Pushed to depression, thanks to social media
“I used to start my day by logging into social media platforms,” says Tammana Singh*, a Delhi-based professional working with a MNC. It was 2013, and Singh would enjoy the prolonged chat sessions, the ‘likes’ and ‘comments’, her eyes glued to the phone or computer screen. She would check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Viber and Hike. She constantly checked her phone, stayed away from people, talked less, and gradually even lost her appetite. “I never realised when I got addicted to social media,” she says. “I would stay online for hours, scrolling down people’s timelines, reading everything.”
This pattern continued for more than a year. Somewhere in that time, Singh had days when she wouldn’t feel like getting out of bed and talking to people in person. Before long, she started becoming frustrated, felt insecure and low. By 2015, her sister observed her erratic behaviour and urged Singh to see a psychiatrist. “I was paranoid about meeting a psychiatrist. I felt people would think that I am mad,” confesses the 24-year-old.
She eventually went to one, but the psychiatrist didn’t tell her until their second session that she was experiencing depression because of her increase social media consumption. Gradually, Singh started to deal with the condition. For three months, she met her psychiatrist regularly, started going for morning walks and stayed away from her cell phone. “I feel I’ve come out of it now,” she says.
Singh’s experience echoes the findings of an American study, which indicates that people who use up to 7-10 social media platforms daily are three times more likely to be depressed or anxious compared to those who use up to two social media platforms. The study — by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Research on Media, Technology, and Health — involved adults in the 19-32 age group. On an average, the participants used social media for 61 minutes per day and visited various social media accounts 30 times per week. More than a quarter of these participants were classified as having “high” indicators of depression, the study reported in 2016.
There isn’t any India-specific study that shows a similar pattern, but another research study in the US pointed to a link between depression and envy caused by being on Facebook. And Mumbai-based psychiatrist Dr Avinash De Sousa testifies that anxiety and low sel-esteem arise when people seek affirmations by the number of ‘likes’ they receive on social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. “Very often people who don’t experience love in day to day interactions, end up seeking it on social media. If they don’t get it, they feel miserable,” says Dr De Sousa. “If they don’t get the expected number of likes, it would be natural for them to feel unwanted and undesirable.”
It’s not just the expectation of being appreciated and endorsed in the virtual world, but also the invisible pressure to be on par with peers that can lead to negative feelings. “When I see posts and photographs of friends and their ideal lives — engagements, parties, international holidays, weddings and babies — or the ones they’d want to show, it puts immense pressure on me to fit in and conform,” says Himanshu Patel*, a 29-year-old IT professional. Patel admits that being on social media makes him feel low about his own life and believes that while social media itself may not be a cause for depression, it does “fuel feelings of jealousy, insecurity and low self-esteem”.
Dr De Sousa warns that anyone, irrespective of age or gender, can experience depression, and at any age. “You can exclude yourself from social media. Consider it to be that irritant relative you don’t want to meet,” he says, advocating inistead in-person communication, pursuing a hobby and following a healthy lifestyle. “In severe cases though, depression can be treated with counselling and medication.”
(Names changed on request)
Feeling low?
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity or apathy that can affect a person’s thoughts, behaviour, feelings, and sense of well-being. People with a depressed mood can feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, angry,[3] ashamed, or restless. They may lose interest in activities that were once pleasurable.
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