Your social media may be ruining your life

Facebook, the popular social media site that is rapidly being swarmed by older generations is one of the most popular websites in the world. Though there is proof that Facebook is being overpopulated by our grandparents and our parents, it is still a relevant social network site for college students and young people all around the world.

Not only do college students connect through Facebook, but we also spend about five to six hours a day on social media, according to eMarketer.com. Though we may have 20 social media applications on our phones, eMarketer’s study of social media from 2015 claims that college students still spend most of their time on Facebook than any other social media site or application.

When a young person thinks of social media, many feelings may come over then. For the majority, I feel it is safe to say that college students feel more positively towards social media than negatively, since we all use some type of social media platform.

What if your social media was solely responsible for your good moods? That would be good. That would make you want to continue using it.

But what if someone told you that what you see on your social media is causing you to feel depressed, mad, angry, or upset. What if your social media was solely to blame for your bad moods? That would cause anyone to be concerned and curious. It could even be happening without you realizing. What if someone told you that your social media platforms had the ability to manipulate what you see on your timeline to make it mostly negative or mostly positive?

Well, all of that can happen and has happened and some of us college students may not have ever been aware the impact that our social media can have on our happiness or on our sadness.

In 2014, Facebook manipulated the newsfeeds of 689,003 people to test whether the emotion that was displayed on their newsfeeds impacted the emotions they posted on their Facebook page.

This test was carried out for a week and during that week Facebook users either say “less positive emotional content” or “less negative emotional content” on their newsfeed. Facebook then documented whether or not those users displayed the emotions they were exposed to on their own timelines.

According to Forbes.com, Facebook had two major takeaways from this experiment.

“These results indicate that emotions expressed by others on Facebook influence our own emotions, constituting experimental evidence for massive-scale contagion via social networks.”

“We also observed a withdrawal effect: People who were exposed to fewer emotional posts (of either valence) in their news feeds were less expressive overall on the following days, addressing the question about how emotional expression affects social engagement online.”

Though it is realized that this study was done in 2014 and may not be timely, it remains important to realize that your social media sites have an affect on your everyday mood.

Social media is the top dog in our generation. It is everywhere, and it is unavoidable. We are forced to use social media for work, school, to receive information, to buy products, to check up on family, and so much more nowadays.

While I think social media for the most part is beneficial to society, it is important to be aware that the content you are being exposed to can and will most likely have an effect on your emotions and moods.

As college students, we deal with the pressure of classes, internships, work, grades, romantic relationships, family relationships, moving, graduating and so many more important things that require focus and positive emotions. Is there really room in your life for things that are proven to affect your emotions negatively?

As an avid Facebook user, I have started paying more attention to the content displayed on my newsfeed and deleting those users that do nothing but promote negativity.

If you do not want to delete friends and lose relationship, start paying attention to the emotions displayed on your timeline and be aware. Being knowledgeable and mindful of what affects your mood is the first way of stopping it.

Let social media be a fun, enjoyable, and beneficial thing. If it becomes anything less than that, it is not worth it.