Maybe Social Media Isn’t So Damaging to Your Mental Health After All

With the rise of social media in the last decade, many articles and studies have focused on whether the use of social media sites is to the detriment of users' mental health.

And most of the studies released do seem to indicate that, yes, certain social media sites certainly don't help.

Not everyone seems to agree, however.

A research fellow at the Black Dog Institute, Bridianne O'Dea, told Huffington Post that studies aren't really suggesting social media is bad for your mental health.

"It is probably true for quite a number of people, but when we take big scientific studies and put it up to the rigour of science, those relationships [between social media and mental health] don't ring true," O'Dea said.

Instead, O'Dea suggests those who have a strong support network with family and friends in their real life seem to have a higher resilience threshold for social media.

"The strength and the importance of family is always going to be one of the most important things to mental health," she said. "We are also in family units and different technologies won't degrade that at the rate that some people think it will."

That's not to say that social media can never be bad for you, but O'Dea suggested that the causal relationship between social media and poor mental health was "very small" and "weak".

Some studies have also looked at the implications of unfriending and de-friending on Facebook, which O'Dea also believes is overstated.

"It is likely that finding out that someone has unfriended you is likely to put further strain on that friendship," O'Dea said.

"We have to remember that a lot of what happens online does mirror offline and the discontinuation of friendships is a very normal part of human interaction."

So, there you go. Social media isn't really some dangerous black hole where souls get sucked into and never return after all. For some.

If you or anyone you know needs help, support is available now. Call Lifeline on 131 114 or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800.

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