Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram have connected countless people across the world, helping them to keep their friendships and relationships healthy despite being in different cities - or even different countries. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, they played a key part in bringing together the elderly and young alike to fight off loneliness and isolation.But many people still wonder if there is a connection between social media usage and mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. Can social media cause depression? Can using social media platforms make people feel unhappy and dissatisfied? In this article, we will explore how social media can cause depression and how you can counteract the negative impacts.

What’s the relationship between social media and depression?

Social media has become a big part of nearly everybody’s life. Not often can people go a full day without checking their social media feed, and for many, the platforms can become a major source of procrastination. Browsing social media can activate the reward centre of your brain, and the channels are designed to be addictive. Over usage can impact your mental health. Comparing your life to others through the platforms can also cause depression and FOMO (the fear of missing out). People tend to only show the best parts of their lives on social media, and seeing everyone else thriving and enjoying themselves, can damage your mental health and leave you feeling like you are not important enough or worthy of a good life.

Risks of social media

According to research, 81% of teens and 69% of adults in the United States use social media regularly. While this is a great way to stay connected to loved ones, it also puts most of the population at a growing risk of social media making them feel depressed, anxious, and insecure.You may be wondering - what makes people come back to social media when it makes them depressed? There are several key factors, such as browsing social media becoming a habit, it’s an easily accessible way to amuse yourself, and the unpredictable behaviour of social media platforms makes people repeatedly visit these platforms. You don’t know the number of likes, shares, or comments your post will get, you don’t know what new pictures will be uploaded, and you don’t know what funny videos you will find. This excitement is often hard to resist and keeps users engaged with social media platforms.

Fear of Missing Out

Visiting social media channels repeatedly encourages people to compare their social activities, careers, families and overall lives with others. If a lot of your friends are getting married or having babies, it can make you feel that you are falling behind, even if you don’t actually want to get married and have children yet. These missing experiences can leave you feeling that you are not achieving enough, thus creating depression and anxiety.It is easy to view the world with rose-tinted glasses when browsing social media and forget that behind their laptop screens, your friends, family members and even influencers also have their own issues and insecurities. When you start using social media to benchmark yourself against others, it can become a very damaging platform and impact your own happiness and health.According to a 2018 British research study, social media is linked to disrupted, delayed, and decreased sleep. This can be a result of overthinking what they have seen online, continued browsing rather than sleeping, and finding it difficult to navigate away from the virtual world. Lack of sleep impacts your mood and mental health and can further lead to depression, poor performance, and memory loss.

Social media and news feeds

As the use of social media platforms has increased tremendously, many news outlets have realised that it is a great place to educate users and give their stories the maximum reach. Social media has now become one of the greatest sources of news stories out there. One in every 5 people hears about breaking news directly from a social media platform, which means that people who use social media for longer are exposed to a higher frequency of bad news. If news stories are constantly being pushed into your social media feed, you are more likely to hear about topics that can cause anxiety and depression, such as:

•       News related to celebrity deaths
•       Natural disasters
•       Terrorism
•       Suicide attacks
•       Political issues

All these topics usually trend on social media, and although it is a good way to stay updated on current events, too much exposure can start to impact your mood. For example, if you struggle with health anxiety, reading news articles about celebrities with cancer can trigger you to focus and worry about it, leading to a refreshed sense of dread, whereas if you are anxious about being in crowded areas, hearing about terror attacks could amplify this.

Therapy can help.

Therapy helps individuals in different ways to treat depression, anxiety and a range of other mental health conditions, including those caused by social media. Therapy is a great method of treatment as it helps people to delve into all possible underlying causes and tackle the issue at its source. Therapy is not a scary or intimidating experience, and it typically involves a therapist and individual sitting together and sharing their thoughts in a safe, confidential setting. As an experienced counsellor based in Warrington, I have helped individuals to better understand the way their mind works, empowering them to see the silver lining and feel good rather than only focusing on negative and depressive things. Often I find that social media alone is not the cause of depression or anxiety, but it amplifies feelings that are already present. Together we can identify the real issues, discuss limiting your social media usage and review your progress to help you start enjoying your life more.