Why Social Media Feels Good… and Bad: The Science You Didn't Know

Social Media has become one of the most significant tools in our lives. It’s a tool that could be used for a large range of different reasons. For some people, these tools are what they do for a living; some use them for engagement, reading news and updates, job opportunities, business promotion, connecting with friends, and as a communication medium. In other words, social media is not a new term for most of us, as it, in one way or another, keeps us continuously using it. This article provides knowledge on how social media could be a great tool for our use and how it could cause severe harm to us. 

Social media transforms how we purchase and sell products, interact with friends and strangers, and search and digest information. Social media controls the changing behavior and health of humans (Desai et al., 2022). 

Every day, millions of people make posts on social media platforms. What is the reason for these posts? What are the objectives of the posts?  

There are some major questions about the usage of social media in our psychology. According to McMahon (2019), “When we talk about psychology, we can mean a person’s mental attributes, their intelligence, emotions, attitudes, and behavior.” The three most faced impacts of social media on us are 

Yes, that’s right, there are no mistakes. When someone interacts with our posts on our social media accounts, the dopamine hormone is released into our brains. Every notification from our phone keeps us checking instantly to see the likes and comments on our posts. Later on, this evolves as a dependency. Similarly, the addiction effect of dopamine is stated by Macït et al. (2018) “Research is made about substances which cause biological and psychological addiction, like alcohol, cigarettes, pills, and chemicals that affect the behavior of individuals, such as dopamine.” 

The image below illustrates the cycle of how the dopamine hormone is being released in a person's body through social media interactions. 

While using social media platforms, we are likely to see friends or our mates posting about their vacations or events they have attended. After seeing this, the FOMO feeling surrounds us. FOMO is a major kind of complicated attachment to social media and is related to some negative life experiences and emotions. For instance, inability to sleep, reduced life competency, emotional tension, drawbacks to physical health and well-being, anxiety, and a lack of emotional control (Alutaybi et al., 2020). 

The image below shows a person who is feeling fear of missing out (FOMO) 

People who use social media usually compare themselves with the lives of the people they see on social media. Therefore, we may start judging ourselves, destroy our self-esteem, and end up in a depressed mood. Verduyn et al. (2020) “Because of the rise of social networking sites (SNSs), social comparisons take place at an unprecedented rate and scale. There is a growing concern that these online social comparisons negatively impact people’s subjective well-being (SWB)”. 

The image below shows a person who has faced the psychological effects of social media comparison. 

In this globalized world, most of us may and do have friends or family members from different parts of the world. Staying connected with them has become much more effective with social media. Such as, we can easily make a call, text them, and see what they have been doing with their posts, stories, etc. 

Social media enables individuals to exchange ideas and thoughts, debate the information in posts together, and make online friends (Drahošová & Balco, 2017).  

The image below shows how friends can connect with each other around the world with social media.  

People around us have different hobbies, passions, or fields of study. Conversely, on social media, people with similar passions could come together and have conversations on it, and it could also be a good way to develop yourself with other people’s knowledge. 

The image below illustrates people connecting on a common field of study. 

Is learning or knowledge only achieved by schools? Usually, young generations are aware that there are answers to almost every question on the internet. Either I ask a question on how to make a cupboard or how to write a website code, at the end of the day, I get valuable answers that are correct. In other words, social media is also a great tool for learning if you know what you are looking for, and you will also need to know how to look for it. 

The image below shows how people can use their technological devices to learn through social media. 

From the example I gave, about how not drinking coffee mindfully could harm us. If social media is not used mindfully, it will not have any advantages for us. Holmes (2011) states that “For all of its advantages, the incredibly accessible and rapid nature of social media, particularly via mobile technology, has its disadvantages.” Below, I have listed some of the challenges that people using social media face. 

These days, individuals are not able to imagine life without social media. It has become a fundamental part of their daily routine, no matter where they are located. Internet dependency and surfing many social media platforms on the internet is nothing other than addiction. Further on, this has been recognized as a psychological disorder around the world (Tiwari, 2017). 

The image below shows how social media keeps us connected to our phones and leads to addiction. 

In general, this article starts by identifying how our psychology is being affected by the use of social media. I have mentioned its three impacts, which are dopamine, FOMO, and comparison. Later, I mentioned some benefits that could be obtained by using social media, which are covered under the following areas: building communities, staying connected, and learning mediums. Toward the end of the essay, I lastly highlighted some challenges that might occur when using social media, such as addiction, toxic behavior, and reinforced beliefs. In my opinion, to catch up with the rapid developments of technology, we need to find how to use it effectively. Staying totally away from this technological development is not a good idea just because of some disadvantages. If we have this thought in our heads, I suppose we shall find out how to use social media effectively.