Social media has exploded an exponential amount over the past few years. But with the good comes the bad – and a big part of that bad is how social media negatively impacts our mental health. Here are some signs that your feed might be lowering your self-confidence.
1. You find yourself constantly comparing yourself to Insta girls and always find a flaw in yourself after you’re done scrolling through your feed. Remember social media is a careful curation of what people choose to filter out of their life.
2. It starts to take over your life. You’re always checking your phone, even if that’s doing quality unplugged time with family, bae or friends.
3. On a related note, in the vibrant moments of life where you should be embracing “carpe diem”, you’re focusing on the FOMO (fear of missing out) aspect that social media has made too prevalent. What you don’t realize is that you’re missing out on the actual good times right in front of your eyes.
4. Ever since you’ve starting obsessing over the ‘gram, you feel a larger sense of loneliness. Seeking validation from just social media isolates you and detaches you from your real life. If you feel lonely, don’t run to social media to help – it’ll worsen it.
5. You find yourself obsessing over likes, and equating them to your self-worth. If someone didn’t comment that you look like a snack, are you worthy? The answer is yes. Don’t look to social media to validate you – even the trolls attack A-list supermodels.
6. You find yourself trying to be anything but yourself. The world of IG makes us feel like we need to exist to impress others, editing out zits, adding filters, and editing captions for hours. Your true self is way prettier than the edited version, which just promotes a fear of sharing your authentic self.
7. You find that you’re turning more vain and shallow. Social media encourages us to only care about the surface things, and how we look versus what’s underneath. It can encourage a pretty shell and an empty inside without values, so remember that.
8. You struggle to define goals and feel less ambitious after you’ve logged on. Social media can disintegrate ambition by making you feel like you’ve accomplished less than those on your feed. You might be bogged down by other people’s aspirations and forget how to remember your own.
9. It’s starting to affect your body image and diet. Especially with all the fitness blogs and skinnies eating salad on IG, it’s hard to follow a balanced regime that’s right for you, and easy to fall into unhealthy cleanses and workout regime – just try to embrace your beautiful self.
10. The idea of not having your phone makes you have a pain attack. Unplugging is necessary for regaining perspective and thinking for yourself – after all, technology is a pretty recent addition to our world. Remember how our grandparents lived and practice phone breaks.
Source: Herbeauty.com
