Mental health on social media: What do anxiety and consumption have in common?

Since 2015 September is the month dedicated to the cause of mental health and suicide prevention in Brazil. When this subject comes up in the dynamics of the internet, it’s not uncommon to see news, comment, and even realize over time how bad social media can be when overused. While the “cult of perfection” on social media has been hotly debated in recent years, it is not just this issue that reflects on users’ mental health and the way we consume products and information. See below how too much information on the internet impacts on building self-esteem and developing disorders such as anxiety. 

The internet and mental health are not virtual

Have you ever stopped to think that social networks might not have that name by any chance? Considering the internet as an offshoot of our offline society, platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook bring social networking environments to the world wide web. These environments allow our interactions in society to happen without physical impediment and in a matter of seconds, which brings users – who are also social actors – a new way of relating to themselves and the world. Easily accessible information is as easy to know about what happens on the other side of the world as it is to know about the life of a close friend, and it is in this facility that some mental health dangers lie.

Fear of Missing Out – FoMO

If you haven’t seen it yet, you will probably still come across the term “FoMO” in some magazine or news portal. The acronym, derived from the English word “Fear of missing out”, was coined by Dr. Dan Herman in 2000 and means “fear of losing something.” This fear is defined as a feeling of anxiety in which you believe other people are experiencing an incredible experience, and you are missing out on this opportunity. Lately, FoMO has been closely related to excessive internet use and the development of mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

It is noteworthy that FoMO is not that recent, much less that it is related only to social networks. Jenna Wortham points out that this sense of losing something has existed in history since it is possible to know about other people’s lives through a medium. From a simple face-to-face conversation to a sequence of Instagram stories, we get information about each other’s lives and automatically compare ourselves and generate expectations about ourselves. Since there is always something going on the web, the constant urge to be a part of it feeds an increasingly anxious feeling.

FoMO is not just about losing something

Research from the Clute Institute indicates that the feeling of missing something is made up of other sensations such as irritability, anxiety, and inadequacy.

According to research, irritability and anxiety are understood as behaviors that reflect a feeling of inadequacy, which in turn strongly impacts self-esteem. So the act of rolling your timeline and seeing someone you know is experiencing something incredible makes you wonder.

“Why isn’t my life so amazing?”

“Why am I not living this too?”

As Solomon explained in “The Feeling of Inadequacy”, published in 1928 in Welfare Magazine, all these questions, addressed from ourselves to ourselves, lead to a feeling of inferiority. We ended up feeling inferior about the image of a day off that may have been made months ago, or a party that was sometimes not as cool as the picture that was posted.

Self-esteem in the age of likes

In addition to irritability, anxiety, and inadequacy, an individual’s FOMO levels are also directly linked to their self-esteem, which directly relates to how people feel about themselves. However, researchers in the field of psychology point out that people do not always evaluate their feelings about themselves consciously, which is a full plate for anxiety.

In recent years the impact on the mental health of social network users such as Instagram – considered by the Royal Society for Public Health as the most harmful network for young people – has been much discussed. These discussions often point to the content of posts as the main cause of the problem, as exposure in small, continuous doses to photos and texts that always show the best angles and experiences of one’s life makes users compare, question themselves. and develop the feeling of inadequacy already explained above.

However, it’s not like we are while checking social networks, lamenting that we’re not having fun on the beach on Thursday or wearing that beautiful day look. As much as the comparison does not happen so literally and directly, it is still undeniable that exposure to such content impacts our self-esteem.

According to DeJong, self-esteem can be either explicit or implicit. As the terms themselves suggest, the construction of explicit self-esteem happens when we consciously evaluate ourselves; while implicit self-esteem is built when this process happens unconsciously.

Constantly looking at the phone during the day also means that we are exposing ourselves to a lot of content that invites us to self-evaluate and compare – albeit unconsciously. So without even realizing it, the habit of browsing social networks can transcend the mobile screen and affect the way we see ourselves.

Anxiety also drives the market

The feeling of missing something, beyond the most common examples of friend posts we see on social networks, is also extremely useful for consumption – both material goods and experiences and information. Have you ever wondered how sometimes just seeing the stories of friends who went to a music festival can make you sad that you’re not there and probably want to buy a ticket for the next edition – which, not by chance? , may even be in pre-sale?

Marketing and sales scholars point out that the feeling of missing something directly influences our buying decisions. The impulse of consumption, in this context, is the opportunity not to miss such a good (or even better) experience than those around us.

How to make the internet healthier?

After this text it may seem that social networks only do harm, but it is important to remember not. The point is that with the volume of information the internet makes accessible, the processes of comparison with each other and the possible damage to self-esteem are intensified – which makes the discussion about the responsibility of the content we post, who we follow and how to build it. a healthier and increasingly important internet. As Luiza Brandão and Anna Célia Carvalho have already pointed out on the IRIS blog, mental health is a cause both on and offline for the whole year.