First off, let me start by saying I am not a heavy consumer of social media.  Other than LinkedIn, I am not very active at all on social media.  This is not a critique of social media, I just never got into Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, etc.  I also don’t want this to sound like an old man on the porch yelling at kids to get off my lawn!

However, I am often surrounded by others who are major users, spending considerable time scrolling through their socials.  While there are benefits to social media, there are some major drawbacks as well.  

Unfortunately, we have seen a major increase in mental health issues that corresponds with the rise of social media platforms.  Although this is only my opinion, I do believe that one of the main reasons for this is that social media is like a highlight tape of people’s lives.  Look at how great my family is, how talented my kids are, where we went on our great vacation, the amazing food I am eating, etc. 

Very few people will post when they wake up feeling like crap, or their kids caught a bug and threw up all night, or they rear-ended another driver on the way to work, or their partner broke up with them.  Even if people did post it, I don’t think they would get a lot of view or likes. 

We are not able to live a highlight reel of our life.  We have to go through the ups and downs, the good and the bad and the pains and the pleasure.  That is the way life works.  However, if you are alone in your room having just gone through something tough and you go on-line and everyone else in the world looks like they have a perfect life, it can be easy to think “I am alone”  “Why me” “My Life Sucks!”.  Overtime this can lead to depression, anxiety and many other issues.

The really unfortunate part is that it is the pain in life that teaches us great lessons.  As we come out the other side of it, we gain resilience and confidence that “this too shall pass”.  However, we have to be in the right frame of mind to receive these lessons.  Learning lessons from adversity takes reflection.

Too many time notifications from social media and other electronic media often distract us from taking the time to learn the lessons that life is trying to teach us.

The next time you are scrolling, if you feel your mood shifting from light to dark or heavy, maybe the best thing to do would be to take a break from social media and ground yourself in the real world, warts and all!