To preface this, I'm currently actively seeking work, and was heavily encouraged recently to use the career-social platform LinkedIn. For anyone who doesn't frequent it, it's basically a job seeking website, with an added social posting board; something akin to Facebook, in which people can post updates about themselves. This is, I'm assuming, supposed to be used in conjunction with looking for work so that employers can get a more realistic view of what each individuals preferred activities look like, whilst also encouraging people to share their successes with each other in a positive, like-minded community.
However, I'm finding lately that the constant barrage of posts from people talking about themselves is making my mental health increasingly worse. Now, it can obviously just be written off as jealousy of other people's success, and I'd be satisfied if it were that. But the feelings and emotions that surface tend to lean more towards resentment and bitterness, not of the people, but just of their seemingly cavalier attitudes towards life, and this got me thinking if social media is still doing more harm to people's mental health than actual good.
This is completely separate from people who have experienced harassment online, or are still being harassed, for one reason or another; this is a dislike of people just talking about themselves, which sounds ludicrous. Now I'm not (or try not to be) a fun-killer here; people are allowed to be positive and proud and whatever else, and damn if I should say anything about that; but I feel like it comes off very disingenuous, or worse, expectant of praise for that small post or update, and being constantly exposed to that seemingly, but not surprisingly, adds to that resentment.
Being someone who does experience mental health issues daily, it especially agitates me when I see people making posts relating to positive action against mental health, for example your "R U OK" days and whatnot, where they post about it, but (from what I've seen at least) don't do anything beyond that, and I find it very interesting that the positive, uplifting posts are the ones that get me angrier than the neutral ones.
Again, in the case of LinkedIn (not to point fingers here), I feel like adding a social element comes off like the company is basically saying "hey, you got another career rejection, but don't worry, Greg here is using a more cost effective way to generate KPIs". Now, the obvious answer is to just get off social media, but that only makes me believe that the problem is worse than initially perceived; the fact that we need to back away from technology that is supposed to make us feel connected and - at this point - is borderline integral to how we function as a society, makes me genuinely concerned towards what effect this will have on future generations (I'm talking 30 years in the future or later).
Is this a social problem? Is it a people problem? Is it an internet problem? Is it just a Me problem? Not really seeking answers, just posting food for thought. I'm curious if anyone has had similar experiences and how it's affected your mental health.
(just an endnote, yes I understand the irony of using a forum board to criticise social media, but I tend to think of this place more as a serious advice area, which categorises it differently for me)
Emergency, police & ambulance (24 Hrs)
Connect with a lifeline crisis supporter (24 Hrs)
Suicide callback service (24 Hrs)
Kids helpline (24 Hrs)
13 YARN