Mental Health: Anxiety due to the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp blackout?

13 December 2022 | Newsworthy

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that one person commits suicide every 40 seconds.

This shocking fact is enough to measure the priority that mental health deserves. The aim must be to draw attention and raise awareness about this issue that has been so stigmatized throughout history, especially now that we live in a hyper-connected world that seems relentless, because who didn’t have a shock with the Facebook family blackout? It is vital to require people who lead states and companies with a high social impact (yes, we are talking about Mark Zuckerberg in particular) to consider mental illness as a priority, without forgetting the importance of self-care in behalf of mental health, through techniques that help to reduce or avoid anxiety and stress, such as technological detox.

The ravages of the crisis

The abrupt changes in people’s lifestyles caused by the Covid-19 pandemic significantly affected people’s mental and emotional health; for example, human contact, essential for healthy development, was almost nullified. Screens took over time and space, routines lost established times and boundaries were also blurred. The technology proved its usefulness, but also its danger.

In addition, people faced their own difficulties, such as domestic violence, which increased significantly worldwide during quarantine, or economic deprivation. Although resilience was present in the world’s population, the question now is: what was its cost? How much was mental health sacrificed to safeguard basic needs?

A study published in the journal Psychiatry Research by specialists at the University of Ottawa reported that post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression are five, four and three times (respectively) more frequent than reported by WHO before the pandemic.

The Facebook Family Blackout: Back to Calls and SMS?

While the benefits of new technologies are innumerable, so are their risks. Taking it seriously is fundamental, because, according to Branch, in Mexico, people spend more than nine hours connected to the internet; therefore, the huge responsibility that those who run the most used platforms –such as Facebook and Instagram– have with society, especially with youth.

The excess time spent on digital devices may be due to a neurotransmitter and the addiction to its effect: dopamine, also known as the substance of pleasure.

When a desire is present, dopamine is released and generates pleasure as a reward once the desire is satisfied. This triggers a "reward circuit", which causes a person to repeat actions that release this neurotransmitter by the need to experience that pleasurable sensation.

It is easy to exemplify this if we remember the red icon of notifications on social networks and the feeling of desire to see them and interact with them immediately, but the matter does not stop there, because we do it over and over again in short periods of time almost in an addictive way. The search for that feeling of pleasure falls on compulsive behaviors such as the inability to disconnect from digital devices... Unless something like the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp blackout happens, which was the case this Monday, October 4, 2021.

This interruption of Mark Zuckerberg’s services, which lasted almost six hours, demonstrated the importance of these communication tools in our times. With each passing hour the tension increased. And even though it was a really short time, the millions of users thought about the extraordinary possibility that these networks would suddenly cease to exist, would we go back to calls and SMS?

If this collapse of the social media giant caused you discomfort, it was due to dopamine withdrawal. So, it is necessary to reconsider the role that these tools of immediate communication play in our lives. Some of the most common and worrisome conditions for the abuse of technology are:

• Stress

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Carpal tunnel syndrome (condition that affects the nerve that goes from the hand to the forearm)

Technological Detox: what it is and how to carry it out

Digital detox is a method in which people rely on for the benefit of their mental and physical health. It consists of avoiding the use of technological devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers. The goal is for the person to connect with themselves and their environment.

This practice brings great benefits, for example: it significantly reduces stress and anxiety, improves the quality of sleep, increases attention, and reduces detachment from technology. However, like any other change in our daily lives, it has to be implemented gradually.

Tips

Here are some tips to implement the digital detox on behalf of our mental health:

• Even if it seems simple, don’t do it abruptly. This will only bring more anxiety and giving up will generate a feeling of frustration (like in the blackout).

• Start by limiting your daily hours of connection. See which apps you spend more time on and prioritize.

• Set real goals. For example, if you spend an average of nine hours a day, commit to reducing them to seven for an entire week.

• Disable notifications for apps where you spend the most time and set aside only one hour of the day to attend to them.

• Once you’ve reduced your digital consumption, you can start taking full days of detox. A weekend without technology can be a great start.

• If possible, increase the disconnection to a week or up to a month (gradually).

• Do it regularly to maintain a technological detachment.