Before I started doing this research, I already knew that there was a lot of studies going on about the tie between social media and anxiety. I wanted to learn more about this topic and do research about social media and anxiety because I experienced severe anxiety when I was younger. I have also heard and seen anxiety hurt people and I always wondered, what is causing all of this? Of course we can't designate social media to be the cause of all anxiety because there are many different types and levels of severity but it's definitely an option. On my first …show more content…
Then, as you look more carefully you realize a ton of your friends are there! At first it seems like no big deal but as you think about it more you wish you were there, having fun instead of sitting in your suddenly super boring house. You start to think about it over and over again and it starts to clog your mind and the sadness starts to flood in. This would be a symptom of social anxiety, more broadly speaking, anxiety. First let's talk about what anxiety even is. Anxiety is a feeling of worry that seems to always come back to you. Some symptoms of anxiety are having difficulties controlling a worry. Also, feeling nervous or tensing up.(Mayo Clinic Staff Print, Mayo Clinic. "Anxiety." Symptoms and Causes - Anxiety - Mayo Clinic) You probably have experienced all of those at one point of your life but that is completely normal because anxiety is normal. But, there are also many different types, social anxiety is one of them. The definition of social anxiety is "fear of interaction with other people that brings on self-consciousness feelings" (social anxiety institute.org), in other words, the unnecessary fear of social situations. Some symptoms of social anxiety are trouble being introduced to other people, trouble being the center of attention and trouble being watched while doing something (ex. sport tryout, etc). Also, loneliness is tied with social anxiety as well. The fear of missing out and always comparing yourself to other people and comparing your own popularity to others. 7% of the population will experience social anxiety at one point. But, the reason why I wanted to give all of these symptoms and definitions is because people are starting to think that anxiety is tied with social media, actually they know it