The Benefits Social Media Can Have on Mental Health

Someone on their phone, Help Guide

Has anyone had their parents or someone say that the internet is bad or social media does only bad things? Well, while what they say can be true but there’s also so much more that is never talked about with the internet or any social media. Which is how beneficial they can be with our everyday mental health.

This is not saying that mental health cannot be badly affected by social media let alone the internet. But the benefits of how social media can help our mental health is never truly talked about so this article was written in order to talk about it.

Benefits of Social Media 

One of the most basic benefits that is always talked about though is getting to know more people than you would originally have. It is also even easier to communicate to your friends or families from long distances with the social media apps we have now. Or even to be able to re-connect to someone who you have lost contact with over the years. 

It is also good for those people who are more introverted to be able to start talking to people. Some may not feel as comfortable to be able to go up to someone and start a conversation as others may be. By having social media, anyone can just make conversation without having to think about it or worry about having to go further than may have to with any apps or websites.

People on social media connecting, Velocity Consultancy

But it is not only about the relationships you can make with people. It is also about learning new things or experiencing them. According to the National Library of Medicine, “The positive impacts of social media are attributed to increased access to social capital and useful information that present various easy modes of social support in a virtual world” this goes into how using social media can help you be able to get into different sources of information. Which can be shown through learning about mental illnesses or the history of different countries.

Social media could become happy places for people who would be able to go to for rest and relaxation from their daily lives. Though it depends on which side of social media and the internet you are on since some would just be hateful. Otherwise, safe places could be made to distract or comfort in times of need.

The ways people could curate these happy places are in the forms of blocking people or muting them. It can even go into muting words or avoiding people or branches of the internet.

It would also in general be best to take breaks from the internet to focus on yourself or the world around you then just the screen. Also follow the people who you like or people who spread positivity on platforms.

These ways of keeping yourself healthy and curating positive spaces for you may be simple but they are great ways of making you feel good.

So, social media can promote lots of healthy benefits towards mental health and making sure people know what they are feeling or where to get help if need be by asking friends or going on a google search.

Social Media does have its drawbacks as well but there’s also so many benefits to it. Though social media is still under study of how it affects mental health in both the positive and negative way. Here in this section of this journal by the National Library of Medicine it talks about it, “A recently proposed multidimensional model of social media use (MMSMU) explains the role of social media in relation to both beneficial and adverse effects on youth mental health but emphasizes the need for furthering research into its complex psychological implications.”

Drawbacks of Social Media

Now how social media can badly affect your mental health is also in a lot of ways. You could further along mental illnesses or make it worse like anxiety. In this article on Help Guide it talks about it, “The more you prioritize social media interaction over in-person relationships, the more you’re at risk for developing or exacerbating mood disorders such as anxiety and depression.”

Picture of a bunch of messages, DiamondHealth

Social Media could also make you feel isolated or disliked. Though that can also occur in real life just as well as online through social media those thoughts can just further along the process faster or make it 10x worse.

The internet also can spread misinformation so it can affect what you could learn online. That also can affect mental health by stigmas and hate towards people which can thrive since those people could post what they think of what is happening. Social Media can help spread things by retweeting or posting something they may think as fact or what their own personal beliefs are on a topic.

It can be full of hate and harm which people take advantage of since they are behind a screen. That means it can make your bad day even worse or harm your mental health that has already been affected from all the negativity.

How Social Media Can Be Both

It has been said there are positive aspects but there are great negatives as well. Both shouldn’t be forgotten since they are so prominent and get told often. It can still depend on how you curate your experiences on the internet and who you allow to affect how you feel. As long as you are the person who decides what you want to do with your ability to be on the internet you can be in control of what you want to see.

So, find those benefits from social media and the internet then use them. Find happiness where you can and enjoy your life.