By Syed Wahib
Digital Media. Two words which may seem small but play the most influential role in modern- day life. The extent to how much our mind is influenced by the latest social trend and ideas is practically impossible. However, in recent times studies have been conducted to give a small glimpse into its continued influence in our minds.
It has often been observed by psychological experts that social media has helped in improving the memory of the average person. Events and happenings taking place online are more likely to be remembered which could be because of the constant sharing of those posts on one’s feed or story. Another fact that is noticed is the declining attention span of the average person which can directly be linked to the amount of time spent on any social media application and people are finding it harder to focus on things that are outside of the screen. It also directly affects the period
of sleep with the infinite ocean of entertaining content and information which keeps the mind occupied and often evokes a trigger in the brain to stay up longer and view more content. Often the reaction towards social media is likened to that of drugs with many experts citing that the minds of addicted users is like that of an active drug user. Social media at first gives a calming effect to the brain but as more and more it is frequented, the person becomes its slave in many ways. Many social media applications due to these negative factors have initiated the option of taking a ‘break’ or ‘deactivating’ from those applications to control their screen time and social
media usage. Social media is also known to cause sadness, jealousy and depression as at times when users post their about their travels and life, the psychology of the person viewing it changes and they may become sad or have negative thoughts because they haven’t reached that position in life or aren’t earning enough to afford the lifestyle shown in the pictures.
Overall social media plays a negative and pessimistic role in the modern mankind and with its ever-increasing influence, many countries have reported that depression will be the main cause of deaths by 2050. Only time can tell what happens next.
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