Can social media cause anxiety or is it all in our heads?

Social media can cause anxiety! But before you delete Facebook and start looking up landlines to call your teen using, you may want to know what's really happening. In this post I'll explain whether social media can make you anxious, as well as other ways it impacts our mental health.

Social media can cause anxiety.

Can social media cause anxiety? Or is it all in our heads? The answer to that question can be yes and no. Social media can be a great way to connect with friends and family, but it can also cause stress if you’re not careful. Many people use social media as a way to keep up with others’ lives, which can lead to feelings of jealousy or inadequacy.

This happens because people tend to post only the good stuff — like their vacations, parties, dinners out, etc. They don’t show the world what they had for dinner last night (or even worse, what they had for dinner last week), or how tired they are from working two jobs just so they can pay for their car payment each month.

Social media has also been shown to make people feel more self-conscious about their bodies and appearance than ever before. While it may seem like everyone else has an amazing body or life, it’s important to remember that this is not the case! Social media is often filled with fake accounts as well as edited photos that make everyone look perfect!

Anxiety is connected to social media interactions.

The link between anxiety and social media is not just a matter of perception. A study conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that social media interactions are connected with anxiety symptoms in young adults. The study looked at more than 1,300 undergraduate students from 11 different universities across the United States and found that those who used Facebook and Twitter more often were more likely to report symptoms of anxiety.

Specifically, young adults who said they were active on social media sites were about twice as likely to suffer from general anxiety disorder as those who didn't use them as much. The researchers also asked participants if they'd ever been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder or had taken medication for anxiety symptoms in the past 12 months.

The results showed no relationship between these factors and how much time someone spent on social media sites. However, because this study was cross-sectional, it's possible that people who already had anxiety may have been more likely to use social media sites — or vice versa — which would skew the results.

Social media has a negative impact on one's self confidence.

Social media is a powerful tool for building relationships, but it can also have an adverse impact on our self-esteem. A recent study published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology found that people who use Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites are more likely to experience low self-esteem.

The researchers surveyed 587 participants about their social media use and then had them complete a questionnaire designed to measure their self-esteem. The results showed that people who used social media for more than two hours per day reported lower self-esteem than those who didn't use it as much. This isn't surprising when you consider how easy it is to compare yourself with others on social media sites like Facebook.

People tend to post only the best aspects of their lives — vacations, parties and great accomplishments — without showing any of the hard work that goes into making these things happen. It can make you feel like your life isn't as good as theirs or that you're not as successful.

A recent study by Pew Research Center found that 88 percent of adults use Facebook; 71 percent use Instagram; 60 percent use Twitter; 47 percent use Pinterest; and 39 percent use Snapchat.

There are some great ways to reduce social media related anxiety.

The problem is that social media is designed to make you feel alone, even when you're with friends. You see photos of people smiling and laughing together and wonder why your life isn't like that. You scroll through your newsfeed and see all the exciting things other people are doing, which makes you feel like a loser for not having any exciting things to talk about.

But it's not just feeling lonely and left out that can lead to anxiety; it's also about feeling like you don't measure up to other people's standards. Social media makes it easy for us to compare ourselves to others, because we see what they post and how many likes they get on Instagram or Twitter.

Even if those pictures aren't real, they still create an expectation of what someone else's life looks like — which can make you feel like yours doesn't measure up.

In a nutshell

Yes, social media can cause anxiety in some cases. Due to the constant pressure from employers and friends, checking social media accounts so frequently may cause some people to feel anxious. It's tricky because everyone's experience with this topic will differ based on how often they check their accounts and the pressures they feel from sources mentioned above.

Social media is a double-edged sword that many don't want to live without but are reluctant to use because of its side effects.