5 Reasons Why Social Media Is Ruining My Life

It might be ruining yours, too.

Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash

In 2011, I wrote an essay for Psychology Today entitled, “Social Media Makes Me Feel Bad About Myself.” What this means is that social media has been making me feel bad about myself for over a decade.

I keep trying to take a step back and use social media moderately, and I keep failing. But recently, it dawned on me: This is not the result of any personal weakness or lack of willpower on my part; rather, social media is designed to suck us in and be all-consuming.

When I am able to cut back on my social media usage for short periods of time, like I did for a couple of weeks last month, I feel, in general, better. And I realize that social media has many downsides that, when taken together, and without moderation, can be seriously harmful to my happiness.

Here are five ways social media is ruining my life — and might be ruining yours, too.