It’s 7am. My alarm goes off and bleary-eyed, I reach for my phone. Before my brain has even had the chance to process what day it is, I’m scanning my home screen for notifications. Facebook, check. Twitter, check. Instagram, check. I cycle through the lot of them, absorbing baby photos, passive aggressive status updates, weight loss pictures, holiday snaps, tedious humblebrags and loosely tailored adverts (god, so many adverts) promising me all kinds of wonderful garbage. And then I get up.
That’s how I start the day, and I’ll repeat the cycle numerous times before it’s over. And I’m not alone. There are dozens – hundreds – of studies that look at the way we use social media on a daily basis. Research says there are as many as 2.62 billion social media users around the world (that’s nearly a third of the entire planet’s population), each logging on for an average of 50 minutes a day, or two hours, or even nine hours, depending on where you look. Sure, nine hours sounds like a lot, but how often have you spent an entire hungover Sunday mindlessly scrolling through the same three or four sites? (You don’t have to answer that).
Social media has become completely ingrained in our day-to-day lives, and we rely on it to shape our real world experiences. Facebook tells us what parties are happening at the weekend, and who’s getting together with who. Instagram keeps us on top of the latest fashion and beauty trends. Twitter is a gateway to the news and politics that directly impact our way of life. In a very short space of time, the internet has become an extension of reality.
And the downsides are well documented. From scholarly articles demonstrating how social media is linked to depression and anxiety, to sensationalist tabloid hysterics about its role in the downfall of democracy, sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram get a bad rap. And I get it, I really do. I constantly compare myself to others, which sometimes (ok, frequently) makes me feel like crap. They say comparison is the thief of joy, and social media is a pickpocket’s hideout. Then there’s all the other stuff. On social media, I exist in an echo chamber that makes it difficult to get a true handle on political situations. I’m guilty of giving my attention to my phone in the evening, rather than my boyfriend, and I spend too much time picking out the perfect filter for my selfies.
They say comparison is the thief of joy, and social media is a pickpocket’s hideout.
So I was glad when earlier this week Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to change the site’s algorithms so users have more opportunities to interact with things they care about – the things that, studies have shown, actually bring us happiness.
Facebook started out a digital meeting place for friends and family, where, once upon a time, your mate’s hangover-related status update or your ex-boyfriend’s stupid band photos would be the first thing you’d see when you logged on. But in a bid to keep up with rivals like Twitter, Facebook started putting more emphasis on news, viral content and videos. So the good stuff – the stuff you actually want to see – has become buried under posts from brands, pages and media companies, which we just mindlessly consume.
As Zuckerberg says: “When we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our wellbeing. We can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long term measures of happiness and health. On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos – even if they're entertaining or informative – may not be as good.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not so naïve as to think Facebook is doing this out of the good of its heart. Reports suggest it’s been worried about this ‘context collapse’ for years, and as a spokesperson for the site stated in 2016, “the better we do at providing what people most want to see, the more likely they are to return to the app and spend time.” Or, in other words, help generate revenue. But that’s irrelevant, really, because social media is here to stay, so it’s good to see a platform as big as Facebook returning to the principles that made it so popular in the first place: connections.
Connecting with other people is good for us. Full stop. And despite the cascade of headlines hating on social media for its flaws, there are just as many studies that demonstrate how social media creates connections that are beneficial for us, and our mental wellbeing. Logging on can help to alleviate loneliness, as this study shows, and it helps foster relationships among those from marginalised communities who might otherwise struggle with their identity. A friend who recently came out as gay tells me, “I don’t think I would have done it if I hadn’t met so many LGBTQ+ people on Twitter. They helped me find my voice.”
Sending a relatable meme to a friend makes you feel closer to them; a brief comment exchange with a sibling living overseas helps keeps your relationship active; liking your mum’s badly-framed and slightly blurry photo of the cat makes you both feel good.
Social media also provides a source of support for those living with chronic illness, as this Pew study shows (and I’ll back that up – when I was diagnosed with an unusual condition last year, social media connected me to other patients and having them about stopped me going insane when it all got too much). Social media is a hotbed of cute animal pics, which even science says are good for us, and it strengthens existing relationships in a way that’s not entirely quantifiable (although there is supportive evidence), but which we’re all familiar with. Sending a relatable meme to a friend makes you feel closer to them; a brief comment exchange with a sibling living overseas helps keeps your relationship active; liking your mum’s badly-framed and slightly blurry photo of the cat makes you both feel good.
In fact, positive self-esteem plays a key role in bringing us back online time and time again. Research published by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information shows that people get a significant self-esteem boost after viewing their own profiles, that they feel more social support when they present themselves honestly on social media and, crucially, that social media helps create an atmosphere of acceptance around mental health issues.
As Amy Gonzales, a researcher at the centre, says, “we need to think about social media as not being absolutely good or bad.” Sure, there are downsides, but social media also offers up loads of benefits that many of us would struggle without. As with most things in life, it’s about finding a balance that works for you.
