How to recognize (and fight) social media stress.

How to recognize (and fight) social media stress

I came across this article that was published today about social media users experiencing stress when using social media platforms. I find the topic of social media stress to be interesting because it has always baffled me on how one could experience stress using social media. I myself do not experience “stress” when using these platforms and I have always wondered how some people do. I ask myself, What is there to stress about? Not enough likes? Not enough comments? Will people like the posts? These are some questions I predict those who suffer from social media stress, are asking.

In her article, Melissa Gilligan interviews Psychologist Brent MacDonald and discusses the topic of social media stress. Brent tells us that using social media has become so automatic in our life that we don’t recognize how much time it consumes out of our day. He identifies two main impacts social media has on people, the first being how much time it take away from doing  other activities and second being how much weight we put on.

Brent moves on the state some key signs of social media stress:

“If it’s affecting our work, if it’s affecting our self-esteem, if it’s affecting our self-worth – then I think we have to be really cautious.” 

“What the research is starting to show … is that people with lower self-esteem tend to put more weight on the postings that they put forward.”

At the end of the article Brent offers some tolls in solving social media stress. He encourages people who are stressed to limit their daily use and enable notification restrictions on their devices.

“With Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram – those types of things – you’re constantly getting these notifications,” he explained. “Maybe put some boundaries around checking once or twice a day as opposed to constantly checking.”

Jay-Z Says The Internet Killed The Album Review

http://hiphopdx.com/news/id.24631/title.jay-z-says-the-internet-killed-the-album-review#

With Drake’s latest album release “More Life”, I’ve heard various comments and opinions on the quality of the album. The opinions of others got me thinking and I came across an opinion piece by Jay-Z in 2013, commenting on album reviews after the release of one of his albums.

“I think reviews have lost a lot of their importance now because of the internet,”

In this short article, artist Jay-Z claims that due to the internet allowing consumers and critics the availability of the album simultaneously, the reviews produced by critics have lost their value and don’t serve a function to us anymore.

“Everyone is experiencing things at the same time. You can write a review like the guy from USA Today, tomorrow. Ya’ll both can write the review at the same time…That’s why the critic became important in the music space because they got the music first” 

 

Users fear social media is making them ill, but they still can’t stop.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/smartphone-social-media-apps-mental-health-negative-check-plugged-in-communication-technology-a7600686.html

In the article “Users fear social media is making the ill, but they still can’t stop” by Rebecca Flood, she discusses how millennials between the ages of 18 and 37 suffer from mental illness due to their constant social media use. Studies done, prove that this age group experience more stress, due to their social media use. She states:

“On a 10-point scale, with one being little or no stress and 10 being a great deal of stress, this group reported overall stress levels of 5.3 compared to an average of 4.4.”

Flood concludes the article by offering a solution via a social media detox, but reports that many people who agreed to this exercise, 28% of people actually follow through.