The Anxiety of Social Media
Each day, there is something I do that at times causes me stomach-squeezing, palm-sweating anxiety. It’s a tiny square on a device I swipe my thumb across multiple times a day. It’s in endless scrolling through various feeds. As my mind circles around the same worrisome thoughts surrounding these little squares, I continue to immerse myself in deeper. It’s social media.
Friend, I have a theory that at least some (if not more) of my anxiety begins with my social media use. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you can remember a time when the simple click of a button caused your heartrate to rise. Maybe you can think of a time when a simple picture left you chewing your bottom lip anxiously.
In a perfect world, social media would be a place of smiles as we connect with friends and share memories. But we don’t live in a perfect world—we live in a world tangled in the thorns and thistles of sin. And in this world, social media can be a place where anxiety flourishes through comparison, knowledge of the turmoil and terror that surrounds us, envy as we worry why God hasn’t given us what he has given someone else, and anxiously checking stats and “like” counts.
Do you struggle with social media from anxiety? If so, you can read the rest of this piece at Well-Watered Women.
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