Stress due to social media – We urgently need to change something!

It’s no longer a secret that social media can make people ill, but what researchers have now discovered in a study is truly astounding.

Social media such as Instagram or Facebook can trigger so-called technostress. This happens when users continue to stay on the same platform and engage with other features of the app. As a result, you get really sucked in and become magnetically attracted. “Not really magnetic now, but I guess it seems that way.”

The universities of Bamberg, Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) and Lancester examined in the context of a study, the behavior of Facebook users. In the process, the scientists got a wonderful insight into how a certain addictive potential was triggered when social media was consumed. This compulsive behavior of the test subjects led them to use the app even more intensively instead of leaving the platform. 450 Facebook users were analyzed in detail by the research team.

Sharing pictures or simple status updates, like a glance at the news feed, triggered stress in some subjects. The subjects felt that social media was intruding more and more into their lives. Here, still in the room, is the image of the social expectations of the participants and the tremendous flood of information coming at you.

Already you can talk about a technology addiction and how to recognize it, I tell you in this section. “Because social networks offer such a wide range of features, they can be both a stressor and a distraction for users. Even when users are stressed by social media, they use the same platforms to manage that stress.” (Quote: Sven Laumer from FAU) the interesting part of the study after all is that we humans use the stress trigger as an antidote even though it stresses us out.

In summary: “We have a stress trigger and instead of moving away from it, we just use it from the advantage to lower the stress level.”