Can Social Media Algorithms Affect Your Mental Health?

Our everyday lives are significantly impacted by social media. We use it to connect with friends and to get the latest news. Popular social media sites like Instagram and Facebook have 2 billion and 2.9 billion active monthly users, respectively as of 2024.

However, behind the engaging posts and striking images, social media algorithms are constantly at work. They decide the content that comes to your online feed based on your clicks, likes, and shares. These algorithms have been designed in a way to keep you glued to social media content by showing you more of what you like.

While you enjoy what you see and read, there is a flip side to it. Such algorithms can affect your mental health by hurting your self-esteem, thoughts, and moods, rather negatively. Hence, it is necessary to know how these algorithms work and use social media wisely.

The Negative Effect of Social Media Algorithms

In October 2023, Brainz Magazine shared a piece about this topic contributed by Dr. Tiffany M. Smith. She stated that the ongoing flow of curated content can cause depression, anxiety, and even body image issues. As a result, algorithmic choices don’t always have our best interests in mind.

When you watch content that makes you feel negative, more of that type of content appears on your feed, creating a vicious cycle.

The negative effects of such algorithms are:

Echo Chambers and Filter Bubbles

Filter bubbles cause social media algorithms to highlight content based on users’ previous likes and engagement. It limits them from having a different or new perspective. Echo chambers result in confirmation bias. Here, people only seek and consume information that confirms their existing beliefs.

Both echo chambers and filter bubbles can magnify your prejudices, making you rigid in thoughts and opinions. This often can lead to delusional thinking about certain topics, which negatively affects your practical reasoning.

Envy and Comparison

For most people, social media functions much like a highlight reel where people share only their best moments. The algorithms favor popular posts that show a continuous stretch of perfect lives. This is far from the truth because everyone has their struggles and isn’t always happy.

This results in unhealthy comparisons that make you feel you aren’t living your best life. You may feel envious of your friends and others whom you don’t even know. Naturally, your mental health suffers, as you are constantly in a state of unhappiness.

Overuse and Addiction

Social media posts trigger dopamine release, which keeps users engaged online for extended periods. This chemical in the brain is linked to pleasure and addiction. Algorithms keep showing you content that you find emotionally stimulating and satisfying, which encourages you to keep scrolling.

This results in overuse, causing you to spend excessive time on social media. You cut out on other important activities such as exercise, real-life interactions, sleep, and reading a book. It interferes with meeting deadlines for professional tasks, affects your productivity, and leads to stress at work.

Facebook Sued by a Professor for Its Algorithm

Facebook is a popular social media platform with a large user base, primarily comprising youth. It’s mostly because the company has been acquiring youth-friendly apps such as Instagram. The company uses an infinite scroll method to keep users hooked on the endless stream of content that sets unrealistic expectations and standards of living.

In May 2024, Columbia Journalism Review reported on how Ethan Zuckerman, a professor from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, sued Facebook over its algorithm. In an op-ed published in the New York Times, he mentioned that the social media site forgets that people have friends to reach out to. Endless scrolling makes him forget about other tasks. But his Facebook lawsuit addresses a deeper issue than this.

Zuckerman explained that he came across an extension, ‘Unfollow Everything’, developed by a software developer named Louis Barclay. It enables users to free themselves from the negative impacts of Facebook’s algorithms. However, Meta had blocked the extension, declaring it a breach of its service terms. Additionally, Barclay was also banned from this social media platform.

For Zuckerman, this whole incident is both legally and ethically wrong. He said that Barclay came up with a helpful extension to allow users to take agency over their social media content. Hence, he felt there was a need for a legal argument about this.

Mental Health Issues from Social Media Use

According to Statista, the average daily social media usage worldwide amounted to 143 minutes in 2024. Naturally, this excessive scrolling can lead to mental health issues, such as:

Anxiety

Viewing unrealistic social media content can lead to feelings of loneliness and inadequacy. It promotes negative self-perception, overthinking, and increased anxiety. This can trap you in a thought loop that is based on false assumptions. When you become disconnected from reality, it can upset your mental well-being.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and Low Self-Esteem

The term ‘FOMO’ is popular primarily with Gen Z. They occupy a larger share of the social media user base and often get carried away by the constant stream of curated content. From their friends taking a vacation to an unknown model getting a navel piercing, they feel as though they are missing out on something.

If they aren’t able to have what others have, they feel depressed and judge themselves harshly for it. As a result, they may feel inferior to others, leading to self-esteem issues that negatively shape their personalities.

Increased Self-Absorption

When you constantly share your innermost thoughts and endless selfies on social media, it can make you unhealthily self-centered. You become preoccupied with creating an online image instead of making real-time memories with your family and friends.

This constant pursuit of external validation can come at a psychological cost. Especially if you are seeking the approval of someone specific or a group of people and you never receive it. When you don’t get the positive feedback you desperately want, it can lead to self-hatred as well.

TorHoerman Law states that, apart from mental health issues, social media use can also lead to eating disorders, like bulimia and anorexia. Terms such as ‘thinspiration’ are making the rounds on social media platforms, making the youth eat less to stay thin. Therefore, users must draw a line and use social media wisely.

How to Reduce the Negative Effects of Social Media Use?

Lindsay Oberleitner, a clinical psychologist, shared an interesting insight into excessive social media use. She said that ‘social media addiction’ isn’t yet recognized in their diagnostic manual. However, research shows that using social media uncontrollably has similarities with addiction, but not enough for a diagnosis.

This is a good reason to limit your time on Facebook or Instagram. Here’s how to do it:

• Allocate specific times every day for checking your social media and stick to the time limit without fail.
• Curate your feed by following only accounts that inspire and uplift you to make positive lifestyle decisions. Additionally, mute or unfollow accounts that spread negativity and hate.
• Take breaks from social media regularly and use the time to engage in exercise and hobbies, call an old friend, or plan a weekend trip.
• Know how social media algorithms work and view the content that’s being highlighted to you with discretion.

Last but not least, if you feel you aren’t able to reduce your social media use and it’s affecting your mental health, seek professional help. Consult a therapist and share your problems so that they can help you specific to your condition.

FAQs

How Can Social Media Affect Your Mental Health?

Viewing endless posts from family, friends, and strangers across the world might make you feel connected. However, there is a dark side to social media use. It can affect your overall well-being by causing depression, anxiety, loneliness, and FOMO.

What Are the Side Effects of Social Media Algorithms?

Instagram and Facebook algorithms can help kids come across interesting content. However, these contents ‌ aren’t what they are yet ready to manage on their own. It includes explicit and violent videos, misinformation, and posts promoting negative self-image and eating disorders.

Are Social Media Algorithms Addictive?

The fact that social media apps are gamified is what makes them addictive. The addiction is similar to gambling and alcoholism, as they all lead to dopamine release. As a result, the human brain creates more enjoyable content and becomes stuck in a cycle.

Social media algorithms can significantly affect mental health by generating content that reinforces existing biases. They also promote unrealistic comparisons and lead to feelings of inadequacy and FOMO. It is essential to become aware of these effects so that you can use social media mindfully and safeguard your mental well-being.