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Wednesday, 22 May 2013
What to Do When Social Media Drives You Crazy
Wednesday, 22 May 2013 by Muhammad Ifzal
What to Do When Social Media Drives You Crazy
Is Social Media Anxiety Disorder, known as SMAD, the newest affliction resulting from our love affair with Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites? Researchers have stopped short of actually classifying SMAD as a disorder, but it's no doubt a problem.
Sure, you could quit using your social sites altogether — but then you’d be, well, bored and lonely. Science may someday shed more light on social media stress, but in the meantime, we've gathered the most common problems associated with popular social networks so that you know what to watch out for.
Creative Flop
Are you one of the thousands of women suffering from Mason Jar Envy, the creeping sense of self-loathing that comes from feeling you're just not as crafty as the other women on Pinterest? The “Today” show recently surveyed 7,000 American mothers and found that 42% worry they're not crafty or creative enough. Some stayed up all night pouring through Pinterest photos, unable to stop the negative comparisons.
Thick and Thin
Or perhaps you're worried you may have the beginnings of an eating disorder — after all, you do post a lot of food photos on Instagram and Facebook. Dr. Valerie Taylor, the mental health chairwoman for the Canadian Obesity Network, recently said that people who frequently post photos of food suffer from an unhealthy obsession with food — which is "a step away from weight disorders and weight gain."
And looking at photos — of both our friends and ourselves — on Facebook can lead to the opposite problem. Doctors at The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt said such comparisons lead to body-image issues and serious eating disorders.
Inferiority Complex
You may also feel you're just not clever enough to keep up with the witty comments made by your social media peers. With its 140-character limit, it's tough to formulate the perfect sound bite on Twitter. Fall short, and you're faced with silence — no replies, no @ mentions and no retweets.
However, the anxiety-prone may have a far more difficult time on social news site Reddit, where a hypervocal community routinely argues with and belittles users who get a fact wrong or express an opinion that doesn't sit well. But the moderator of subreddit "Offmychest," a forum for those who need to vent — which has more than 50,000 subscribers — has had enough.
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