I'm here today to talk to you about the unintended consequences social media is having on your mental health. Did you know a collection of University say that more than 85% of our youth active social media users, some of us spent ten or more hours a day on social media and I'm certain that anything we do for this long anything we pay this much attention to has an ever lasting effect on us, whether we notice it or not you see the problem with the excess usage of social media is today's youth is tomorrow's future and we ought to be using the Internet to build ourselves to be well equipped with the skills knowledge and trades, required to build a utopia for all but instead we're using it to destroy ourselves and each other and the worst part is we don't even notice it.
Today I'd like to introduce you to three stresses that I believe are all caused by the excess usage of social media these factors are commonly known and faced by almost a hundred percent of all teenagers today and if we aren't careful these chances could easily turn into full-blown mental health problems. So let's begin, the first one is insecurity as I'm sure you know and Security's basically wants a lack of confidence in themselves and now you must be asking yourself how the social media calls insecurity well I'll tell you how each and every one of us here have a highlight reel and just like in sports my reel is a collection of your best and brightest moments now social media is your own personal highlight reel you always want to show off your wins best looks amazing holidays and unforgettable meals and even though appreciating the good things in life isn't a bad thing. The highlight reel is the cause of most teenagers insecurities today and that's because we're always comparing our struggles or behind the scenes to other people's highlight reels you look at a picture of your best friend on the beach and think why can't I go on holiday, why isn't my skin as clear or my body as toned you see.
All this insecurity comes from the constant comparison between you and the people you follow
The second stressor we encounter while going through our social media is a social currency now just like the Pakistani Rupees is a currency. It is something we use to achieve it value to a product or service. Now in social media the likes the comments the shares this has become this form of social currency by which word should be valued to something and the products with the problem is this is we on the product so when you look for the perfect photo to post and you get a like comment or share and return it becomes a recorded transaction attributing value. I'm sure more than half of us reading have taken down a post because it didn't get as many likes as you thought it would and I'll admit I've been right there with you. You see we took our product off the shelf because it wasn't selling fast enough I want you to understand why this is such an epidemic we are tying up our self-worth with what others think of us and then we're quantifying it for everyone to see.
The third stressor we encounter were going through our social media is formal or the fear of missing out this is a phrase that's thrown around lightly by so many teenagers and so many of us have experiences for more that has become normal first to ignore and even make jokes about, what we don't realize is when we don't have access to social media or our phones this formal very quickly turns into a social anxiety that causes irrational withdrawal symptoms.
Now that we're aware of some of the negative effects social media can have on us we need to figure out exactly what we're going to do about it you see even though social media can be dangerous. It can also be life-changing if we use it for the right things it's important to remember that your social media experience could be completely transformed into a healthy screen time if you wanted to today. I'd like to introduce you to this action plan that I believe could help you transform your social media experience into something that adds value to your life and to those are to enter the lives of those around you the first step is to build a strong value system, values describe what is important to you in the way that you live your life they are the very foundation of your beliefs and by nature influence your actions decisions and behavior. When we begin to make decisions based off our values we start making very deliberate choices that reflect what is important to us in our lives and not only will these values direct you when it comes to dealing with some of the problems that I mentioned above but they will guide you when it comes to deciding exactly how and what you use your social media for. The second step is what I call collaborative creativity collaboration refers to two or more people working together to achieve the same thing. I'm not saying the only way you can use the social media positively is by starting a movement or doing something out of the ordinary but even just learning about these movements and spreading the information is collaboration educating those around you and how raise awareness is collaboration there is so much that you as an individual can do to make a difference.
The third and final step be yourself if there's nothing else you're planning to take away from this talk today at least remember this. The simple fact is that nobody's makes you perfect don't ever doubt yourself or yourself worse based on the number of likes you did or didn't get. social media doesn't have to define you or your life you are perfect as you are likes or no likes shares or no shares comments or no comments you are perfect.
Thank you.
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