Is the overconsumption of the media leading to long-term mental health effects on its users?

by Klaudia Wiacek

I’d like to talk about social media.

Have you ever noticed yourself scrolling through Instagram one moment and the next moment an hour or a long period of time has passed while your mind practically stayed blank only focusing on the information provided in front of you? That is the numbing effect, and it is an addicting thing because it stalls our brain and usually our painful or stressful thoughts.

I find that social media is everywhere, from ads to it simply being one of the most popular and well-liked forms of communication. Ever since the uprise of technology and social media I’ve noticed that from childhood we are conditioned to see and witness so much of social media being used and spoken of by others that we automatically think that we must have it and that we must be a part of it. It later leads most of us to a point where we can’t function without the use of social media because let’s face it, it’s come to the point where there is an addictive aspect to not only that but to everything that resides within social media apps and the repetitive consumption of it. Such a thing leaves our minds wanting more and more with every use. It eventually leads to an addictive level of consumption that continues to carry on unless recognized and minimized.

Social media has a way of consuming our lives and minds whole negatively where one begins to live in the false perceptions of it and will go the extra mile to make themselves feel seen or noticed. We tend to get lost in the true reality of social media because of how it is masterfully masked on there.

The overconsumption of media can lead to addictive behaviors and tendencies making one crave the satisfaction of being within social media. Social media can also be a part of our lives positively without overconsumption by soaking in the relevant and positive information inside of it and most importantly staying conscious.

Social media is two faced, the good and the bad are its sides. It impacts our daily lives and feeds us information and propaganda daily that can alter and influence our opinions and views which can be proven to have a positive impact on the mind or a negative impact. Something that is not spoken on often is that it is also used as an escape from our daily lives and our reality while we get swept away into a false reality. There is an uncanny ability that social media has which is the power to numb one’s mind with the use of overconsumption. It makes sense, we see and scroll through thousands of posts in a minute and our brains are not supposed to soak in that much information in such a short amount of time.

Our minds don’t have the time to think about anything else when consuming that much information all at once.