Trying to reduce stress? Stay away from social media.

College students have a lot of stress. Whether it be their school lives, their family lives, trying to land that internship next semester, trying to find housing for next year, etc., the list is endless. Now when the stress gets to be too much sometimes how many of us go and check our social media site, kind of as a time out from the real world? For example, you’re feeling stressed about upcoming due dates and exams so you take a few minutes to see what other people are up to on Instagram and Twitter to distract yourself for the time being. I know I do this way to often and usually this does calm me down, or so I thought. New research shows that checking your social media sites may actually be adding stress to you when you are really trying to eliminate it!

In this article a quick study was done to see how people who were networked via social media’s stress levels compared to those who were not networked. Their study found that social network users 14% more likely to characterize their lives as “somewhat stressful while non-users were 28% more likely to say their lives were “not at all” stressful. These results then made the researchers question why this was trend occurred.

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The researchers came up with a few possible reasons as to why there is such an evident association between social media and stress. The first was the “keeping up with the jonses” effect, meaning that social media is the most prominent way people hear about new fashion trends, movies, music and other hot products. This influence social media has on the latest trends also seems to correlate with stress. It was found that people who thought social media influences the products they buy significantly were 455 more likely to say their lives were “very stressful”.  Then there was the “pressure to portray your ideal selves for everyone to see”.  40% of social media users admitted that they post things that make them look better, and this need to control how we appear to others also has a very strong correlation with stress. In fact, it was found that people who post things on sites like Facebook or Twitter that are going to improve how they appear to others are over 4.5 times more likely to “always” feel stressed.  A final example is simply feeling the need to be on our electronic devices all the time is a huge stress booster. 51% of adults admit to being addicted to their digital devices and these said addicts are 32% more likely than non-addicts to say their lives are more stressful.

 I definitely agree that social media is adding stress to our lives, but I don’t think it adds as much stress as the article/study makes it seem like it does. The study should have also looked into what other factors of stress may have been affecting the participants of their research to make sure they would have come to a more conclusive answer. All in all, if you are feeling overwhelmingly stressed, put the phone down! It’s only going to add some more stress that you don’t need. 

 

5 thoughts on “Trying to reduce stress? Stay away from social media.

  1. LIAM CONLON

    I never suspected for social media to cause more stress. It is a good thing to keep in mind and to try and avoid when the stress begins to build up. Luckily there are many stress relieving activities. This Website has a few suggestions to relieve stress.

  2. KARISSA SKYLAR DIXON

    I can take both sides on this issue and the controversy of technology itself. I feel as if we aren’t optimizing technology in order to educate in schools and universities. Maybe if we were presented some sort of technological interactive means of learning aid in classes, we would have more interested students. On the social media issue, each person could view it differently. Some people scroll through their feed to see close friend’s pictures and happy things. Some people, however, have friends that are dramatic and rude. I guess it all depends.

  3. MATTHEW LEIGHTON BOTBYL

    I totally agree with what you’re saying. Over Thanksgiving break, I didn’t touch my computer once, and it felt unbelievably relaxing. I think it’s necessary for kids our age to put technology aside for a little bit so that we can regain our sanity. Stress builds up, and sometimes an empty agenda without social media is just what we need.

  4. HELENA SARA PRICE

    Your article is very interesting, although I must disagree for me personally. When I go on social media I can actually tend to forget about stressful situations and just catch up with friends or look at pictures! Although, I do understand how it can cause stress I do agree with you that the article does seem to exaggerate the amount it may cause. Check out this article if you want to see some more info about stress and social media! http://www.realbuzz.com/articles/10-reasons-social-media-stresses-us-out/

  5. SHAWN DOUGLAS QUINN

    I agree with you that it is unlikely that social media websites are adding incredible amounts of stress to our lives, but definitely believe they are contributing factors to everyday stress depending on how they are used. I know many people including myself are often on social media when procrastinating on school work or other things that need to be done. I doubt that the mere usage of social media adds a lot of stress when there aren’t more important tasks to be completed. This study could be taken a step further if it analyzed the different situations people use social media under and measured the change in stress levels for each one.

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