Jackson Nieuwland - Coping with Social Media Anxiety

1. CHAPTER 1
   What Does Social MediaHave to Do with Anxiety?
2. CHAPTER 2
   Do I Have Social Media Anxiety?
3. CHAPTER 3
   Changing Your Relationshipwith Social Media
4. CHAPTER 4
   Unplugging
5. CHAPTER 5
   Asking for Help

Published in 2018 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2018 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Nieuwland, Jackson, author.

Title: Coping with social media anxiety / Jackson Nieuwland.

Description: New York : Rosen, 2018 | Series: Coping |

Audience: Grades 7-12. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017014246 | ISBN 9781508176978 (library bound) | ISBN 9781508178545 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Anxiety. | Social mediaPsychological aspects.

Classification: LCC BF575.A6 N54 2018 | DDC 152.4/6 dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017014246

Manufactured in the United States of America

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1
What Does Social MediaHave to Do with Anxiety?

CHAPTER 2
Do I Have Social Media Anxiety?

CHAPTER 3
Changing Your Relationshipwith Social Media

CHAPTER 4
Unplugging

CHAPTER 5
Asking for Help

INTRODUCTION

Rowan Young and three other people liked your photo. Alex Nelson tagged you in a post.

Jayden Langston invited you to like his page What We Talk About.

Blake Lee and four others have birthdays today.

Jordan Yu invited you to This Is Actually a Party.

Micah Sands mentioned you in a comment.

Morgan Espinosa posted in Cool Dog Group.

Shiloh OConnor added a new photo.

S ometimes all those notifications from social media just become too much. Its stressful to try and keep up with everything thats going on. How are you supposed to stay up to date with everything your friends are doing online, read all the articles to which people are linking, and do your homework? Occasionally, it gets to the point where you cant bear to look at social media at all. Then of course you forget to post happy birthday on someones timeline and he or she might get really upset with you.

@girlsjustwannahavefood reblogged your photo and added: Thats an incredible sandwich. @krisbarnes liked your quote.

@besttodolists liked your post: To Do Today. @alphabetasoupa is following

@theendofthebeginningoftheend. @stupidpicturesofmygoldfish is a genius. @newmoonfriend started following you. @dogzrbetterthangodz reblogged your post:

Who Needs Love When You Could Have...

@jojomojo gave this post some love.

Other times you stress out about not getting enough validation on social media. Why hasn't Jamie reacted to my relationship status? Why didn't Sam tag me in that photo? You think you feel your phone buzzing, but when you check it theres nothing there. You notice that youve lost a follower on Instagram and scroll through, trying to figure out who it is and why he or she unfollowed you. Are you posting too many photos of your cat, or did he or she just follow you so that you would follow him or her back? These are the sorts of things you can spend hours obsessing over.

@oceanofhorses liked your Tweet: I want to go home even when Im at home.

@sadversionofmel added you to the list Sad People Who Are Also Funny.

@tinytinyant is now following you!

Mentioned by @sugaruniversity: @socialmediaanxiety saaaaame

@theoneandonly Tweeted: Just scored tickets to Beyonce!!!!

@al_masters Retweeted a Tweet you were mentioned in: @socialmediaanxiety is the...

@p_blqck and @jayjaydemario are talking about the musician Lorde.

@gerrylamonte Retweeted your Retweet: Cant wait till the world just transforms into a giant turtle.

If you can relate to any of this, theres a chance youre experiencing social media anxiety. And its not just you. There are millions of people out there dealing with the exact same problems, trying to balance social media with the rest of their lives, feeling stressed and overwhelmed. It can be difficult to handle, but the good news is, there are plenty of ways to cope with social media anxiety. You just have to figure out which ones are best for you.

CHAPTER ONE

S ocial media is an inescapable part of modern life. Its connected to so many of the things we do on a daily basis, from eating meals to going to work. Although social media brings a lot of people pleasure and fulfillment, some people find that social media has a negative effect on their well-being, causing them stress and worry. These people experience something called social media anxiety, a new phenomena that researchers are still learning more about, but which affects millions of people around the world.

Everyone knows what social media is. Even if you dont use it, you cant avoid it. There are tweets on the news, people posting Facebook statuses on the bus, and countless emails from LinkedIn in your inbox. You can probably name ten social media platforms off the top of your head: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Tumblr, Google+, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ello. But actually defining social media is more difficult than you might think, especially because new social media platforms are launching all the time, each one potentially expanding the limits of how social media can be defined.

Every social media platform has a different set of features, so how do we decide what it is that makes a website or an app a form of social media? Is YouTube social media? What about Reddit? In order to create a definition of social media, we need to determine what these platforms have in common: they are based online, you need an account to use them, you can use your account to connect with other users, and the content on the platform is generated by the users.

If you have a smartphone, its hard to avoid social media. After all, Facebook is the Apple App Stores most downloaded app, with Instagram and Twitter close behind.

So social media can be broadly defined as platforms that allow the sharing of user-generated content through profile-based online networks. Or more simply put: websites or apps where you can sign in and share things with your friends.

Although it may not seem like it now, social media actually hasnt been around for all that long. The first social media website was called SixDegrees (based on the six degrees of separation concept). It was launched in 1997 and allowed users to create an account; list their friends, family members, and acquaintances; message them; and post on their pages. But it wasnt until 2003 that social media really took off with the launch of MySpace. In addition to allowing users to connect and communicate with their friends, MySpace had many other functions, such as blogging, the ability to embed music and video to your profile page, and an ability to rank your top eight friends. MySpace was the most popular social media platform for several years, until it was overtaken by newer platforms for which it had paved the way like Facebook and Twitter. Now those platforms, which began as websites but are now available as smartphone apps, are facing even newer competition from platforms like Snapchat and