Not a day goes by without another “Facebook scandal”. The most recent one is that for years, Facebook was aware of Instagram’s toxicity and its impact on teenagers’ mental health (shocker, right?). The toxicity partly comes from excessive use of these platforms and, yet, the creators knowingly design them in a way that pushes us to overuse them.

A study in 2018 by Globalwebindex showed that, on average, we spend 3 hours a day on social networks. This figure has got even bigger with the global Covid pandemic. Another study by Datareportal in 2020 on changes in consumption patterns shows that 43% of Internet users aged 16 to 64 are spending more time on social networks because of the pandemic.

How does this exposure shape our mental health?

Do you know how Facebook became so popular? Fruit Machines. Let us explain. The platform runs on rewards. Every time you post something, you get attention and that attention is embodied through likes. The reward can take other forms — a comment, a share, or even better, a follow. Each time one of these occurs, your brain releases dopamine and the platform becomes more and more addictive. Something you almost can’t live without. The development of this addiction is such that an American study carried out in 2017 by the psychologist Adam Alter showed that when a panel of young people aged between 15 and 18 were asked to make a choice between seeing their phones broken into pieces or having a bone in their hand broken, 46% of them chose the second option. Can you believe that? 46%. They didn’t just consider the second option, they picked it.

With time, other platforms were created and gained popularity. The Datareportal Global Overview report published in 2021 shows that more than half the world now uses social media. Over a billion users are active on Instagram, 397 million are active on Twitter. And just like that, social media has become a part of our routine, of our daily life. Slowly, then all at once.

Every day, we wake up, switch off our alarm and check out our notifications. We answer a couple of messages, watch a couple of Instagram stories. Anywhere we go, whatever we do, we’re either sharing something or reacting to something. We are exposed to so much information, so many opinions that we are bound to be shaped by them. That’s where the impact comes from.

If you’ve got this far, you must be thinking “here’s another gloomy article about how Internet will be my undoing”. No worries, that’s not our point. We’re here to show you how to manage this exposure.

How do we get the best out of social media?

Rest assured, it is possible to have healthy interactions on social media. Ghita Kitane, a comedian and speech therapist who shares funny videos on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, shared with us her experience on having a moderated and positive experience on the platforms in order to get the best of them. She has started comedy at the age of 16 with a masterclass organised by the Marrakech du Rire Festival and now uses social media platforms to share her passion with her friends and community.

1. Seek support:

“You need support from friends and family”

Her first piece of advice is to rely on your friends and family to get support and feedback. If you are unsure about posting something, share it with people you trust first. Seek advice, seek support. The key to having healthy interactions is to surround yourself with positive people who will help you see your worth and go beyond the trolls you may encounter.

2. Don’t try to please everyone:

“You can’t please everyone. Pleasing everyone is pleasing no-one.”

An easy trap on social media is the desire to please everyone. It can be very tempting to try to relate to everyone and share content that would suit everyone’s taste when, in fact, there’s no best way. Social media can be very dangerous when you lack confidence in the content you’re creating. The comedian said that most of the time nasty comments are not even constructive. That’s precisely when you should choose not to care. You need to be confident in your worth, your value and accept the fact that you can’t please everyone. If a comment is constructive, embrace it. If not, then down the drain it goes.

3. Focus on the fun part:

“Just have fun.”

For Ghita, no matter how annoying bad vibes online can be, positive comments overrule them. She said that sometimes people say one kind word and they don’t even realise how big an impact it can have. Being online and sharing what she loves is what keeps her going. As long as she is having fun, all the negativity grows into one big blur and all she is left with is people’s support. Social media can affect our mental health both positively and negatively. If you make sure that the content you are exposed to is fun and positive, then you shouldn’t worry too much.

Just keep being social

All in all, no matter how detached you are from social media you are bound to be impacted by it because of its constant presence. But let’s be real, it’s not like we can just get rid of our beloved platforms. So just keep in mind that it is totally okay to feel that impact because there will always be two sides of the same coin. The impact can also be positive. If you focus on the side that suits you best, then you’re likely get away from Internet’s negativity, and even better, learn from the community you grew close to.

How do you get the best out of social medias? Let us know in the comment section bellow or let’s Tweet about it.

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Authors:
Leila Abbad El Andaloussi
Moina Allaoui
Sonia Barbouch
Louis Crepy-Banfin
Lola Rouch

About this article

This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy Management. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminate the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DSM.