Social media and a good mental health don't go together

I have to say it. I hate social media! I hate how it is screwing people's lives and how it drains our energy with its nonsense, multiple hours a day. Now in my title you can see I've mentioned "mental illnesses" also and some of you might ask what has one to do with another. It does and I am not going to rewrite some articles just to make a post today but I am going to offer my take on the matter and also link some interesting articles at the end.

One reason that made me write about this topic is the fact that a friend of mine is suffering from some form of mental illness and unfortunately he's not a rare case. Today I was talking to another friend that is a common friend of us and he said to me that he is amazed how many people are depressed nowadays and have mental problems and he didn't see the reason why. Most of them smart guys working in IT or other related fields.

Now I can't point out towards social media( Facebook, snapchat, Instagram, etc) as the main cause of such illnesses but it's definitely an important one. It is an important one because this type of interaction that it offers is what takes most of our free time nowadays. No matter if we are at the subway, at home, on a launch break or even on a date we can't hold back from checking up on our "friends" on social media and that's a sick thing... It may sound hard but I consider it sick find it hard to stay away from an app and a virtual world.

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I say that because on social media everyone posts their happiest moments( some of them being even fake ), on social media everyone seeks for recognition and sometimes conciliation and it's also the place where we "fight" on all sort of topics and discussion themes. In other words it is the place where you go to bombard your brain with all sort of hormones and to burn it out even more after a long day of work. Instead of relaxing it we overwork it and then how can we expect to keep it healthy this way? It has its limits and sometimes pushing them too much it might harm us.

I am out of Facebook and Instagram for a year and a half but I have to say I still "feel" their remains in my thinking and feelings and sometimes when I sneak at other people's phones browsing their feeds I can only feel pity and also feel worried for our future getting more and more into "this mud". Social media creates fake life standards, fake relationships, fake feelings and fake interaction and you can live a quality life "feeding yourself" with these fakes.

Bottom line, in my opinion, there is no app to replace a good talk, there is no life better than yours and there is no better way of spending your free time than with your loved ones or outside and of course there is no need for such social media apps. Absolutely none, not to mention about their tracking abilities which are very often overlooked. I might sound weird and outdated but I think social media is screwing our lives and mental health much more than we can even imagine and in some cases couple relationships and families also. Still, people are diving into it more and more every day and some are going to even celebrate Christmas by scrolling feeds comparing their presents with others. Not me though...

More info on the topic:
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/social-media-mental-health-negative-effects-depression-anxiety-addiction-memory-a8307196.html
https://www.psycom.net/depression-teens-social-media

Thanks for attention and have a great day...without social media!