Romanticism of Mental Illnesses on Social Media
Mental illnesses are disorders that have an impact on your thought and emotions, resulting in an inability to cope with life’s ordinary demands and routines. Today, there is a stigma associated with these illnesses. As a result of this, people take to social media to express their views, thoughts, and most importantly, to share their stories that need to be heard.
Social media is a great platform to discuss issues, voice one’s opinions with the choice of anonymity. As there are always two sides to a coin, social media too has an ugly one. No doubt, sensational movements and hashtags like Break the Stigma and #painisntpretty have been a cushion of support to those who feel victimized because of their illnesses. However, the so-called “victims” are also prey to groupthink. Closed social media sites facilitate this grouping even more. Communities are set up all around affinities, designed around developing homogenous social groups rather than diverse ones. When people seek support on social media, they also find many like them who are stuck in the same boat. As they interact and discuss their problems, they find out that they have similar thoughts and feelings. So, where most people neglect these people, they find a safe space where their beliefs are strengthened and validated. It becomes an echo chamber for the mentally ill “community” and potentiates the negative emotions. Thus, mental illnesses are normalised and the sufferers have no incentive to seek psychological help as they form a distorted perception of what it means to be depressed. The word is losing its meaning as for most adolescents on social media, most negative emotions mean depression. It could be a fight with their parents, or a bad day at school. This glorification of self-pity is dangerous as it leads the sufferer down the rabbit hole.
We scroll through our social media feeds, looking at the execrable images of teenagers cutting themselves but, no longer feel sorry. This is the harsh reality. An influential platform and a driving force, social media has conditioned us into believing that these images are “beautiful” or even normal. Specifically, the users of the platform “Tumblr” started using pictures of self-harm for aesthetic purposes, which later became a trend. These pictures overgeneralize anxiety and depression to a point that people react to them insensitively in the posts and comments. A study done by Seabrook and Kern (2016) showed that positive interactions, social support, and social connectedness on Social Networking Sites were consistently related to lower levels of depression and anxiety, whereas negative interaction and social comparisons on Social Networking sites were related to higher levels of depression and anxiety. These illnesses are no longer associated with distress and agony or keenness to treat it and feel better. Mental illness on social media is a hotspot for attention. Thus, many who seek attention fantasize about depression and anxiety in hope of getting it by people on social media.
