The Truth About Social Media During Lockdown

Social media plays an important part of our everyday lives, especially the lives of those who have grown up alongside it. Over the past 20 years, there has been an ongoing debate about whether it has a positive or negative impact, but what is the truth about the impact of social media during lockdown?

Social media played an important role in keeping in contact with friends and family during lockdown. It allowed people to put in that extra effort, especially to keep in contact with those who were struggling. It can be really difficult knowing your friends from university, who you’d usually see on a daily basis, are scattered around the country and it made us grateful for the weekly Zoom quizzes which became our reality.

“If I ever compare myself it’s usually career-related, but in those cases I just remind myself that everyone is on their own unique journey.”

One of social media’s main pitfalls is the potential for users to compare themselves to one another. This includes their appearance, their work ethic or academic/career-related achievements. No matter what it is, we have all been guilty of comparing an aspect of ourselves to someone else. Stopping yourself from doing this is easier said than done. 

22-year-old journalist Emilia Jansson said: “If I ever compare myself it’s usually career-related, but in those cases I just remind myself that everyone is on their own unique journey and that I have also achieved lots of great things and have lots of awesome adventures ahead of me.”

When lockdown was first announced, many people decided it was time to sort their lives out and took to social media to let everyone know. This included exercising, saving money, organising their homes and keeping to a daily schedule, which lead others to feel like there was an expectation to do the same.

Orla McAndrew, an 18-year-old student, says she felt the need to do a lot more exercise. She said: “Whilst this was motivated by social media it has really helped my mental and physical health and now I’ve been doing it a lot, I am trying not to compare my lifestyle to those portrayed on social media.”

For many people, like Orla, this has had a positive impact. Rather than making them feel that this was an expectation, they felt inspired to make some lifestyle changes. Those who acknowledge how easy it is for people to curate an image of themselves and portray a false lifestyle have the most positive experiences on social media; taking social media with a pinch of salt was key to not letting it get you down during lockdown.

“When you become so immersed in other people’s lives, it acts as a distraction from bettering your own life.”

Dani Cole, a 24-year-old freelance journalist, says that social media has had a positive impact on her during lockdown. She said: “I don’t really compare myself to other people regarding appearance and lifestyle. I don’t feel pressured to post aesthetically-pleasing snaps of my food and what have you!”. However, she added: “I do compare myself with others on social media in terms of productivity.”

When you become so immersed in other people’s lives, it acts as a distraction from bettering your own life. Spending too much time on social media and fixating on other people will make users feel guilty, as they could have been doing something productive to take the next step towards living their dream life. 

Amy Holliday, a 19-year-old student at the University of Warwick, says the productivity push at the start of lockdown reaffirmed the need to strike an important balance between being pro-active and knowing when to prioritise yourself.

I think we can all agree with Dani when she says that if anything, lockdown has shown her how much better life is when you log off for a while.

Katie Wheatley

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Featured image courtesy of William Iven on Unsplash.