of our own failures. Each time you see someone doing the things you want and can feel you don’t have the resources puts more weight back on your shoulders.

More Health: Is Living Alone Better for Mental Health?

It’s not just our friends’ and families’ success that destroys our mental well-being. We’re constantly being given an inside look at celebrity lives as well. Each time we see someone who has all the things we want but can’t have, the weight gets heavier. It’s not a voluntary response either. Our focus on what’s important to us shifts with constant reminders of what we don’t have. Those same celebrities who we’re constantly exposed to might have resources we do not.

Do yourself a favor, delete all the noise and distractions of social media. Just deleting Facebook, Instagram, and everything else my screen time went down 47% from the week before. The only time I log in is when I’m home allowing me to focus more on my daily plan than what I’m not accomplishing in life. Taking brief points throughout the day to check in on family and friends with who I don’t have direct contact is great, but the mental toll social media takes just isn’t worth my mental health.