 |
| It's full-time and Liverpool lose again. |
I use SN sites; I use Facebook, primarily because most other people I know do and it's often the best (and cheapest) way of keeping in touch with people. I use Twitter for no other reason other than to promote this blog and I use Linkedin for work contacts. My standpoint of SN is that it's a great concept, but to me it seems to be replacing real-life contact. It can also be extremely misleading, and people find it much easier to 'vent' via the textual rather than the spoken word - they say things on Facebook that they may not have said to someone face to face, or even phone to phone. So overall, I think the rise in SN has been too meteoric and worryingly it will only get more so.
SN can also put immense pressure on people with anxiety, especially social anxiety. The life of your friends, or indeed, 'people you vaguely knew at school and spoke to once,' is plastered all over your computer or phone on a daily, or even hourly basis. If Caroline gets married, John gets 'falsely' arrested and Dean finally gets his dream job as a chicken farmer, you know about it immediately. Sonograms, wedding rings, party snaps and bits of half eaten food appear as photos on the site, as a way of documenting people's lives.
But to someone with anxiety, all of these updates can be difficult to take. The seemingly normal act of someone's status being 'out at the pub with good mates' can put someone who struggles to go to such events, or someone who doesn't go to enough of such events because they used to struggle at such events, in a very low mood. But without SN, that person is cut off completely from their friends... so what do you do? Simply watching stories flick up on your screen of people getting engaged and being in relationships and having such an awesome time can generate your own feelings of failure. To someone with anxiety, these emotions are difficult to stop. I imagine it's even worse for people suffering from depression. But if you sever all ties with SN, then you risk becoming isolated and lonely, as sadly some people seem to replace SN with physically meeting up these days.
Then, of course, there's the issue of popularity, something else that can mount pressure on someone with anxiety. I have 104 friends on my Facebook page, which apparently is quite low for someone of my age. Most of my other friends have over 150, with some having over 1,000. I don't think I've ever seen 1,000 different people, let alone can class them as friends.
The question to ask is, how many of these 104 people are actually friends? The way I class friends are (1) people who you talk (actually talk) to regularly, (2) share things with, (3) trust and (4) enjoy the company of on a social basis. I would say about ten come into at least three of these four categories. About five come into all four. Granted, many people my age would have more than this (indeed, this is a legacy of my anxious past), but I guarantee that those people with 1,000 friends will have no more than about 30 who are 'true' friends. I would wager that it'd be less. But still, someone with anxiety who has lived a life of social turmoil and difficulty will often look at statistics like this and feel failures or pressured.
Trust me, it happens.
I am in favour of SN becoming available on mobiles though, for one reason only; it means that at least people can take their SN sites with them, so that they aren't wedded to their homes on their laptops. At least they can get some fresh air. Fresh air and exercise are very important for people with anxiety to get, so at least now we can get the "best" of both worlds.
But then there's the issue of technology as a whole. The Government, needless to say, are pressing ahead with the construction of more mobile phone masts to cope with increased demand and the rollout out of 4G (whatever that is). The World Health Organisation state that "no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use." But, (a) I am less than convinced by the research that has been done, (b) this is from mobile phone use and not the radiation from masts themselves and (c) this is in reference to physical, and not mental health. I'm no health expert, but you're telling me that the huge increase in microwaves and wireless beams that penetrate all of our walls is having no impact? I doubt that. We'll never find out of course, because such statistics, if they were ever to come to light, would disappear into a fine mist, all in the name of technology.
Perish the thought that we aren't wedded to our SN sites or mobile phones for more than a minute.
But I feel I should end on a positive note. SN, and the Internet as a whole, can bring huge benefits to anxiety sufferers. As I've explained on previous blogs, I found Anxiety UK purely by searching online. I received therapy via a webcam from a counsellor who was at her home in Glasgow. Mind and Anxiety UK's Facebook and Twitter feeds, their blogs and their websites are not only fantastic resources for anxiety sufferers (and those with other mental health problems), but they are also able to reach out to a much wider audience. They can now find the people that need help, rather than the people needing help having to find them. There's also Mind's own version of Facebook called Elefriends, which brings together a whole community of people who have mental health problems.
The various SN/Internet-based pages are also being markedly successful in attempting to eradicate mental health stigma, something that is much easier now more people are able to share their thoughts about mental health more openly.
There could be a scenario where more people get anxious because of SN and technology, but more people also get treated as a result. I'll let you decide which is better.
The message for anxiety sufferers I guess is, try and ignore social networking updates and, instead, utilise it to your advantage. Why not create a blog about your experiences?
Oh hang on, only someone with very few Facebook friends would have the time to do that...
Best wishes
Al
No comments:
Post a Comment