Is social media stunting your growth?
On a physical level, probably not.
But emotionally? Don’t be too quick to answer no.
A quiet but growing number of people are rallying around the dark side of spending too much time on social media sites like Facebook, claiming doing so can foster intense negative feelings such as inadequacy, irrelevance, and failure.
While social media platforms have tremendous power to build a brand, share a message, establish and grow relationships, it also has just as much power to amplify the holes in your life.
It’s natural in any social situation to compare yourself to others. What others wear, what others drive, where others live and work…these yardsticks of success have always been around. The challenge with social media lies in its 24/7 access and in-your-face properties, serving as constant reminders of what you’ve done — or haven’t. When it seems as if everyone else is traveling the world, making tons of money, living with their soul mate…and you aren’t…it can be difficult to keep your self-esteem high.
Certainly, everyone has a choice about whether or not to use Facebook. At this point, it’s not a requirement of citizenship to have a page on the social media giant. Still, millions of people do, and there are emotional consequences, both good and bad, with having one.
Is social media stunting your growth?
Take this short quiz to find out.
1. Have you ever found yourself looking up an old flame on Facebook even if you are currently in a committed relationship with someone else?
2. Are you friends with people you went to high school with that you didn’t really like in high school?
3. Has anyone from high school who you didn’t like requested to be your friend?
4. Have you ever felt any of the following emotions after reading the posts of your friends: jealous, depressed, angry, less than worthy, sad?
5. Do you find yourself comparing your life to your peers from high school in terms of your achievements vs. theirs?
If you answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, social media may be holding you back in one way or another. On the other hand, you may simply enjoy social media for its social and connection aspects. You are simply a curious person who is completely confident in and happy with who you are and you don’t put any stock in what others are up to related to who you are.
Note that this is not an official quiz and I am not a professional psychologist. This is merely to raise awareness about how social media affects the human condition in all its facets.
In the end, you have to take social media for what it is — a tool. Nothing more, nothing less. How you use the tool and respond to what it builds is, in the end, up to you.
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