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Does social media make social anxiety worse?

I use messenger but not Facebook and I speak to 1 person on snapchat but I was thinking of deleting snapchat in an effort to make my anxiety less bad. But does social media make it worse?

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Holy mother of 'not being blasphemous' social media is a catalyst for anxiety. I now only have messenger and it makes things a lot easier
Reply 2
Original post by Arcade22
Holy mother of 'not being blasphemous' social media is a catalyst for anxiety. I now only have messenger and it makes things a lot easier


Would you say that looking at public stories on snapchat makes things worse?
yeah it does, on instagram a good friend of mine invited loads of her friends out for her birthday and I wasnt invited... so I get to see all their pictures and how much fun they had and now I dont want to go to school or see any of them because it will be awkward.
Reply 4
It does if you are so inclined in the first place.

I don't feel social anxiety at all, and so consequently it doesn't affect me that way at all.
Reply 5
It depends on how you use social media. I use it just to interact with people every now and then, if it’s something important they’ll call or text me.

I don’t use social media for entertainment, killing time or keeping up to date with friends. If we’re friends and want to keep up to date, arrange for some drinks and we’ll catch up, I love it when people show me photos and tell me what they’ve been up to. It’s so much better than seeing it through a screen.
(edited 6 years ago)
Yeppp, I'd recommend not using social media. Only what you really need to and is beneficial. Hence I stopped using Snapchat and Instagram. Pointless really...
Yes it does. I don't think it's any coincidence my mental health improved dramatically once Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Snapchat were all deleted from my phone (never used Instagram).

Social media is terrible for mental health because you're comparing your life with the highlight reel of someone else's.

It's all so fake anyway. I remember one girl I was friends with putting a status up with one of those Facebook end of year videos which said something like "it's been the best year ever, made so many memories with wonderful people" etc. I knew full well it hadn't been because she was regularly messaging me about how unhappy she was and how her friends hadn't kept in touch.
idk i have social anxiety aswell and when i tried to stop us king social media i felt very “out of the loop” so not really any better, also because i used to post fairly regularly on twitter/insta when i stopped everyone thought i was attention seeking or had something weird going on with me so was counterproductive in the whole “not getting judged based off what u post on social media” thing
Original post by sr90
I remember one girl I was friends with putting a status up with one of those Facebook end of year videos which said something like "it's been the best year ever, made so many memories with wonderful people" etc. I knew full well it hadn't been because she was regularly messaging me about how unhappy she was and how her friends hadn't kept in touch.


lolol
Seeing my friends receive loads of messages wishing them a happy birthday on facebook but when mine came along only receiving 2 was humiliating. I deleted facebook after that, it wasn't doing me any favours.
Original post by Anonymous
Would you say that looking at public stories on snapchat makes things worse?


I wouldn't say WORSE but I wouldn't fast better either
Low testosterone makes social anxiety worse.

go lift
Original post by rickyrossman
Low testosterone makes social anxiety worse.

go lift


Original post by rickyrossman
Low testosterone makes social anxiety worse.

go lift


Even when I’m a girl?
@OP

Yes even if you're a girl. Physical strength is the antidote to anxiety.
Honestly don’t know. I was pretty socially awkward in year 7 and didn’t have social media back then. I think it warps peoples expectations of what’s normal but I don’t think it necessarily causes social anxiety.
Original post by Anonymous
Seeing my friends receive loads of messages wishing them a happy birthday on facebook but when mine came along only receiving 2 was humiliating. I deleted facebook after that, it wasn't doing me any favours.


Same :| I also never updated my profile picture because I was afraid that I would get no likes
Is it bad to watch specific you tubers as well (like vloggers, beauty gurus, etc)
Original post by Anonymous
I use messenger but not Facebook and I speak to 1 person on snapchat but I was thinking of deleting snapchat in an effort to make my anxiety less bad. But does social media make it worse?


Of course social media can be bad for your mental health. Facebook even admitted it just before Christmas last year:

https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/12/hard-questions-is-spending-time-on-social-media-bad-for-us/

Ignoring the poor attempt that the article to suggest "interacting" *more can make you happier (there aren't too many other studies that support this), it's fairly obvious social media isn't designed to be conducive you positive mental well being.


* Usage is a critical metric of any app in the tech industry. I personally found it underhand and in poor taste this article admitted that social media can have negative health consequences but then tried to boost their on usage metric (and profitability) in the same article. It's also nice of the guy to cite papers to support this that are hidden behind paywalls :colonhash:
Original post by Wilfred Little
lolol


Not the person you're thinking of. Someone else.

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