How Do Social Networks Cause Loneliness?
Does connecting with your friends make you feel less lonely? While common knowledge might say yes, researchers say social media might have negative effects.
While connection across social networks was originally perceived as a positive thing, researchers now aren’t so sure. There are many apps you can use to improve your mental health and well-being, but social networking users, especially teens, are still found to have higher rates of loneliness and depression than ever before.
It is totally understandable that you might want to leave your phone at home sometimes and reconnect with friends and family in person. If your phone becomes lost or stolen, someone could get his or her hands on your phone without permission, which means that your personal information, files, and social networking apps could be at risk. Click here to make sure that your phone’s photos, data, and messages are secure:
Here are some of the reasons why social networks might not improve your happiness:
- Social networking users may not know how to make friends.
While heavy social media users might know all the tips and tricks for interacting successfully online, they might be in the dark about making friends in the real world. Even if a person makes a real-world friend, too, that friendship might be maintained online, rather than hanging out in person. The bottom line is that people need in-person contact — and this contact can’t be substituted for online connections.
- Users feel ignored.
Unlike in the real world where letters could get lost in the mail or phone lines could be down, social networking users know when they’re being deliberately ignored. For example, apps like Facebook’s Messenger allow users to know if their friends have received and read their messages — and when their friends are choosing not to respond. If online friends ignore them, users can feel depressed and alone.
- Social networking is an echo chamber.
If users are already feeling lonely or depressed, many social networks can reinforce these feelings by letting users interact with others’ feelings the same way they do. While commiseration to an extent is helpful, users can get into an echo chamber where they only interact with people who are lonely and depressed, making them believe this negative worldview is the only one available to them.
- Social networking lets people present their best lives.
People use social media to share their happiest moments and events: marriages, babies, travel plans. A constant onslaught of these happy images, especially when someone is not happy with his or her life, can be a problem. If every one of his friends looks happy on Facebook, a user can feel even more dissatisfied with his place in life.