SOCIAL COGNITION

• Top three most stressful aspects of social media

The most challenging aspects of social media are comparison to others and self image, challenges from others, and societal norms in social media.

Young social media users fall victim to the high standards for personal image reflected in other users. Users get a warped sense of reality from viewing people’s lives on social media and most users experience a damaged personal identity due to the constant comparison from their own lives and other people’s lives. This is agitated by the numerical values placed on popularity of person content. The presence of others deeply affects the users experience because of the constant comparisons users make when they are exposed to other people’s social media content. It weighs on people’s personal identities.

Arguments online are also a toxic experience that leads to stress in users. Twitter feuds with strangers are very common and unproductive. People also get more aggressive in these feuds than they would if they fought in person. This is where people get challenges from others that bring in their social positions. People from very different political or social backgrounds can interact on social media quite easily, so high contrasts in positions leads to challenges.

Social roles play into our digital presence. There is now a standard etiquette or standard that is expected of people on social media that affects their content. Environments may require people to be on social media in order to stay connected or be heard. It is almost not an option to remain off of social media because there is so much important activity that happens on social media.

• Changes in social media to minimize stress

One way to minimize stress would be to eliminate parts of the social media sites that really drive comparison and presence of others. For instance, Instagram has introduced a feature that does not display the number of likes on individual posts. This minimizes the pressure felt from the presence of others since the number of likes on social media correlates to how many people saw or interacted with a post, which can indicate certain social standings. This could possibly be extended to follower count too where only a user knows how many people they are following and how many followers they have. It is quite common for people to look at someone’s ratio of followers to those they are following and make assumptions about them based on that information. Another way to minimize stress on social media would be for Instagram to put a disclaimer or warning on posts where someone, probably a celebrity, has drastically altered their appearance with Photoshop or some other tool. This may alleviate some of the natural comparison that happens from the presence of others online.

• Best practices to limit stress caused by social media

The best practices to limit stress caused by social media is to limit the time spent on these platforms and to remember mostly everything presented on social media is fake. Limiting the time spent on social media platforms will help decrease stress because one is able to focus on aspects in their life that is actually happening in front of them, rather than focusing on aspects of others lives that they are posting about online. Apple provides a screen time feature on their products that enables users to set time limits on various apps. Setting a screen time limit on social media platforms is a great way that a user can actually practice limiting their time on these platforms. Another practice to limit stress is to constantly remind oneself that most social media presentations are fake or edited. While it is difficult to remember at the moment, it is important for users to look for editing in pictures and videos to see through a seemingly perfect post.