Looking at social media profiles is depressing as fuck

[noname223]

I had the stupid idea to look at the profile pictures of peers at college. All of them look good, smile, are thin, they seem to have a life, meaning, purpose, a partner etc.

Personally instagram makes me really depressed in contrast to this forum. Really if I consumed instagram several hours per day I might would have killed myself already.

I think most of the happiness in such profile is fake. The people only show a facade. We don't see depression, anxiety in such pictures. Such profiles should have the purpose to portray a good picture of oneself in order to brag etc. For me most of it is a waste of time and I reduce the time I spend with it to a minimum.

I think I don't really have a life. And many people use their time to act on social media like they lived the perfect life. At least I don't do that. I soon have exams and I am just a workaholic. Personally I don't really care about having "no life". I am a shut-in spend my time on the internet, watching youtube, listening to music online, I vent in a suicide forum, spend myriads of hours to listen to articles scientifical and journalistic ones.

My life mostly happens online. I have social anxiety and being around people triggers me. I have a lot of time. I only study part-time and my health is rather fragile. Honestly I don't really care to be alone all the time however I have a strong desire for a partner. And this could improve my life so much. But my psychotic brains ruins everything pretty early at the start. It is so frustrating.

As I said I have a GPA of 3.9. I am pretty productive and in contrast to most other people I don't really know procrastination. So many people seem to struggle with it. I have way too much anxiety to postpone all my duties.

I am like a complete internet addict. My whole life happens online. I think this is kind of weird. I watch a lot of LIl Peep concerts though even if he was alive I had no interest to visit one. The music is too loud, the people take drugs, it is so expensive and it triggers my social anxiety. I don't really have a desire to go out and experience shit. I worship knowledge way too much. I like deep conversations which I hopefully do in this forum.

I think my brain is not wired correctly. And I just don't feel the same as the average person. Some mechanisms in my brain don't work. LIke feeling exhaustive after hours of work, the need for a break and time to breath. I have a pretty weird relation to life. I have daily melancholia and I can relate so much to Lil Peep's desire wanting to die. I wish someone could do this job for me. Suicide is so fucking hard for me but I think eventually I will be forced to do it.

I am not sure what other people do with their lives. I am extremely harsh to myself and I jut don't really know to be less disciplined. I have huge expectations on me and I need to have that otherwise I relapse. But the pressure I am doing to myself is inhuman.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Yeah- I'd say ABSOLUTEY avoid social media if you are feeling insecure. Even if I'm in a good mood, it's too much! It's no wonder so many youngsters are struggling- if they are continually comparing themselves to others.

Have you seen the 'Black Mirror' series on Netflix? It reminds me of the episode: 'Nosedive.' They are all pretty good I think. They reminded me of the series: 'The Outer Limits' if you ever saw them? But yeah- lots of social comment and moral quandries. That episode though is about an App where people continually 'rate' one another and you need high ratings for certain things in life. Distressing but not difficult to envisage on our current trajectory.

 

[noname223]

Yeah- I'd say ABSOLUTEY avoid social media if you are feeling insecure. Even if I'm in a good mood, it's too much! It's no wonder so many youngsters are struggling- if they are continually comparing themselves to others.

Have you seen the 'Black Mirror' series on Netflix? It reminds me of the episode: 'Nosedive.' They are all pretty good I think. They reminded me of the series: 'The Outer Limits' if you ever saw them? But yeah- lots of social comment and moral quandries. That episode though is about an App where people continually 'rate' one another and you need high ratings for certain things in life. Distressing but not difficult to envisage on our current trajectory.

No I never watched these series. I am out of that business since a long time. But thank you for your insightful comment!

 

[Unending]

In my opinion, the issue is that social media puts you in a situation where you have to compare your perception of your life with everyone else's hyper-curated highlight reels of what they would like for their life to look like.

I used social media for years and would delete it back and forth but finally gave it up for good when I stopped being able to deal with people in a more general sense.

 

[H.O.Xan]

I already mentioned this b4, I have SM anxiety. Mainly because it shows life movin in a way incoherent to normal perception. Like time stood still but flew at the same pace. I relate to this post

 

[leloyon]

Looking at social media posts of people I knew in real life does that. Knowing how everyone's advanced while I'm stuck in the same situation, I've been left behind.

 

[NumbItAll]

Don't worry, I'm on there posting dark and depressing shit occasionally to balance it out a little. It will either make the "sunshine and rainbows" crowd uncomfortable or uncover people who sadly can relate. It's always interesting to see the handful of people who like those posts.

 

[Kattt]

It's long been acknowledged that too much time on social media aggravates existing depressive illness. Largely because, as OP points out, people compare their own lives to the unrealistic, snap shot view that consists only of the highlights from others. They don't tend to post about the lengthy, mundane day to day stuff that EVERYONE experiences, or the dog shit bad hair days that EVERYONE experiences.
But more recently, studies are revealing that such exposure and the lack of genuine human interaction that comes with it, can actually cause depression.