In a year when windows have been bolted and doors have been shut, you may have found yourself unlocking one thing more and more frequently: your phone screen. Whether to Facetime friends or fuel your new Tik Tok addiction (I’m not judging), the past year has made us more reliant on our little mobile companions than ever before. But what are the implications of this? Are we voluntarily and unknowingly doing something which is detrimental to our mental health? What is it that makes staring at a tiny screen in our hands so damn addictive?
There have been extensive studies on social media and mental health, which to try and summarise would be a bit of an insult. What I will say is that it is proven that spending too much time on our phones is harmful to our mental health.
“The pressure to keep up an online presence when even having a physical one in the current state of the world is pretty challenging”
So why do we do it?
I think it lies in our ever-growing need to have our lives monitored. Documented. For are we truly having a good time if we don’t let the whole world know about it? We also love to compare ourselves, and our own fun, to that of people online, some of whom we don’t even know. We scroll, absent-minded and subconsciously criticising ourselves and our decisions.
We must be connected, contactable, constantly checking our lock screen for a notification of some kind or another. And when there are moments of boredom, of which the last year has provided quite a lot, I have certainly found myself reaching for my phone and passing time scrolling, reading and liking. I sometimes feel overwhelmed, swamped in unresponded messages in the group chat, or emails that I have let back up. I find it all rather exhausting, the pressure to keep up an online presence when even having a physical one in the current state of the world is pretty challenging.
“I made it an online space that reflects, well, me.”
Know your limits
I have certainly noticed a correlation between my stress and anxiety levels and my screen time. Something I have been working on for the past few months are boundaries. Remembering that I am in control of everything I feed myself with. Sometimes it seems like my Instagram feed unravels in front of me, without my permission, showing me pictures of women who are more beautiful than me, doing things better than I ever could. This is harmful. Dangerous. It fuels my self-deprecation.
So, as I said, boundaries. I filtered my Instagram, only following people and things that I know would bring me joy. I swapped Instagram influencers for interior design accounts, celebrities for poets and creatives. I made it an online space that reflects, well, me.
“If you were having a dinner party, you wouldn’t invite people who made you feel insufficient in your life.”
Rather than being engulfed in other people’s lives, my screen time now consists more of things that make me happy. Don’t get me wrong, I still follow some people with a large following, but I have made sure that their social media ethos is one I agree one. Ones of real life, documenting the trials and tribulations of normal human existence, rather than unrealistic and outrageous exaggerations of a life I will never be able to compare to. Because that is never going to end well.
You are what you read
There are also some marvellous people using social media to prolifically insight positive social change. From mental health to climate justice, black lives matter to raising awareness of chronic illnesses, social media does have power for good. Screen time can be more than absent-minded scrolling, it can be an opportunity for education, to reaffirm or challenge your beliefs.
I urge you to populate your online world with people who stimulate these kinds of responses. If you were having a dinner party, you wouldn’t invite people who made you feel insufficient in your life. Well, I hope you wouldn’t. You would invite people who you find interesting. Who you want to learn from. Who make you laugh and feel better about yourself.
Remind yourself of this when opening your phone. When typing in your password and unlocking your handheld portal into what can be a very scary and unknown online space, remember that YOU are in control. You wouldn’t open your door to people you don’t like and welcome them into your home, so don’t allow people to invade your mental space. That is yours, and yours alone.
And in a time when everything is unpredictable and a bit rubbish, it is more important than ever to look after it.
Emily Hall
Featured image courtesy of Jason Howie on Flickr. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.