Currently, social networks are part of people’s daily life and are even platforms that have transformed the way people relate daily. However, excessive and constant contact with these can affect people’s mental health.
According to the clinical psychologist, Luis Alberto Guiguí, staying in contact with social networks is a process that can be “somewhat harmful”, since being exposed to social networks can be a symptom of constant comparisons and has become an exclusive media, which can generate an annulment in other communicational aspects.
“We also have to know that we must take care of social networks algorithms, which can generate some type of addiction to certain types of information, which generates anxiety and depression,” he adds.
This dynamic of constant access to visual information and diverse content can have drastic impacts on the mental health of people who do not restrict or manage their contact with networks.
Guiguí explains that there are a number of consequences on a personal level. Among these:
- At mental health level, comparison to models of people in social networks can generate anxiety and depression.
- Being in constant attention to social networks and cell phone can affect sleep and that generates daytime problems.
- By becoming a single means of communication we will tend to systematic isolation.
- Also in relation to everyday activities, they can generate a problem of productivity and constant attention.
The importance of establishing limits
Given these the effects of social networks, many people try to move away from them for seasons, with the intention of reducing the dependence they generate.
Specialists recommend this practice, since it can have very favorable effects on people.
“To a large extent, moving away from social networks can reduce anxiety and depression, it can also generate an evaluation space of what our communication and social media consumption habits are, as well as our comparison parameters,” says Guiguí.
At the discretion of the interviewee, another favorable effect of this is to be able to resume physical activities and personal contact, since constant attention to social networks has become impersonal the current communication.
Also, Guiguí lists the following recommendations for healthy use of networks:
- It is necessary to resume face -to -face communication, since that will reduce the consumption of social networks.
- Use part of our time for other types of activities, such as reading, painting, exercising.
- Define the time to connect and evaluate, as well as to do other activities.
- Silence the applications, so that they do not reach the cell phone, or to the digital clock.
- Replace being attentive to social networks, for activities with people, in open spaces.
- Eliminate or avoid content that generates obsession or that makes us fall in comparisons
- Follow information or accounts that generate value content, so that the time dedicated to networks is productivity.