The social media fix

Do you feel like everyone, other than yourself, is having the time of their life every time you scroll through Facebook and Instagram? The pictures of glamorous weddings, baby bumps, toothless little ones, and engagements in the Mara must be making you feel like you do not have a life.

And the hashtags are taking a toll on you. #Wanderlust. #HappilyEverAfter. #OverTheMoon. It is almost impossible not to get envious of everyone else who seems to be living it up as you descend slowly into an empty, lonely, humdrum place.

The more you scroll through the profiles of your friends on social media, the more perfect their lives seem and the worse yours feels. Little wonder, then, that you end up feeling blue and hopeless. A cloud of misery and depression hovers over your head like a virus. You are such a bore, you tell yourself. Stiff, rigig, and dull.

That, my friend, is the new mental illness of the digital age. And it is not any better than the rest. In fact, a 2015 research — by Swansea University’s College of Human and Health Science — suggests that too much time online could damage your immune system and make you more susceptible to… wait for it… flus and colds.

Social media addiction has also been linked to depressive symptoms presenting as difficulty concentrating, remembering details, fatigue and feelings of hopelessness, leading to a psychological phenomenon known as “social comparison”, according to a 2014 study by scholars from the University of Toledo in the US titled Social Comparison, Social Media, and Self-Esteem.

Humans are inherently wired to be social, and comparison to others with positive characteristics can inspire one to become more like the person one looks up to. But it can also cause one to feel inadequate and hence have poorer self-evaluation.

Mr Kent Murithi, 26, says there is sometimes an itch to “measure up” to his friends’ profiles, their pictures, and their description of themselves in ways that best represent their ideal self-views.

“But the more I try to be like them, the more I lose a piece of myself,” he says. “I think I have learnt to stay low because publicity never ends well. It may hurt people, and you could be hurt too.”

But for Gracie Nyambura, 18, the need to “be like her friends” has left her lonely.

“I tried too hard,” says the student. “I did not have the money or sometimes even the time to join them, and slowly I was left out in most weekend plans that I would later see on my Facebook timeline. It is not a great feeling.”

Unknown to these two and many other social media users — there are nearly five million Kenyan Facebook users alone — the need to match up and the resulting feeling of inadequacy are a harbinger of something worse, such as depression due to the amount of time spent using social media and number of visits to these sites per week.

Researchers at the University of Houston in the US have reported that the more we click on people’s photos, the more we feel inadequate, insecure and left out within the realms of what should otherwise be a “social” media site.

This constant view of the better lives of others “elicits feelings of envy and the distorted belief that others lead happier, more successful lives”, reports another study by the University Of Pittsburgh’s School Of Medicine. The study also showed that the more time young adults use social media, the more likely they are to be depressed.

As Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th US president, aptly put it, comparison is a killer of joy. Why, then, do people still log on to their social media accounts and stare into what feels like a bottomless pit that is fed each second with fresher and fresher personal details?

SENSE OF GRATIFICATION

Researchers from the University of California in the US discovered that when they scanned the brains of 32 teenagers on social media, a part of the brain — the striatum in the forebrain called nucleus accumbens — was activated when the teenagers saw large numbers of “likes” on their own photos or the photos of peers in a social network similar to Instagram.

This is the same region of the brain that is activated to enhance a sense of gratification such as by eating chocolate or winning a lottery, and it is particularly sensitive in adolescence.

The study, published in the journal Psychological Science in May this year, showed that when the teenagers, ages 13 to 18, saw their photos with a large number of likes, they activated areas in their brains that are known as the social brain as well as regions linked to visual attention. While the study was specific to adolescents, it offers insights into what may happen in adults’ brains when using social media.

Nairobi-based psychologist Ken Munyua says social media, like a drug, leads to addiction that nibbles away attention spans.

 “The brain has a way of centralising what is normal and what keeps you happy,” he explains. “It can adjust to the Internet as a stimulator, so it will be happy with the Internet, and thus get hooked to scrolling through social media pages or checking emails.”

It is thus not surprising that by the time you finish reading this article — in less than five minutes, we hope — Google would have processed over 12 million searches and nearly 3.5 million people would have logged on to Facebook.

In the next one minute after you finish this story and flip to the next page — in seconds, really — nearly 100 million emails would have been sent.

“It is now easy to find people depressed because they have not used the Internet,” says Mr Munyua. “This is what I call post-modem stress depression, like withdrawal symptoms, which can also be looked at like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”

PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events, and Mr Munyua’s sentiments echo those of researchers at Swansea University and the University of Milan three years ago, who found out that young people who use the Internet for excessively long periods can suffer “similar withdrawal symptoms to substance misusers”.

“While social media is a good thing, it is, sadly, replacing real conversation with words and emoticons that do not mean much. People nowadays do not date or court anymore, they believe texts and chats are sufficient,” Mr Munyua adds.

People, inherently, need to be liked and accepted by others, thus social media can be seen as the route to this fulfilment. But, eventually, social media users are Janus-faced, in that they live parallel lives with a bipolarity of feelings and may want to publicly show that everything is working well when it is not.

“Kenyans need to understand that what is seen on social media is a façade,” says Mr Munyua. “For that one perfect selfie there are several bad ones in the background that were not uploaded. People only put the good stuff online for the likes and approvals. That is why we are seeing a rise in socialites.”

A lack of likes is interpreted by the brain as real-life rejection, and this, Mr Munyua says, is damaging, particularly in people who require excessive compliments and admiration to feel good about themselves — the narcissistic personality types.

Because narcissists — people who hold an inflated view of themselves, believe they are special and unique, and expect special treatment from others while believing they owe little or nothing in return — are unable to regulate their own self-esteem, they must rely on external sources for affirmation, says Mr Munyua.

That search for affirmation, unfortunately, comes at an even bigger price that the data bundles as it ravages the immune system. An online survey of 505 participants by scientists at Swansea and Milan universities showed that those hooked on the Internet reported poor diet (and may become obese as there is little activity) and sleep patterns, and these habits compromise their immunity.

Eventually, poor social media habits lead to depression, loneliness, stress and anxiety, according to the study, Problematic Internet Usage and Immune Function, published in August last year.

“Finally, activation of the sympathetic system, responsible for regulating many homeostatic mechanisms in living organisms such as sweating, and which is noted in those with problematic internet use, is correlated with increases in adrenaline and cortisol levels, and leads to decreased immune function, especially in those with high levels of reported stress,” the paper adds.

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LOG OFF INTERNET IF YOU...

• Lose track of time while online

• Sacrifice needed hours of sleep to spend time online

• Become agitated or angry when online time is interrupted

• Check email several times a day

• Become irritable if not allowed access to the Internet and become irritable, moody or depressed when not online

• Spend time online in place of homework or chores

• Prefer to spend time online rather than with friends or family

• Disobey time limits that have been set for Internet usage

• Lie about amount of time spent online or “sneak” online when no one is around

• Form new relationships with people you have met online

• Seem preoccupied with getting back online when away from the computer

•  Lose interest in activities that were enjoyable before you had online access