Ann, 27, loves Instagram: seeing what everyone has been doing over the weekend, collecting recipes and getting inspired to look great. But she notes that in addition to inspiration, she also gains insecurity: photos, the number of likes or the number of followers of others make her jealous sometimes. How can she better protect against that?
Media Psychology and Healthcare Psychology Specialist Bjarne Timonen: “Ann will probably get insecure about some of the people she follows, because she wouldn’t become that quick of a nice recipe of course. But if someone with a perfect body cooks, she probably does.”
picture perfect
“My advice: Be more selective about the people you follow. On social media, you can suffer from selective comparison, as you start comparing yourself negatively with the people you follow. And all of those picture perfect And out of the twenty photos they took only those beautiful places.”
“You can quickly start to think that’s that person’s reality too, and that you fall short, because everything seems less cool with you. So be selective in the people you follow. If you notice that a certain influencer is making you insecure, unfollow them.”
How do we really know that everything has become more beautiful, but we still think that we see the real life of a person? Timonin: “This is how the brain works: it takes it into reality. Although we know that there is a filter above it. But it does not feel it.”
“This is also why social media is so popular: we can influence in a very artificial way. And it works! Influencers have a lot of followers, but there are a lot of followers who are envious and not really excited about the person in everything they follow. This is not a nice way to use social media. Social contact. In fact, we know that it can lead to depression if you use it too much or start to think more negatively about yourself.”
“If you follow certain accounts to be inspired, for example to find delicious recipes or to get in good shape, or to travel more, that is fine. Then act accordingly and it can be beneficial. But when the bar is too high if you feel like you don’t You can live up to that, it’s just destruction.”
show weakness
How can we all show our best side on social media? Don’t we want to share our bad moments? Timonin: “No, because then you show yourself weak. Moreover, it is not very attractive. In ordinary life we also prefer to show our best side. People want to appear strong, happy and handsome. This increases our status. Show our status. Vulnerable, we are We don’t do it so quickly.”
Does it also make sense to reduce or stop using social media? Timonin: “This can certainly make sense. But it doesn’t have to, as long as you’re mindful of it. There are also nice aspects to social media and it can be very inspiring. But really be more selective in who you follow.”
Category: friend request
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