Hey everyone today on #AskTheExpert we have Dr. Sapna Sharma who will be talking about the biggest influence of our lives in today’s world- Mental wellness and Social Media.
Here is what she has to say.
SAPNA SHARMA
Dr. Sapna Sharma is an International Counselor, Life Coach, Motivational speaker,
Counseling Skills trainer and an Author.
- She runs a Counseling Center where she guides people in pain and confusion concerning Relationship problems, Stress, Addiction and Co-Addiction, Illnesses, Professional issues etc.
- She also conducts Online Counseling and Coaching for her clients based all around the world.
- An Acclaimed Motivational speaker and Behavioral trainer, she is invited across the country and abroad by key educational institutes, corporate houses and many NGO’s.
- She is Certified Psychometric tools assessor.
- As a tribute to her childhood dreams she has ventured on to a take experience as an Air Hostess with an international airlines in between her medical education. These and other experiences in varied fields give her the authority to counsel and coach on various aspects of life
Last week in my counseling chamber I witnessed, again, the ugly effect of social media dependence. It was a suicide survivor. A young house wife who believes she is not liked by anyone. The reason? She has been posting her pictures ever since her honeymoon and though the responses was nice and sweet from her friends to begin with, they simply stopped one fine morning. The fact that she was not very willing to get married did not help. Over a period of 2 months she convinced herself that she should never have gotten married in the first place and it was because of her married status that her so called ‘friends’ had deserted her. When the family tried contacting a couple of her friends after rescuing her, they were shocked to know that due to some glitches this young woman’s posts were not visible to others and that the friends had been wondering where she had disappeared!!
Too many things to learn and understand here, I will list down a few:
- Many of us are using the social media as a means to get the attention and praise that we had always wanted.
- In the absence of positive self esteem a lot of importantce is attached to the empty words and impersonal smilies on the social media.
- We have given technology the status of God and do not even wish to consider the option that that something can go wrong with it.
- Giving all our power to the social media, many of us have stopped putting efforts into bettering our qualities, achievements and relationships thus making the media our only source for the ‘feel good’.
- Social media has glamorized the concept of ‘friends’ to the extent that only the people who complement and hail us are counted in the friend category, many a times neglecting other more substantial relationsips.
There can be many more inferences to be drawn but situations like these are increasing at alarming rate and that should be a cause of concern. We have young children around not just following us but taking all of the above to a new height every day.
Media is unavaoidable and technology is here to stay. I believe that parents are making futile attempts and wasting precious moments of relationships in trying to keep the younger generation from the social media. That is impossible. The social media and technology is their truth. So no, I will not recommend that we stay away from the media or try doing that for the youngsters. What I would rather recommend very strongly is:
- Let us work on building up our Self Esteem and that of the youngsters around us by shifting some of our focus from the castrating effects of traditional education to confidence and Esteem building activities and life style.
- Let us educate ourselves and ours in the ways to use the social media to our benefit in a fun way rather than making a monster out of it.
- Let us not forget the effect of having real people in our life and deliberately add real people to our life at every stage.
- Let us learn to communicate face to face once again and learn to give real complements and motivating words to the people whom we really care for.
- And let us also learn to ask for complements and positive strokes when we think we are low and we really need it- from real people.
