Topic Tuesday // Symptoms of Social Media - Looking after our Mental Health online // Tues 19th Feb, 7pm AEDT

Yep @holly299 I have heard the "online" disclaimer can be inaccurate!

Hey @frog

I don't think this is really a discussion I have much to contribute to. I tend to avoid most social media and therefore it doesn't 'rule' my life like it does for some people. I understand how much social media can affect some people - especially when there is no much negative stuff out there but I do not find that as much because of my limited exposure to it - so probably best to leave this discussion to those that use social media more.

Alrighty for those legends that are still about @Zoe7 @Former-Member @frog @TAB 🙂 Question number 2...

Comparison is described as the thief of joy and social media makes comparisons that much easier... What are some of the challenging feelings that are provoked by being on social media?

@Zoe7 thats absolutely fine, we will be getting into some of the positives to come from social media if that's something you're interested in because we are so innundated with the 'evils of social media' we often don't recognise the good it does

It's the total Barrage of notifications that's extremely hard to deal with @Former-Member

"Your friend said this", "Your friend posted something".

I did not know any of these people, they were not my "friends" - I had no idea who they were!

I'm someone who is "older", I never grew up with these constant spam emails & unwanted notifications (from social media etc) - that I now get.

I have not really adjusted to getting 20 + (mostly spam) emails & notifications (electronically) every day.

I even get lots of sms "Reminder" messages for appointments - when I already know that I have that appointment, because I booked that appointment myself.

Adge

No problem @Zoe7 🙂 Although it's awesome to hear of people who don't rely on social media too much, for sure. Sounds like you have good boundaries with it. Super positive and well done on balancing it all out, gives me hope I will get there one day too Thank you.

I used to feel a lot of shame and guilt when I would see others who were juggling full time uni, work, volunteering, relationships and investing time into extra-curricular activities. The hyper-critical voice in my head would berate me for not being able to ‘do it all’ like others; it didn’t matter what I was doing, I was so focused on what I wasn’t doing. There was constant feedback telling me that I wasn’t good enough which was super difficult to deal with.

Hi @Zoe7

Hi @frog

Hi @TAB

Totally.. Sometimes it's easy to think everyone else has it all. When at the end of the day many of those people are experiencing the same pains and insecurities as we are... It's amazing what a curated social media account will do. Sometimes a reminder that we are all human, regardless of circumstance, we all experience fear and pain etc 🙂 Thank you @holly299