Technology and Mental Health

Social media was your go-to. You used it through­out your day as a dis­trac­tion. You could catch up with fam­i­ly and friends or fol­low cre­ators with sim­i­lar pas­sions, hob­bies, and inter­ests. After a long day at work, you looked for­ward to curl­ing up on the couch and mind­less­ly scrolling.

But what used to be a pleas­ant dis­trac­tion, a way to relax and unwind, or anoth­er way to con­nect with loved ones has quick­ly turned into some­thing dif­fer­ent. You’re not sure when it hap­pened, but you haven’t felt the same sat­is­fac­tion after lik­ing, com­ment­ing, direct mes­sag­ing, or scrolling as you have.

Instead, you’ve felt unsat­is­fied, jeal­ous, and a lit­tle inse­cure. Let’s learn more about how social media can fuel per­fec­tion­ism.

Social Media and Perfectionism

The Comparison Game

Social media may start as a way to con­nect with like-mind­ed indi­vid­u­als, but after some time, it’s hard to not feel like you’re com­par­ing your­self to your fam­i­ly, friends, and those com­plete strangers you fol­low. A lot of peo­ple on social media post only their high­light reels. This means that no mat­ter what day they’ve had, they always show up as their best selves. It’s hard to know what’s real ver­sus what’s staged. Most peo­ple use social media to post only their best moments. It’s hard to know what is hap­pen­ing behind the scenes. This makes it easy to com­pare your­self to oth­ers.

Unrealistic Beauty Standards

Anoth­er issue with social media is the unre­al­is­tic beau­ty stan­dards that it sets. Most of the post­ed pho­tos and videos are edit­ed in some way, shape, or form. This could be through the use of fil­ters, but it could also mean edit­ing someone’s appear­ance through the use of edit­ing tools. Know­ing what’s real ver­sus fake is hard unless you’re look­ing for it. This can cre­ate unhealthy and unre­al­is­tic beau­ty stan­dards, which can lead to oth­er issues like declin­ing self-esteem, eat­ing dis­or­ders, anx­i­ety, or depres­sion, just to name a few.

External Validation

Social media may seem like it’s all fun and games at first, but it can turn into an obses­sion. The likes, com­ments, and engage­ment can have you seek­ing exter­nal val­i­da­tion instead of look­ing inward. If one of your sto­ries, posts, or reels doesn’t per­form how you thought it would or as well as some­one else, it could make you feel worse about your­self. Social media also can pres­sure you to per­form or act a cer­tain way. If an image or video per­forms well, you may feel like you con­stant­ly have to act that way or keep post­ing that type of con­tent just to receive the com­ments and likes you’re look­ing for, even if it may not be the authen­tic ver­sion of your­self.

Jealousy

Anoth­er issue with social media is that it can cause jeal­ousy. This may hap­pen between your fam­i­ly and friends, but it can also hap­pen with strangers you don’t know. It’s easy to feel jeal­ous when all you see is their pic­ture-per­fect lives. All of the issues that social media has can add up and make you feel jeal­ous. In turn, this can lead to per­fec­tion­ism. The jeal­ousy can cause you to spi­ral and may make you feel like you have to post or act a cer­tain way to ful­ly be hap­py.

Therapy Provo

Social media can be a fun out­let to unwind after a long day. But with every­thing in life, there are good and bad things to every­thing. Social media comes along with both pos­i­tives and neg­a­tives. Notice that you’re start­ing to expe­ri­ence some per­fec­tion­is­tic ten­den­cies. It may be time to take a social media break or seek addi­tion­al sup­port so you don’t end up spi­ral­ing. We’re here to help. Reach out to us today if you’re inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about anx­i­ety ther­a­py for per­fec­tion­ism.

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