Published on 12, July, 2020
I have Aspergers, and have been talking to someone I like as a friend (and also secretly fancy!) on Instagram, and it's been going well. I also followed them on TikTok and liked some of their posts, but they haven't followed me back. I have been really nervous about this, and am scared that our relationship is fake or less somehow because of this. I know that they haven't posted again since I followed them, but then I remembered whenever someone follows me on TikTok I'm notified on the home-screen of my phone, so I got scared and thought "What if they have seen my follow and likes, why haven't they followed me back?". I've been trying to separate the anxiety from myself (like labelling it), as I know it is irrational. Do you guys go through similar anxieties, and how do you deal with it?
Today's people don't use social media for it's original purpose. Even though social media was designed to make us more connected, it has ended up making the world less social and disconnected from each other.
Some people use social media as a coping mechanism.
Some people use it to express what they're scared to express in person.
Some compete for likes to make themselves feel better.
Some use it as a fantasy world to replace the real world.
Some use it to make money, they will flatter and seduce people to follow them and subscribe.
Social media when misused is just like a dangerous drug. Studies all around the world have linked a mass increase of depression, stress and anxiety to the excessive use of social media, they've even found that the more someone uses social media the more socially isolated they feel, and the more socially isolated they feel, the more they want to use social media.
I would say to deal with this disconnect from what's causing you anxiety, if it's a particular channel that stopped listening to you as soon as you followed, they're most likely despitefully using you, you don't have to disconnect from social media, but disconnect from the parts you're anxious and insecure about.
Daniel said: Social media when misused is just like a dangerous drug. Studies all around the world have linked a mass increase of depression, stress and anxiety to the excessive use of social media, they've even found that the more someone uses social media the more socially isolated they feel, and the more socially isolated they feel, the more they want to use social media.
Very true. On a related theme, I recently watched the film, 'Surrogates', where the majority of people lived out their lives lying in their beds connected by WiFi to surrogate android robots, who lived their lives for them.
Originally these surrogates where created to help the physically disabled to live more fruitful and social lives by using the surrogates to interact with the outside world.
However the able bodied became addicted to the surrogates and spent their lives stuck at home 24/7 completely isolated and lived through their surrogates.
Social media is similar. To many people it seems more real than reality itself.
This sounds like my kind of film. Depressing.