The Psychological Costs of Social Media

By Sterling Hawkins, MSW, LICSW, LCSW-C

Are most of your days governed by checking social media? Does your day begin with recent news posts, Twitter feeds, Facebook notifications, or Snapchat?

The average person has five social media accounts and spends two hours on it every day. We are learning the negative impact of social media on mental health.

If you notice that you are:

• Becoming more anxious or insecure with the volume, access, and control of information available

• Repeatedly checking in, emailing or virtually connecting to others

• Avoiding in-person contact with a preference for texting or emailing

It’s time to do some personal reflection to determine whether your social media presence and engagement is the best utilization of your time.

Last April I read a New York Times article titled “You’re too Busy, You need a Shultz Hour.” The author David Leonhardt described how former Secretary of State George Shultz in the 1980s liked to carve out one hour each week for quiet reflection: “Otherwise he would be pulled into moment to moment tactical issues, never able to focus on larger questions of National Security.” If Schultz required an hour each week in the 80s, long before social media existed, how much more time each week do we need for quiet reflection today?

Perhaps one remedy to the frenetic lives we’ve grown to accept involves seeing a choice. The choice to slow down and carve out more undistracted time. No phone calls, no email, no Twitter, no Facebook, mobile alerts, or podcasts. Fill that time with something meaningful, relaxing, or rewarding. Do something physical or spend time with a loved one.

Daniel J. Levitin, author of Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload notes that: “Every status update you read on Facebook, every tweet, or text message you get from a friend is competing with resources in your brain.” He says that if we want to be more productive and have more energy that we should go online at designated times. Otherwise we are constantly interrupted.

I have become more aware of the negative impact of social media in my own life. I am slowly taking steps to limit the clamor. I am reclaiming an uncomplicated and undistracted solitude that is becoming quite rare in a world where new technologies override old forms of communication.

What are you doing to limit the negative impact of social media on your life? If you find yourself unable to put down the phone, log off your computer or turn off your television, perhaps it’s time to do so.