That’s how bad social media makes us feel

A new study further confirms what many suspected.
Social media is addictive.
– They give us a temporary sense of well-being and prevent us from, for example, finishing that job report or going to exercise, says Angela Ahola, doctor of psychology.

Social media is designed to create a sense of well-being in us. This triggers different types of neurochemical substances in our brains that are addictive, including dopamine.

– Even if we have willpower and believe we can resist, there are myriads of engineers and app developers who are a thousand times better at making us fall there again and again, says the doctor of psychology.

Triggers anxiety and stress

She says there are two different components to the status landscape: what people think about my posts and keeping track of how well others are doing.

– We belong to a social species and want to belong to a group. It has to do with survival. Then the opinions of others become important to us, says Angela Ahola.

She tells us that when we see all these successful lives in social media, you can feel like a failure. It triggers our anxiety and stress if you feel that you are not having the same success as others on social media.

Better self-esteem and stress level after three weeks

The new study from Lund University shows that already after three weeks of less use of social media, you could see a positive development.

– When we don’t focus on other people’s lives and other people’s success, when we get to feel satisfied with our lives just as they are – then we relax, says the doctor of psychology.

She believes that the constant input and exposure to other people’s lives causes the brain to be triggered and you get a higher stress level.

Three tips to reduce addiction

Ahola talks about three important points that help to reduce their use of social media.

– The first is the “proximity principle”. It is about the fact that I will use what I have close to me more frequently. If I want to stop eating chips, I can’t have them next to me.

– The second point is to “map mobile usage”. Then you can see how much time you spend per day.

The last point is about avoiding multitasking.

– It is better to finish one thing at a time. Multitasking is useless. But the “proximity principle” can help you do one task at a time, concludes Angela Ahola.