According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA.org), the common symptoms of social media anxiety disorder are withdrawal from family and friends, low interest in activities, neglecting work or school in order to be online, an overwhelming need to share with others, and obsessively following other people.
The pressure of sharing an unrealistic and unupholdable image of your so-called life, comparing yourself obsessively with others and trying to keep yourself updated on the next move, and needing to impress half of your bought followers by your purchased likes and comments, will put you in a delusional reality and pointless pursuit. According to ADAA.org, some people have the potential to feel happy for others online, but others can feel jealous, depressed, or may even feel suicidal about their own life if they don’t feel their life is perfect as others see fit. Naturally individuals that seek attention, acceptance, and worth through their social media platform will experience anxiety, depression, and stress. That has found to be the top 3 diagnoses on university campuses by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health.
There are five different disorders that people may suffer from in the world of social media,
1 – Social Media Anxiety – Fear of being judged when communicating through social media. The caption you choose can make or break the photo. Oh the pressure!
2 – Social Network Exclusion Anxiety – the fear of being left out on social media. This can be caused by not being invited to social media driven events such as the infamous “comment pods” and so called “support groups”. These groups are created so that people who get the exclusive invitation can be a part of a “hype” group that dedicates their full commitment and time to liking and commenting on each picture that every member of the group is posting. Rest assured that if you fail to live up to their expectation, you will be booted, deleted, and blocked. To be a part of a social media network requires the utmost dedication of your time and attention.
3 – Post Posting Traumatic Stress Disorder – this is the classic stress that comes after posting something on social media. Will it be good enough, am I pretty enough, is this interesting enough to gain attention, likes, comments, and hopefully sometimes a little envy. If not, how much will it cost me to purchase that acceptance?
4 – Obsessive Compulsive Refresh Disorder – time consuming problem that leaves you constantly refreshing your page and checking for new content, likes, and comments.
5 – Social Media Rage – any anger stemming from a social media experience ignored tweets and posts, slow connections and anything that slows down the uploading process, etc.
If you feel like you struggle with any of these anxiety symptoms, I have a call to action for you. I would like for you to consider this anxiety to be somewhat helpful. You can choose to look at anxiety as an alarm that serves the purpose of alerting us and letting us know when to wake up and seek safety. Our natural anxiety alarm forces us into a state of action, and I encourage that action to ignite your inner curiosity. I’m not referring to the interest you have in others (that you think are living the life of your dreams), but the genuine curiosity that can offer a gateway to creating profound intimacy to the meaning of your life.
What if you acted on your curiosity during your free time? When you look at successful people, curiosity is what causes them to step outside of their comfort zone, try something new, and do what others don’t. Connect your curiosity with your values. Identifying your values is critical to creating a fulfilling life, and can begin with a simple questionnaire. Who are you? What do you value? What do you stand for? What is important to you? What do you yearn to do? This might guide and drive your behavior and decisions, and meaning can be added to any activity when we connect the dots.
Being an author of a self-help book, I encourage people to become meaning-makers. We gain valuable insight and grow as people, and experience profound health and wellbeing when we nurture our curiosity by re-shifting our attention towards ourselves and start pinpointing our values, interests, and what we have to give. That dedication and devotion can be used in all platforms of our lives. It is a fair image of who we are and what we stand for, and is an excellent way of portraying our lives on social media and in our daily life. What if we used social media to mirror our true journey in the hopes of inspiring, rather than being idolized for something that was never aligned with our true purpose.
When you have a clear vision and understanding of what it is that you have to give, what your message is and where the meaning lies, you will no longer have the need for the “hype” or recognition. You will understand that what you have to offer and share to this world is valuable regardless of the quantity of your audience. You will only look at the quality of your content and ask the questions: how will my content add to my audience’s well-being today? Will they learn something? Will they be inspired? Rest assured that if only one person from your following saw your posts and gave it a smile, without you ever knowing, you’ve done what is profound and real. Your social media presence becomes authentic, inspiring and worth following, liking and commenting.
For more information on how to find meaning and purpose, please visit www.saradelpasand.com.
