Last Updated on June 21, 2020
The fact that you meet and keep in touch with many more people through social media has a negative impact on your social life.
This might seem contradictory, but to improve your social skills and maintain meaningful relationships, personal interaction is absolutely necessary – virtual interaction is not enough, especially at pivotal times in life such as the death of a loved one, a change of careers, or the birth of a child.
In times like these, the emotional support of your friends and family is crucial. If you rely solely on virtual interactions, you will probably feel very lonely very often.
3. Low self-esteem
Social media can affect your self-esteem in many ways. The most obvious one is related to body image. Celebrities and people with popular social media accounts always look incredible in the photos they share. Besides contributing to the construction of a somewhat unrealistic beauty ideal, it will inevitably make people feel extra conscious about their bodies and looks.
Also, constantly watching happy people in a social context while you are at home by yourself may give you the illusion that everyone has a fantastic and extremely active social life but you. Well, no self-esteem can survive such negative feelings!
4. Being someone you are not to meet unrealistic expectations
When you spend a lot of your free time staring at a smartphone’s screen, your view of the world may start to become distorted. After all, on social media, everyone seems to be living a great life, which is far from true.
Social media give us the possibility to control exactly what we want to show the world. For that reason, almost everyone chooses to share only positive images and amazing experiences.
This creates a series of unrealistic expectations about what life should be like, and people start pretending to be what they are not and doing things they don’t really like just to meet those expectations.
5. Cyberbullying
This modern form of bullying is more dangerous than it seems. Hidden in the anonymity that the internet confers, some people will do anything to try to hurt someone else, and social media is a prime setting for the practice of these malicious acts.
