Ways to Beat Stress through Social Media and Networking
Posted by Vaibhav Kalamdani on January 11, 2009
Today, it is not uncommon to hear from people that they are undergoing stress. Be it the recession, family woes, heart-breaks, overwork or joblessness, stress has taken control over the human mind causing several health disasters, some even leading to death. But if you are one of those who is facing tough times in life or wish not to be affected much in the future, turn to social media and social networking immediately.
Stress management experts often recommend solutions like playing games, listening to music, interacting with friends, etc. to overcome stress. Considering the fact that social networks allow people to connect with friends and express their mood through status updates, there is high possibility that you will share your feelings or condition with selected few whom you trust and reduce the stress level to at least some extent.
Of course this may not be applicable to those who prefer meeting their friends personally. However, there may be instances where the person you wish to meet is far away from you, say in another town or country. At such times, you can express yourself either in few words on Twitter or by updating your mood on Facebook, as most of the social networks today offer privacy settings for you to choose selected people with whom you wish to communicate.
Secondly, some social networks provide users with the chat facility to make communication easier and faster in case two or more friends are online at the same time. Though some of you may not want to express your feelings at all, chatting with friends or family can help in easing you and talk about general topics to divert your mind.
When it comes to playing games, most of the social networks provide several entertaining games that can help you cope up with the stress and relax your mind. What’s more! These games are entertaining, interactive and easy to play, without pressuring your mind.
Social media sites like YouTube, Google Video and host of others can be used to view videos, listen to your favourite soundtracks, etc. to relieve your stress and get engaged in community discussions. It is really amazing that these sites offer almost all genres of music, from which you can select what you are most comfortable with.
Critics might argue that too much of social networking can lead to additional stress, which is quite a valid point. For example, any rude comment or no response can add salt to the wound, making things worse. But this depends a lot on how you behave and conduct yourself when networking online. You need to be patient and calm, and never take out your frustration on others, as it will only harm you in the long run.
Finally, use social media and social networks as a solution and not as an addiction to relieve your stress. Stress is common to almost all, and it only depends on how strongly you combat it without affecting your life much.
I frequently spot friends' status updates reporting stress or bad news and comment or leave a message on their walls, and once a few of those appear along with mine, the original poster will usually post back with thanks; the sense is that we've helped spread the stress around. When you can use social media as an actual community, even if it's made of people who aren't always right nearby, it can be a stress reliever, and that's one of the nobler uses of it.
ReplyDelete--Isaac
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ReplyDeleteSocial media and networking has played a major role in stress management.someone can decide to chat with a friend online to reduce stress.The way i utilize social media and networking to reduce stress is to chat with my friends in the facebooks. This is almost similar to meeting with these friends face to face and socialize. Another major stress reliever is youtube, if i want to listen to my home country music,then i just need to search to what i want.Many people like blogging and this is another means of relieving stress. I donot twitter but for those who do so, i believe this acts as a stress reliever too.No one can afford to get stressed with all the resources around.-Anna
ReplyDeleteI think that using the internet for leisure time to help eliminate stress is a wonderful idea. Listening to music or enjoying a funny video is theraputic, and making new friends is a great way to help.also they may have the same problems so you can share thoughts and get some new ideas to help the stress.I did find it interesting that social media causes stress, it's like a double standard, use this and be stressed, use this and relieve your stress. What ever works, right.
ReplyDeleteI tend to delete the friends that constantly update their status with "F my life" or "Has sooo much homework". It stresses me out to read about it! And I think that constantly reminding your friends that you're stressed out has to stress you out even more. It just seems more counterproductive than useful as a stress relieving tool.
ReplyDeleteBut if the sites are used as a quick escape or as a means to catch up with friends then I definitely think it is a very useful and convenient stress reliever.