Mental Health and Social Media

Mental Health and Social Media

It’s that time of year again, where #BellLetsTalk day brings forward the stigmas and makes people more aware around mental health. This can stem from depression, anxiety, and anything in between. From a digital marketing standpoint, we are well aware of the stigmas found with mental health and the correlation with social media.

Nearly everyone is on social media in one form or another. Whether it be Instagram, SnapChat, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. There are so many different forms of social media, and they all make us a feel a certain way. With social media, there seems to be this pressure of having to portray a perfect facade. This is seen a lot with Instagram.

Posting on Instagram means filtering your photos to no end, taking a thousand shots to get the one, and having a theme to go with your feed. This can put a lot of pressure on someone to look a certain way. Celebrities also use this outlet to photoshop their photos to make sure that they have the perfect body, hair, background. This sets expectations not everyone can live up to. The added pressure of having the perfect Instagram life can lead to many different mental health issues. You can fall into a hole of depression, or anxiety if your photo doesn’t get a certain amount of likes. You start judging yourself, and putting yourself down, wondering why you or that photo isn’t good enough.

Alternatively, there are good sides to social media. Places like Facebook or Twitter can bring up discussions, hashtags, or groups, where people can come together and relate with one another. They work as outlets to let you know you’re not alone. Today, on #BellLetsTalk day, is no exception. Social Media users are putting themselves out there and starting the discussion around mental health. 

Social Media is all in how you use it and view it. It can be a great tool to talk to people. Instagram has the hashtag #realstagram, to break the stigma found around Instagram most of the time. It’s users speaking out and breaking down the boundaries.

So, on #BellLetsTalk day, let’s break the stigma and use Social Media to connect to one another, not bring ourselves down.