Impact Of Social Media On Stress

It is laborious to recollect life before social media. However did we tend to ever recognize what our distant, high school friends’ youngsters looked like? Or what they broiled their family for dinner? Or the fabulous places they visited on their seemingly-bi-monthly tropical vacations?

Although Facebook and Twitter feel nearly present these days, in line with the bench Foundation, solely 60 % of USA citizens belong to a social network (For the record, our information says 61 % however we will defer to Pew). Shockingly, which means brim over common fraction of individuals within the U.S. could ne’er see an image of their niece’s swimming trophy or recognize if that guy they met at the conference is nearing his biennial job day.

On the other hand the question is; are the 40 % of Americans who did not use social network are really worse off? Are the twits and status updaters living a good life of a stressful one? We have quickly found that the social network users are in reality only 14 % more likely than those who did not use it and they are characterized as somewhat stressful. The people who do not use social media conversely are around 28 % more likely than users to say that their living is not at all stressful. Surely there is a strong association between social media and stress, but the question is why? Here are some possibilities

Keeping Up With The Trends

Whether you like it or not, social media is one of the most common ways people learn about upcoming movies, music, fashion trends, books and magazines etc. Around 28 % people say that their friends on social media influence the music they used to listen to, 36 % of them the TV shows and movies they watch and 36% of them look for the brands and products they buy.

All of these factors appear to be correlated with stress. People who say that social media influences the products they buy a lot are 45 % more likely to say their daily lives are much stressful. That is reason may be we cannot afford all the fancy of new products our friends are buying. Because we are much busy to follow the trends in music or fashion industry. What so ever the reason, it is evident that the more we pay attention to our friends’ activities on social media, tastes, and possessions, the more stressful our lives will be.

Keeping Up With Yourself

There is a secondary, if it is unconscious, effects of all this social media influence: We feel pressured to describe ourselves for everyone to see. After surveyed, about 40 % of users who use social media admitted that they usually post/share things to improve their image. Honestly, how often you see someone check-in at Dollar General, boast about their job demotion, or post pictures of the frozen chicken nuggets they just microwaved for their kids? Seldom, isn’t it? Instead, we used to highlight the positive aspects of our lives and personalities, if only to compete with everyone else who is doing the same thing.
This need to be measured and curate our social media persona has a strong relation with stress. People who say that they post things on Facebook or Twitter to improve their image are over 4.5 times more likely than other people to always feel stressed.

Lack of Privacy

The lack of privacy and discretion in social media could be a reason of driving up our stress levels. Around every part of our lives is only a click away from being a viral content, are we doomed to high anxiety level? Our data suggests this is possible e.g.
• Social network users who are often concerned about their privacy are 20 % more likely to characterize their lives as stressful.
• 83 % people believe that Facebook does the worst job of protecting privacy, as compared to 11 % who say Google, and 6 % who say Apple.
• 69 % of Facebook users do not even believe that the social media does enough to protect privacy.
• 77 % of Americans do NOT believe employers should review Facebook profiles as part of the job application process (even though they do).
Obviously, many people with high level of privacy concerns never join social media in the first place. That might just be too much stress for them to handle.