‘DESPITE ALL THE BAD
THINGS, THERE ARE
SOME POSITIVES,
SUCH AS FORMING
COMMUNITIES OF
LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE’
But all that scrolling isn’t making us happy
- experts believe social media use is
associated with a raft of psychological
problems, including anxiety, addiction,
depression, loneliness, body dysmorphia
and suicidal thoughts.
Scientists in Austria, for example, found
people reported lower moods after using
Facebook for 20 minutes, compared to
those who had browsed the internet.
Similarly, a study by the UK’s Royal Society
for Public Health found that Instagram
was the worst social media channel for
promoting inadequacy, anxiety and
depression. The 2017 poll of almost 1500
users revealed that the platform made
them feel inadequate about their own lives
and jealous of other people’s.
VIRTUALLY LIVING
American behavioural scientist Ashley
Williams believes it doesn’t bode well for
our mental health. “We see time and again
that the constant distraction of social
media is making people feel very unhappy,”
she says. “The moments we’re spending on
our computer or phone [is] time we’re not
spending living our lives. It could lead to
risky behaviour, such as checking your
phone while driving, or activities that,
although not life threatening, can certainly
be damaging, such as obsessively checking
social media while at work or with friends,
or spending more time on your phone
than with your children and spouse.”
Larissa Peterson* knows how that song
goes. The Auckland advertising consultant
admits she was so busy living other people’s
lives that she stopped living her own.
“Instagram and Twitter, especially, were
sucking the energy out of my life,” she says.
At one stage, the 39-year-old mother of
a seven-year-old daughter and a three-year-
old son estimates she was spending more
than 30 hours a week on her phone,
checking and posting on those platforms.
“It becomes so addictive,” she says. “Given
that I have a full-time, full-on job, two
children, a husband and a sick mother, it
was no wonder I was constantly drained.”
It wasn’t always that way; Larissa says she
was a late adopter. “Years ago, when
everyone was getting on Facebook,
I told people I didn’t want to be a sheep.
But about three years ago, I started
managing the social media accounts at
work, which I really enjoyed. Despite all the
bad things about social media, there are
some positives, such as forming
communities of like-minded people.”
It was a slippery slope, and before long
Larissa had opened personal Twitter,Instagram and Facebook accounts. At rst,
she enjoyed sharing photos of everything
from new clothes to the view from her
of ce window. The dopamine hits she got
from every ‘like’ or new follower weren’t
bad, eit her.
“It got to the point where I’d get anxious
when I hadn’t checked every few minutes
to see how many more likes had rolled in,”
she says. “I’d spend ages thinking about
what I was going to post, and if a post didn’t
get a certain number of likes, I’d delete it,
then agonise over what went wrong.”
Eventually, other people’s posts made
her feel “like a failure”. “Everyone seemed
to be on holiday in exotic locations, looking
perfect. It was as though everyone was
living the dream except me.”BACK TO REALITY
The crunch point came when Larissa’s
daughter said, “All you ever want to do is
spend time with those strangers in your
phone instead of with me.”
“That comment really oored me,” says
Larissa. “I realised how out of control the
whole thing had become.” PhotographsGetty Images30 NEXT / SEPTEMBER 2019