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The Neuroscience Behind Why We Use Instagram

October 22, 2020 in Social Media Guide

Using social media can feel like a mindless activity. Most of the time, we’re opening apps and scrolling as if on instinct, and before we know it, it’s been an hour of alternating between apps and retaining absolutely nothing about what you just saw and who you interacted with. Using social media is a way for our minds to go on autopilot, spending time on your phone to kill time in line, in class, and when you’re lying down to put off going to bed.

But here’s the thing: our minds are always busy and doing something, including when we’re using social media. We’re processing the images we see and storing away information we read (or even glance at) into our working and possibly long-term memory. We’re interpreting interactions we have with others (whether they be through DMs or likes) and our minds tell us to refresh constantly in the hopes that a new post will interest us.

One study looked at the brains of young women between the ages of 18 to 35 to see how they reacted when they were specifically on Instagram. Although it’s one of the most popular social media platforms regardless of how people identify (it’s the second-most popular one among adolescents), 60% of users on the app are females under the age of 34. 

This study found that posts about beauty and fitness (think of influencers and lifestyle/wellness themed accounts) decreased how the user rated their own attractiveness, which also had a correlation with those experiencing anxiety and depressive symptoms. Women – young girls especially – have had a long history with feeling pressured to meet beauty standards. However, ads and images of the “ideal” woman were once limited to billboards and magazines – now, they’re everywhere when you open your favorite app. This can also have more damaging effects on self-esteem on women of color too: African-American girls have a higher rate of smartphone use, but beauty standards often idealize looking white.

The number of likes can also trick our brains into valuing posts that are more popular than those that aren’t. Instagram may be rolling out a new update that hides likes and we may talk about how in the end, likes don’t matter, but our brains are more likely to automatically think its better, no matter what it’s about. 

Essentially, our brains prefer and are heavily impacted by really popular, influencer-type posts on Instagram. This isn’t really news, but what it does tell us is that our brain is processing and retaining a lot of information when we’re lying there and scrolling on Instagram. Is there a way to tell our brains that we shouldn’t be caring about the number of likes on our post and to fight back against those thoughts telling us that we’re ugly when we see beauty posts? It’s possible. You can also limit who you follow just to accounts of people that you actually know or keep the number of influencers that you follow to a minimum. Your brain may process the images and likes in a negative way, but it also has the power to give you control about what you want to see on your feed and can also fight back against those negative feelings.

What are your thought processes when you’re watching YouTube videos or looking at Instagram posts? What kinds of accounts do you follow? Do you think the kind of content you choose to have on your feed can influence how you feel about yourself?

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The ABCs of Gratitude

October 19, 2020 in Be Positive

As the weather gets colder, news seems to always be getting worse, and traditional end-of-the-year holiday plans have become either limiting or cancelled altogether, it can be difficult to find something to be grateful for, much less multiple things. Mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety can make finding the positives in day-to-day life impossible, and these outside events can worsen these feelings of hopelessness and negativity too.

While we understand that finding the positives in everyday life can sometimes feel like a daunting task, we wanted to encourage an activity to try to recognize that despite the large waves of negative events, news, and feelings, there are still glimmers of hope and good that are present. In this activity, try to list something that you have been grateful for over the past few months that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Some of them could be a whole phrase or sentence describing an event that made you happy, while others can be a single word. You can list your favorite foods that you’ve eaten recently, the podcasts or artists that you’ve been listening to, or the people that you’ve been speaking to that have been a huge source of support. Obviously, some letters are going to be easier than others (we’re pretty sure most of us aren’t grateful for “xylophones”), so you can play around a bit with how that letter sounds and come up with something close enough. This isn’t meant to be a stressful activity where you have to match everything up perfectly, but is instead a chance to come up with a longer list of items that have brought you some sort of joy during these “unprecedented times.”

After you’re done, take a look at each item on the list. Now, after each item in the alphabet, take some time to write down why this thing made you happy. What feelings did it give you? How often do you engage with this thing? Doing this will give you a chance to really focus on the positives and gratitude instead of simply saying that this thing made you happy.

You can choose to do whatever you want with this list, but we hope taking some time out and seeing just how much there is to be grateful for – no matter how big or how small – helps remind you that there is always a light in the darkness. 

Do you practice gratitude? What activities have you tried to reflect on things that you are grateful for?

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Letters for Mental Health

October 16, 2020 in LINKS

Letters to Strangers is a youth-led, youth-based organization that aims to help break down the stigma regarding youth mental health and make treatment and information about it that much more accessible.

There are many components to the organization. A central one is helping youths open up chapters in their area where they work with the main team and receive resources and mentoring to make mental health help and services more available to their community. They also work with health professionals and engage with advocacy events to make sure actual mental health reform is possible.

The core of the organization however, as suggested by the name, is through letter writing. Those chapters that we mentioned write anonymous letters where members open up about their struggles and offer support to other members of other chapters. These physical letters can go a long way, and even if they’re anonymous, can feel personal and that a friend is out there who understands what you’re going through. Those who don’t have a chapter but still want to write letters can still do so, but they have to pass an approval process first.

If you’re a fan of writing letters or want to spread more mental health awareness in your community, this may be a great resource for you. The site even has an exchange platform specifically for COVID-19 related letters too!

Do you like writing letters? Are there any youth-based mental health organizations in your community?

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How to Help Someone Through Social Media

October 15, 2020 in Social Media Guide

With more and more people opening up about their mental health online, you may find yourself thinking about a few things. You may feel proud of them for opening up about their struggles on a large platform, or you might feel comforted and feel less alone that someone you know also has struggles with their mental health. You might think about how social media is helping reduce the stigma about mental illness by giving many the opportunity to write about what they’re going through too.

And depending on what they’re opening up about, you may feel concerned for them. You might recognize and relate to the stuff that that person is writing, and know how terrible those feelings can be. You may also feel like they’re using wording that is alarming to you. But it’s already easy to overanalyze our every interaction and potential interaction when using social media already, so how do you reach out to someone to check in on them if you’re worried about them?

Unfortunately, most people are less likely to engage with negative posts, and are less likely to reach out because of the bystander effect (where they think that someone else is going to talk to that person, so they don’t need to). However, one of the best ways to approach these kinds of situations is to think about what you want people to do if you ever expressed that you’re struggling with your mental health. What do you want them to say? How would you want them to say it? What don’t you want them to say?

It may also feel awkward publicly commenting on someone’s post, especially if you aren’t close with them. Reaching out privately can go a long way – you don’t have to have a full conversation, but even just sending a DM expressing support and telling them that you hope things get better for them soon can have a powerful impact. If you’re comfortable, you can also tell them that you relate to what they’re going through so they feel less alone.

In more severe cases, it’s best to find someone close to that person and reach out to them to let them know that you’re concerned. Most social media sites also allow you to flag that post and report it stating that you think that person might be in harm.

Have you ever reached out to someone online after seeing something they posted that worried you? Were you close to that person? Would you reach out to someone on social media if they talked about their mental health?

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Medication Reminders

October 9, 2020 in LINKS

Let’s be honest: we’ve all missed taking a daily medication. It might be because you were too busy, in a rush, or simply forgot. You may have also missed taking a medication because you didn’t have the energy to do so due to your depression, or your brain might have been too foggy to remember because of other mental health issues getting in the way.

We’ve covered one of the most popular medication reminder apps before (you can check out our article on Medisafe here), but we did want to offer other free alternatives for you to consider in case you want to explore something new, don’t like the interface, or just want to have other options. We specifically chose these for reminding you to take medication for your mental health, but of course this can apply to any other medication that you’re taking too. 

Mango Health
Round Health (iOS only)
MyTherapy

Do you currently take medication for your mental health? If you take any sort of medication, what difficulties do you face when remembering to take them?

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A Smartphone-Less Week

October 8, 2020 in Social Media Guide

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Have you ever wanted to try going off the grid for a while, or even just wanted to see what happens if you didn’t have your phone on you, period. There are a number of benefits, but the effects aren’t always positive. Regardless of the situation, have you ever found yourself itching to use your phone when it wasn’t on you? Maybe you felt more impatient, or even nervous that something was going to happen if you didn’t access your phone ASAP.

One study wanted to look into this in more detail to see if science would back up the idea of how removing yourself from social media on your phone can affect people. The researchers felt that our addiction to our smartphones is similar to other addictions, and wanted to see if removing them would result in similar withdrawal experiences. Instead of completely removing people from their phones, however, they wanted to see if the subjects could control the temptation to use their phones even if it was right there in front of them. They refer to this as nonuse by choice, which is different than involuntary nonuse, which can happen, for example, if you lose your phone or it breaks. Nonuse by choice involves you fully being able to use your phone, but for whatever reason, from needing to study to taking a digital cleanse, you make an effort to not use it. In this case, participants had access to their phones, but information was recorded about how often they used social media sites, and every evening, they were asked to record their feelings on their experience throughout the week.

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The study only collected information from adults, ranging from 18 to 80 years old. Once the results were collected, the study found that the strongest results were extreme: 41% of them never relapsed, but 29% relapsed more than twice. The main reason for the relapses seemed to be because of FOMO and people being afraid that they were missing something important if they weren’t on their phones. They also noticed that participants had strong withdrawal symptoms of craving and boredom. This means that that there was temptation to use social media, almost as if it was something that they needed. And because they had to try and not to use something that they were usually constantly on, the participants were experiencing a disruption in their routine, now having all this free time, but didn’t know how to fill it.

In their article, the authors mention how communicating through social media has become an integral part of everyday life. This can be the main reason for these strong withdrawal symptoms in the participants. In today’s society, where most of us have some sort of phones, if not a social media account that we can log into on our computers, communicating online is probably one of the most convenient and effective forms of talking.It’s possible that by now, especially for adolescents, where these forms of communicating have been present for the majority of their lives, social media is a key component of our daily lives, and taking that away can have extreme effects.

What advice do you have for controlling how often you use the phone? How do you think the results would have been different if they used tested this on teenagers and adolescents?

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Using Social Media to Help Cope with Trauma

October 1, 2020 in Social Media Guide

Trauma is debilitating. It can make you feel hopeless, alone, and at the very least, it hurts. Everyone has different sources for their trauma (and all of them painful in their own way), and everyone has their own ways of talking, or choosing not to, talk about their trauma.

Social media is sometimes viewed as a public diary, so naturally, some may find using online spaces as a coping mechanism. This may be through seeking out private, member-only forums and websites that are dedicated to talking about the cause of the trauma, for example. Others may use their already existing platforms and accounts to open up and be vulnerable about what they experienced, using it as a space to spread awareness about what is causing their trauma.

And while trauma can take a lot of time to accept and live with, social media can have some positive effects on how the person lives with it. For many, the people around them have not experienced the same traumatic event, and they can feel like these people just don’t get it and are saying the wrong things to them. Communities such as grief support groups can help those realize they’re not alone, and give them a space to talk with others who have experience and also understand what it’s like to live with this event. Writing about your experience online is a form of narrative therapy, and puts you in control of how you recall the event and/or gives you a space to talk through your emotions, even to the point of providing some closure. Others may use social media to memorialize a loved one if they are coping with a death, or they may post a series of happy images to remind themselves that good things have and can continue to happen. Finally, some may want to use their platform to educate about the topic, and may feel like they’ve made a difference if they receive a response saying that they’ve learned something.

As we mentioned, everyone grieves and copes with traumatic events in their own way. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing what you’ve gone through, that’s totally okay. But for some, having an accessible outlet that they can have some control over can be a powerful coping mechanism in the light of a terrible, terrible event. 

How do you use social media? How do you feel about using social media as a place to cope with negative events?

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The Problem with “Good Vibes Only”

September 28, 2020 in Be Positive

Positive thinking can be powerful. Not only does it have a beneficial effect on mental health, but studies have also shown that there are positive physical effects too when it comes to conditions such as heart disease. Besides that, positive thinking can improve your mindset, the energy you feel and give off, and how others react to you.

That’s probably why you may have seen an influx of posts, tweets, and people in general trying to encourage positive thinking. Phrases such as “good vibes only,” “choose happiness,” and “smile more” have all become popular, showing up on t-shirts, coffee mugs, and signs to put on your bedroom door. Spreading positivity, for lack of a better word, is positive, especially in a climate where most adolescents feel that mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety are the biggest problems within their generation.

But here’s the thing. Encouraging only positive thinking can cause people to think that in order to be accepted, they have to push away the negative things that are bothering them and pretend that they don’t exist. If someone is going through a hard time, they simply have to “choose happiness,” change their mindset, and everything will be okay. However, if people realistically cannot do this, they can feel worse about themselves because they’re not doing positive thinking “correctly.” And while it’s good to be optimistic, one study found that only thinking positively tricks the brain that what you ultimately want has already been achieved, therefore, you’re less likely to put effort into things. 

It’s important to find a balance in how you think and perceive the events and people around you. Only negative thinking is incredibly harmful, and only positive thinking is both impossible and can make you feel guilty (which ironically can lead to more negative thinking). One approach you can take is “mental contrasting.” Here, you first take a few minutes thinking of something you want, it happening, and how that makes you feel. After, you take a few minutes to think of the obstacles that can occur. This encourages those doing the activity to realize that the things we want aren’t guaranteed, but achievable. 

It’s totally fine to want good vibes around you and to try and surround yourself with people that give off warm, friendly energy. But what’s also important to remember is that acknowledging and feeling those negative emotions give you the opportunity to know where you need to introduce positive thinking. It’s also important to remember that both negative and positive thinking have a relationship with each other. It’s like self-care: it’s good to do positive things for yourself, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of ignoring the bad when the bad can actually be used as a supportive tool too.

What do you think about how positivity is displayed on products and on social media? Do you think a balance between positive and negative thinking is possible? How so?

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YA Books about Mental Health

September 25, 2020 in LINKS

We often use fictional novels as a means of escaping, to explore new worlds and living the lives of characters as a means of getting away from our own. And although fictional books are just that, fiction, stories are almost always reflective of things going on in reality. And although novels give us an opportunity to escape, we may find ourselves becoming attached to characters who share our backgrounds and experiences, and we may find ourselves learning more about who we are through them.

If you’re an avid reader, trying to get back into or even start reading, or have reading more as one of your quarantine goals, we wanted to highlight a few sources that have lists of young adult novels that either have a main character coping with their mental health, or have mental illness has one of the main themes of the story. These cover topics such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, OCD, suicide, and grief. The books on these lists are diverse as well, showing that mental illness can affect anyone, regardless of sex, gender, race, and sexuality.

Please keep an eye out for any trigger and content warnings. Some novels may be heavier than others with their topics.

21 YA Books To Read During Mental Health Awareness Month

YA Books Featuring Characters with Mental Illness

10 YA Fiction Books by Black Authors

Once you find a book that you like, we encourage you to rent them from your local library if you are unable to purchase them! Apps such as Libby are great tools to download ebooks from your local library if you don’t feel comfortable or are unable to physically visit.

Do you like to read? What kinds of books are you drawn to? Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction? Do you have any book recommendations about mental health?

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Tapping into a Little Nostalgia

September 21, 2020 in Be Positive

While it’s always fun going down memory lane, you’re probably finding yourself reminiscing about the past and the “good times” a lot more than usual lately. 

Whether it be 10, 5, or even just one year ago, nostalgia and thinking about good things that have happened to you in the past can have a positive effect, including on your mood and even possibly on your mental health. Studies have even found that when people look back on old memories, they’re not just reminiscing about the event themselves, but they can feel proud of themselves for seeing what important parts of their personality stuck through with them, or they might feel pride in seeing how far they’ve come.

It can be really easy to stay stuck in memory lane however, especially now. Nostalgia, while having a positive effect on your mood, is ultimately bittersweet, and getting too caught up in old memories can have you stick in that “bitter” side. You might be frustrated that you can no longer do certain activities, or you might be regretful that you didn’t say or do something during that time. At the very least, you might find yourself getting sad and experiencing a sense of loss. Like most things, you want to find a balance when looking back at fond memories.

So while it’s impossible to recreate the events in the past that created those happy memories for you, you can still use nostalgia as a tool to help elevate your mood when you find yourself feeling down. Some of those reasons are obvious: you might have been in an entirely different state or country, or you are too old to do something you did when you were a child.

However, keeping something nearby to remind yourself of things that make you happy may help spark those memories, and you might even find ways of recreating them in a new way. You can change the background of your phone and/or your computer to a place you really enjoyed visiting, or you can keep a physical object like a concert ticket in a clear case on your phone. To recreate the feelings of the former, you can watch a movie that has the same or similar setting of that place, and with the latter, you can see if the artist whose concert you attended has any recordings online and watch it virtually with the friends you attended the concert with (in fact, many artists have been giving “quarantine performances” lately). 

Whatever memories make you happy, we hope that you can explore them in a way that makes you happy, and we hope that you can even find a way to mimic them in some way today!

What are some of your favorite memories? How do you feel when you look back on them? Do you consider yourself a nostalgic person?

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