Take Control of Your Social Media to Improve Your Well-Being

What do you use social media for?

Is it to find old friends, keep up with extended family, be in the know about community organizations and events… enhance your sense of belonging?

Does social media make you feel more connected?

As recent as July 2016 it is estimated that 1.13 billion people log onto Facebook daily. Social media sites have been so engrained in our lives, that measurements to evaluate one’s harmful addictiveness to it have been added to The DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual). An official scale to measure Facebook Addictiveness is used when evaluating this malady.

Studies show that Facebook use increases anxiety and stress because of the perceived need to measure up to connections that one may never meet face to face. People often overestimate how exciting their online friend’s lives are or how great other couple’s relationships’ seem to be. In fact, one researcher, a professor of evolutionary psychology, found that on average a person can only truly know 150 people with whom they are associated with on social media. It’s not surprising that Facebook has this effect, as from its inception it was created to draw comparisons. Facemash, Facebook’s predecessor, was set up as a type of “hot or not” game for Harvard students. The website allowed visitors to compare two student pictures side-by-side and let them decide who was hot or not.

In light of this research, we need to ask if the way we use social media is achieving our personal development goals.

Does social media really make you feel more connected in a genuine way?

A new study conducted by the Psychology Department at the University of Michigan has found that the amount of Facebook usage can be directly linked to decline in subjective well-being. Not only that, by comparison, similar in person contact can improve one’s subjective well-being. Subjective well-being is how people feel moment-to-moment and how satisfied they are with their lives. The state of a person’s subjective well-being is thought to predict consequential benefits such as health and longevity.

Social media can be so much more than liking, sharing and taking selfies. Social media should work for you, instead of potentially harming your self-esteem, robbing you of happiness.

What if you had a social media tool that was just that… a tool, to help you make your person to person meetings more successful. And what if this tool was based on common goals and interests, to make happen what you actually want to do with other real live human beings?

Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to worry about whether the lighting is right or your thought is pithy enough just to make sure you are meeting at the right place at the right time, or to find something to cook for dinner? Maybe you want to hire a service professional to solve your problem at home without telling the rest of the world about it or be given unwanted advice.

You can have this with GetAssist.

With GetAssist you can take control of the reins and decide who has access to your life. You can make connections with new people that are interested in things that are meaningful to you, or stay engaged with family and true friends in a way that enhances your relationships and encourages gathering together face to face.