Does your timeline resemble a dumpster fire that you can’t take your eyes off of? Do you feel addicted yet sick of social media? Is your screen time usage 5+ hours daily? Do you feel drained, powerless, confused, and guilty in response to what you see and what you can do about it? If so, take a deep breath, unclench your jaw, wiggle your toes, and name three things you can see right now–welcome back–this is how you ground yourself. Now that you are present in the here and now let’s talk about the stress of social media.
The Impact
Unfortunately, when social media was hard launched into society, in the early 2000s, it did not come with a warning label making it hard to identify the side effects and effectively cope with them. Social media use, exposure to political conflict, and doomscrolling create a number of health concerns. The latest research suggests that the combination of these things negatively impacts social media users’ daily life habits. Daily life habits include sleeping, eating, showering, going to work, exercise, etc.
Doom scrolling has been found to disrupt sleep patterns due to the blue light on cellphones that communicates to the brain “it’s not sleepy time it’s wakey time” this communication disrupts our circadian rhythm–the body’s natural alarm clock–where we rise when the sun rises and go to sleep when it sets. This is why you may feel exhausted in the morning and wired at night. Irregular sleep patterns are a consequence most humans cannot afford to live with because if your sleep is off you are off. This looks like an increase in anxiety, binge eating processed foods, social isolation, increased irritability, decreased motivation and energy, racing and intrusive thoughts–the thoughts that are disturbing to think and commonly confused with impulsive ones–concentration issues, weight gain or weight loss, low self esteem, and decreased satisfaction with life. Simply put, if you’ve been feeling off lately it’s because you are having a normal–rather human–response to abnormal, recurrent stressors.
Let’s Cope
Now that we’ve named it, it’s important to tame it and by “tame” I mean learn how to cope by accepting what you can’t control and focusing your attention on what you can–this is called Radical Acceptance–a form of coping found within Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Coping is a set strategy used to navigate a distressing event. What’s important to note about coping is that it’s best to use a preventative approach instead of a reactive one. For example, coping is not the same thing as a rescue inhaler for a person with asthma. It does not always immediately restore your function or tend to a basic need on the spot, instantaneously. It’s more like brushing your teeth, a daily habit you participate in to avoid getting a cavity. Daily coping habits are a suitable response to chronic stress because it creates a system that prepares your mind and body for the unknown by focusing your attention on what you do now and can control daily.
If you’ve made it thus far congratulations for taking a moment away from social media to equip yourself with knowledge on how to safely engage with it. Whatever you feel now is safe to be felt, normal, and valid in nature. Whatever you are thinking now is not a fact simply because you thought it. In session, I’ve helped my client navigate various stressors, some created by social media, by teaching them how to think accurately, feel safely, and create habits of success that align with who they are instead of who they’ve been. In conclusion, the problem is the problem–not you– but you are equipped with the skillset to deal with it despite what your mind may be telling you.
