In the society we live in today it is more common than not that people will have some form of social media. Social media is a great way to keep in touch with people that live long distances apart, and for communication overall, but the side of social media that many do not see advertised is the way it can, and is, negatively affect mental health and self image. Some issues such as comparison and lacking communication skills can be caused by something as simple as being active on a social media platform.
Comparison
“Comparing yourself to the unrealistic, filtered, and curated lives of others on social media can increase anxiety, depression, and poor body image.” -Understanding Social Comparison on Social Media
The usage of social media has caused an increase of teenagers and adults alike to use the unrealistic lifestyle videos and extravagant photos to compare to their life, when in reality, no one actually lives that way. As Understanding Social Comparison on Social Media reveals comparing yourself to the filtered, edited, and almost impossible way of living that can be seen online is only causing negative self image. Comparison from social media over time can cause a feeling that the things you have are not good enough, or the way you are living is not up to a standard that the internet has made, when it is actually not possible to achieve. The constant comparison when looking at social media can cause feelings of social and emotional isolation, which causes people to withdraw from social interactions to save themselves from judgement.
Communication Skills
Various studies have found that the more people use social media the more their ability to have in person conversations decline. So, an increase of social media activity equals a decrease in people’s ability to communicate in face-to-face relationships. Being on social media does not immediately cause people to lose communication skills, but overtime people start overly relying on the digital communicate aspect to social media, making it feel very uncomfortable when having a direct conversation. This will cause great issues in the future when it is time for job applications and job interviews because people have not developed the skill over time, which causes them to be left behind in a sense. This lack of communication skills, or relationship skills, causes people to not have the ability to handle themselves in person-to-person communication, and allowing all the people they know to progress without them, causing loneliness.
All in all, using the things you see on social media platforms and comparing that to the way you live your life, is not helping in anyway, but rather causing more issues. Also, the way people rely completely on social media for communication, overall diminishes how well people can manage themselves in person to person conversations. Together they cause people to feel as though they are by themselves, making people have a negative outlook on many aspects of their lives. These factors ultimately contribute to emotional and social isolation, causing withdrawal from face-to-face conversations, and cause a bad outlook on people’s self image.
The Golden Thread 
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