screen time

Dr. Hannah Roberts · July 11, 2024 ·

Social Media and Self-Esteem:

3 Ways to Improve the Way Social Media

Makes You Feel

By: Ella-Mei Matias, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo undergraduate intern, supervised by Dr. Hannah Roberts

Social media seems to consume us nowadays. From mindlessly scrolling, to relaxation, or even when using with friends, it’s everywhere. While social media offers many positive aspects, like allowing us to express ourselves or nurture our connections with others, it has many negative side effects. Aside from being highly compelling, it appears to be contributing to low self-esteem – especially for adolescent users. Why does this seem to be the case?

The Problem

While scrolling through various apps, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, or otherwise, we can see into the lives of hundreds of other people. In this scrolling, we can be exposed to many stimuli which can have negative effects – friends hanging out without us, influencers with items we want, or people with traits we wish we possessed.

The Comparison Aspect

Comparison is normal, and it helps us gauge our sense of self (Angela, 2021). For example, when playing a sport, you may compare your ability and skills to your teammates, or in class, you may compare your grades to others in order to assess your performance. While these comparisons help us understand ourselves better, social media leads to increasingly upward social comparison; we’re constantly shown the most positive aspects of others’ lives, and the best, edited versions of others. This form of comparison can negatively impact our self-esteem and can lead to lower mood, negative self-appraisals, and emotional problems. It can also lead to a need for social approval – via follows, likes, views, or comments.

How to Use Social Media in a More Positive Way

It’s clear that social media can have some detrimental impacts on our mental health, but what can we do about it? It’s been shown that the way social media affects us is based on the way we interact with and approach social media. Essentially, the best way to use social media is by being mindful about how we use it and creating a positive online environment – and remember, you can always turn off your phone! Here are some ways that you can be more mindful of your social media:

Engage Mindfully

Check-in with yourself: when using social media, ask yourself some questions. Is what you’re seeing online true to how people really are in real life? Why do you feel validated by social media? Do you feel better or worse after using social media? While scrolling online, you can do regular check-ins – is what I’m seeing helping or harming me? (Jacobson, 2022).
Focus on the positives: social media can be used for many positive purposes. You create your social media environment! Engage in meaningful connections and weed out anything in your feed that makes you feel negative.
Portray an authentic version of yourself: being true to yourself in the way you present yourself on social media can help you take it less seriously! Post for enjoyment, not because you believe it will get you likes.
Interact: it’s easy to mindlessly scroll and consume media, but this can unknowingly lead to feelings of disconnection or loneliness (Social Media, 2020). By interacting with media you are also more likely to be mindful about your social media usage.
Surround yourself with others who don’t use social media: after all, we tend to behave in similar ways to those we are close to!

Set Boundaries

Take social media breaks: sometimes a detox can help! This could be for any period of time that feels reasonable to you – 24 hours, or a week, you could even try taking a month off. Taking breaks from social media can help you realize how much you truly use it, and returning to social media after taking some time off can help you be more mindful about how you use it. During this time try and pick up some new hobbies!
Set boundaries: if you find yourself mindlessly consuming media, it can help to set rigid boundaries. This could include only going on an app for a certain amount of time in one sitting, turning your phone off or on airplane mode during certain times of the day, setting a time-limit for the day, or turning off notifications.

Focus on Real Life

Focus on your relationships: by prioritizing your relationships, and having a strong support system, you can decrease the ways that social media impacts your self-esteem. Focusing on the people you see face-to-face can help you to create a strong sense of self, supported by the people who know you best. It can also help decrease the likelihood of having problematic social media use.
Focus on your sense of self: by focusing on who you are without social media, you are able to create realistic and more genuine forms of self-esteem and ways of viewing yourself. When you confidently know who you are, you are less likely to be harmed by negative perceptions on social media (Akdag, 2024).
Realize it’s not real: social media only presents the most positive aspects of one’s life and is unrealistic – you won’t always look the same as someone who can review and edit photos or videos and people will usually only post images of themselves at their best (which isn’t realistic).
Practice gratitude: take some time to be grateful for what you do have! It can be easy to focus on what we don’t have when we are constantly shown idealistic online presentations, but taking time to reflect on what you already have is important (Mindful Social Media).

Feel like you’re struggling with your social media or ready to start therapy in California today? Schedule a session with one of our therapists! You can schedule online here!

We hope you enjoyed this blog post! Have more topics you’d like us to blog about? Contact us and we’ll be sure to include your topic in a future post.

References

Acar, I. H., Avcilar, G., Yazici, G., & Bostanci, S. (2022). The roles of adolescents’ emotional problems and social media addiction on their self-esteem. Current Psychology, 41(10), 6838+. http://dx.doi.org.calpoly.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01174-5

Akdag, B., & Unsal, C. (2024). The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem Bettveen Meaning in Life and Social Media Addiction. ADDICTA: The Turkish Journal on Addictions, 11(1), 99+. http://dx.doi.org.calpoly.idm.oclc.org/10.5152/ADDICTA.2024.23126

Angela. (2021, February 27). Why Do We Compare Ourselves to Others – Mind, Body and Soul. Mind, Body and Soul. https://wp.nyu.edu/mind/2021/02/27/why-do-we-compare-ourselves-to-others/#:~:text=Comparisons%20allow%20us%20to%20form

Bergman, M. (2024, January 10). Social media’s effects on self-esteem | social media victims law center. Social Media Victim’s Law Center. https://socialmediavictims.org/mental-health/self-esteem/

Hatun, O., & Kurtca, T. T. (2023). Examining the Relationship Between Social Support and Social Media Addiction: Role of Self-Esteem. ADDICTA: The Turkish Journal on Addictions, 10(2), 142+. http://dx.doi.org.calpoly.idm.oclc.org/10.5152/ADDICTA.2023.23033

Jacobson, R. (2022, September 2). Social Media and Self-Doubt. Child Mind Institute. https://childmind.org/article/social-media-and-self-doubt/

Mindful Social Media Use. (n.d.). Care-Clinics.com. Retrieved June 29, 2024, from https://care-clinics.com/mindful-social-media-use/#:~:text=Unfollow%20or%20mute%20accounts%20thatSocial Media: 6 Tips for Mindfulness. (2020, February 5). PrairieCare. https://prairie-care.com/resources/type/blog/social-media-6-tips-for-mindfulness/

Dr. Hannah Roberts · May 2, 2024 ·

Why Your True Crime Obsession

Is Bad For Your Anxiety

by Gavin Hannegan, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo undergraduate intern, supervised by Dr. Hannah Roberts

Getting scared can feel thrilling and cathartic. Forms of entertainment, like horror movies, are entirely dedicated to instilling these feelings in people. While we can recognize that the monster on the TV screen is not real, the same can’t be said for true crime. There’s an additional layer of fear knowing that these unsolved mysteries or gruesome acts are real-life events. And with podcasts like “Your Own Backyard”, about events that happened in San Luis Obispo County, these stories may feel personally relevant. These aspects are what make the true crime genre distinctly engaging, but they also contribute to some unique health concerns. It’s not the same as watching a scary movie and feeling too scared to fall asleep; with true crime, there are resulting anxieties that persist throughout the day. Read on to understand why you should consider moderating the amount of time spent on true crime.

True Crime Can Make You Feel Vulnerable and Unprotected

We all have a need to feel safe in our environment, but true crime reminds us that safety is not always guaranteed. These cases present the world as a threatening place. International college students report that crime-related media invokes both a general fear of crime and the fear that they may be a victim of a future crime themselves (Shi, 2018). As a result of these fears, our brain responds as if it were dealing with an active threat. College students who frequently interact with crime-based media may modify their behavior in order to protect themselves, whether through spending less time outdoors or carrying a weapon on them. Because women are more often depicted as the victims in crime-related media, women may be more likely to exhibit these behaviors (Custers et al., 2017). Although true crime stories are meant to be unsettling, their use becomes problematic when it impairs our day-to-day functioning.

The More Crime Media We’re Exposed To, the More Fear We Experience

True crime media is easy to consume. There are many different ways to interact with true crime, whether through TV shows, documentaries, or news articles. Podcasts in particular are a popular choice because of their accessibility; you can listen to these stories on your way to school, when you’re working out, or while you’re completing household chores. True crime also encourages consumption. Each series typically provides a deep dive on one specific case. World-building occurs through the extensive details and narratives of each case, which can hook you into the story. Cliffhangers leave you anticipating the next episode. And because these stories are real, we’re more likely to be invested in them (Custers et al., 2017).

But this extended engagement is when we begin to see the most significant increases in anxiety. In general, there is a strong positive correlation between media consumption and the fear of crime amongst young adults (Intravia et al., 2017). A similar effect was observed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic; in this sample, those who consumed COVID-19 related media for 7 times a day not only were more scared of the pandemic, but they also were at greater risk of experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression (Bendau et al., 2021). Rather than being “sensitized” to such content, the opposite effect occurs: we feel more vulnerable to real threats such as COVID-19 or crime the more time we spend with this type of media. True crime is designed to keep you tuning in to the story, and it becomes easy to fall down the rabbit hole of a true crime obsession. However, to prevent this form of entertainment from causing us harm, we need to be more conscious about how we interact with true crime.

How Can I Moderate My True Crime Exposure?

While an easy solution would be to cut off true crime entirely, the goal is to enjoy this type of media without experiencing strong anxieties. A good starting place is to think about why you engage with true crime media. Some of the most common reasons include entertainment, convenience, and boredom (Boling & Hull, 2018). When true crime is only used to mindlessly pass the time, that’s where the health risks can emerge. With boredom, there’s less of a conscious effort to regulate your media usage. As a result, consuming media out of boredom has made adolescents and emerging adults more prone to detrimental health outcomes ranging from negative moods to financial stress (Stockdale & Coyne, 2020). One reason that has been observed specifically in women is that true crime may provide tips for survival, including information about the criminal justice system and their risk of victimization (Boling & Hull, 2018). But as mentioned previously, constantly absorbing information that reminds you of your vulnerabilities will only exacerbate feelings of anxiety.

If true crime has caused you any stress, prioritize the entertainment aspects and remove yourself from any connections with the stories. Another recommendation is to determine how much time you want to dedicate to true crime and when you want to listen to it. Start by pacing yourself at an episode per day to avoid overconsumption. Listen to true crime in the middle of the day while it’s bright out, rather than at night when you might feel more unprotected. Turn your true crime usage into a social activity by having a group of friends enjoy the stories with you. Feel free to bring up any concerns with true crime to your therapist so you can both develop personalized strategies for healthier listening. Take back control over your usage with true crime to get the most out of the experience!

Have more questions or feel like you need therapy? Schedule a session with one of our therapists today! You can schedule online here!

We hope you enjoyed this blog post! Have more topics you’d like us to blog about? Contact us and we’ll be sure to include your topic in a future post!

References

Bendau, A., Petzold, M. B., Pyrkosch, L., Maricic, L. M., Betzler, F., Rogoll, J., Große, J., Ströhle, A., & Plag, J. (2021). Associations between COVID-19 related media consumption and symptoms of anxiety, depression and COVID-19 related fear in the general population in Germany. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 271, 283-291. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-020-01171-6

Boling, K. S. & Hull, K. (2018). Undisclosed information–Serial is My Favorite Murder: Examining motivations in the true crime podcast audience. Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 25(1), 92-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/19376529.2017.1370714

Custers, K., Hall, E. D., Smith, S. B., & McNallie, J. (2017). The indirect association between television exposure and self-protective behavior as a result of worry about crime: The moderating role of gender. Mass Communication and Society, 20, 637-662. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2017.1317353

Intravia, J., Wolff, K. T., Paez, R., & Gibbs, B. R. (2017). Investigating the relationship between social media consumption and fear of crime: A partial analysis of mostly young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 77, 158-168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.08.047

Shi, L. (2018). A neglected population: Media consumption, perceived risk, and fear of crime among international students. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(5-6), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518766428

Stockdale, L. A. & Coyne, S. M. (2020). Bored and online: Reasons for using social media, problematic social networking site use, and behavioral outcomes across the transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Journal of Adolescence, 79, 173-183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.01.010

Dr. Hannah Roberts · April 25, 2024 ·

How To: Have Better Boundaries with Your Smartphone

“Almost everything will work again if you

unplug it for a few minutes,

including you.”

~Anne Lamott

by Gavin Hannegan, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo undergraduate intern, supervised by Dr. Hannah Roberts

Every Sunday morning, my iPhone sends me a notification reviewing my average screen time for the week (for some reason, I always get the message at exactly 9:13am). Some weeks I feel proud of the number. A lower screen time usually means that I had a productive week and that most of the time spent on my phone was used for school- or work-related reasons. Other weeks I’m not as proud. A decision to take a quick TikTok break may have turned into an hour-long escape from my responsibilities. Weeks like that make me feel guilty, that I should have never opened those apps to begin with. But phones aren’t necessarily a “bad thing.” The key factor is how you use your phone.

I’m not going to tell you to throw your phone in the garbage can. Not only is it unrealistic to quit your phone usage cold turkey, but it’s also one of the hardest ways to practice self-control related to screen-time (Brevers & Turel, 2019). Smartphones have become an essential component of modern life. They are an efficient way to communicate with friends, family, and even our employers. For college students who are away from home, smartphones may be one of the only ways we are able to check in with our loved ones. The convenience of apps like GPS, calendars, and mobile delivery services are incredibly valuable for the working individual. You may even be reading this blog post on a mobile device. But there are evidence-based ways to enjoy our phones in moderation, to mitigate the health risks that increase the more time we spend scrolling. It can be hard to say “no” to your phone, so here are some recommendations for creating a more healthy relationship with your cellular device.

Set Screen Time Goals

Be specific and realistic with how much time you want to spend on your phone. Account for what you typically do with your phone on a given day. Consider your current average screen time as a baseline. Based on a sample of college students, your daily screen time should be no more than 5 hours. From 5 hours onward, each successive hour spent on phone usage will increase the risk of depressive symptoms by 20% (Rosenthal et al., 2021). If your daily screen time tends to be more than 5 hours, take a look in your phone’s settings to see a breakdown of how frequently you use each app. This will help you identify some of the “problem areas” and will allow your goals to be more concrete. On Apple devices, you can click Settings > Screen Time > App Limits to determine how much time your phone will allow you to spend on a particular set of apps.

Regulate the Amount of Notifications You Receive per Day

Some apps may send too much spam, so it’s easy to turn notifications off for those specific cases, or delete those apps entirely. But what about messages that you don’t want to miss, like a text from Mom or an important update in the group chat? One study recommends a technique called batching, which is where your notifications appear at set times throughout the day. When notifications are scheduled to appear 3 times a day, phone users report higher levels of well-being compared to those who did not regulate their notifications and those who turned off all of their notifications. Unpredictable notifications can be distracting, while a long-term “Do Not Disturb” setting can actually increase anxiety through the fear of missing out (FOMO) (Fitz et al., 2019). To batch your notifications on an Apple device, go to Settings > Notifications > Scheduled Summary.

Limit Phone Usage Especially Before Sleep

The best time to start implementing these strategies is before your bedtime. Sleep is crucial for the regulation of our body and mind, but the use of our phones even an hour before we rest our eyes can disrupt this regulation. This is because the blue light emitted from phones slows the production of melatonin, a hormone involved in maintaining our circadian rhythm. If our circadian rhythm is disrupted, then we have a harder time falling and staying asleep, and we also feel more groggy and tired during the day (Cajochen et al., 2011). As screen time goes up, our sleep quality goes down. Over time, the worse our sleep becomes, the more likely we are to experience a number of negative health outcomes such as obesity, feelings of depression, and strokes (Christensen et al., 2016). While an eventual goal may be to cut phone usage well before we sleep, there are some ways to start smaller. You can reduce the blue light on Apple devices by going to Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift, which will make your screen have a warmer tone as the day gets darker. Another tip is to put your phone away before beginning your nighttime routine. This will allow you to direct all of your attention on your skincare, for example, without feeling distracted by your phone. Lastly, leave your phone out of reach while you sleep to reduce any temptations.

Spend Time with Your Friends Instead of Your Phone

This is not the same as interacting with your friends on social media platforms. When we feel the impulse to scroll on social media, it’s often because we feel bored, lonely, or want to suppress our FOMO. And these feelings arise out of a need for social and psychological stimulation. What’s ironic, though, is that when we resort to our smartphones to attempt to gain that stimulation, we effectively reject the stimulation that we would receive–and should be receiving–from in-person interactions (Gao et al., 2023). There’s a term for this process: phubbing. Phubbing is a portmanteau of the words “phone” and “snubbing”, referencing how a person will choose to focus on their phone rather than on the person they’re having a conversation with (Gao et al., 2023). But phubbing doesn’t give us the stimulation that we’re looking for. In fact, it damages our social relationships. Phubbing can lower the relationship quality of romantic couples by making partners feel excluded, ignored, and less intimate (Beukeboom & Pollmann, 2021). Our phones cannot be a substitute for healthy social interaction.

No phone setting this time; just make plans with your friends! You may have busy schedules with school or work, but just a quick lunch break or a walk around the park will help you feel socially connected. These activities can satisfy your needs and take up the time that you may have otherwise spent on your phone. Even if you bring your phone to a social event, you can still prioritize your friend group by watching videos or looking up information together on one device (Beukeboom & Pollmann, 2021).

We hope these tips give you a variety of options to tailor your phone usage to your individual lives. When you see that screen time report on Sunday morning, be proud of the work you’ve put in to find that healthy balance. Feel free to share some of your favorite strategies with us, we’d love to hear from you!

Have more questions or feel like you need therapy? Schedule a session with one of our therapists today! You can schedule online here!

We hope you enjoyed this blog post! Have more topics you’d like us to blog about? Contact us and we’ll be sure to include your topic in a future post!

References

Beukeboom, C. J. & Pollmann, M. (2021). Partner phubbing: Why using your phone during interactions with your partner can be detrimental for your relationship. Computers in Human Behavior, 124, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106932

Brevers, D. & Turel, O. (2019). Strategies for self-controlling social media use: Classification and role in preventing social media addiction symptoms. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 8(3), 554-563. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.8.2019.49

Cajochen, C., Frey, S., Anders, D., Späti, J., Bues, M., Pross, A., Mager, R., Wirz-Justice, A., & Stefani, O. (2011). Evening exposure to a light-emitting diodes (LED)-backlit computer screen affects circadian physiology and cognitive performance. Journal of Applied Physiology, 110(5), 1432-1438. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00165.2011

Christensen, M. A., Bettencourt, L., Kaye, L., Moturu, S. T., Nguyen, K. T., Olgin, J. E., Pletcher, M. J., & Marcus, G. M. (2016). Direct measurements of smartphone screen-time: Relationships with demographics and sleep. PLoS ONE, 11(11), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165331

Fitz, N., Kushlev, K., Jagannathan, R., Lewis, T., Paliwal, D., & Ariely, D. (2019). Batching smartphone notifications can improve well-being. Computers in Human Behavior, 101, 86-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.07.016

Gao, B., Liu, Y., Shen, Q., Fu, C., Li, W., & Li, X. (2023). Why cannot I stop phubbing? Boredom proneness and phubbing: A multiple mediation model. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 16, 3727-3738. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S423371

Rosenthal, S. R., Zhou, J., & Booth, S. T. (2021). Association between mobile phone screen time and depressive symptoms among college students: A threshold effect. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 3(3), 432-440. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.256