Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health? | Bailey Parnell | TEDxRyersonU - YouTube

This video focuses on how social media can have long term impacts on our mental health when our usage of it goes unchecked. Bailey Parnell talks about how the content that we consume on social media can cause us to compare our day to day lives to others "highlight reels" on social media, even when other people are individuals that we know. Understanding how these experiences of comparison affect individuals self esteem can be very clinically relevant.

Bailey identifies the withdrawal symptoms that she herself experienced when she took a break from technology while on vacation. Some of the withdrawal symptoms are ones often experienced by clients and service providers alike, such as phantom vibration syndrome. This is when an individual feels as though their phone is vibrating only to realize that it was not. This is a very good example of what sorts of physical withdrawal symptoms individuals can experience when they begin to make changes to their use of technology.

Bailey also provides statistics of online harassment for a range of age groups. Understanding how bullying and harassment appear when using technology can help service providers become aware of potential issues their clients may face when using technology. This can be particularly relevant when working with youth populations or individuals from marginalized populations that already experience higher than average rates of suicide, bullying and discrimination.