Burnouts and Social Media

With the pandemic, mental health has become a peak concern as many try their schedule to be balanced with work-life socialization. 

Work from home is tedious and does take a toll on your mental health with increasing video calls, scrolling through an extensive-end number of pages, and much more.

If one may ask, can burnout affect everyone? The answer to that is, Yes.

So what is Burnout?

Burnout. Here’s everything you need to know about!

Under WHO (World Health Organisation) an official recognition in 2019 made it clear, signaling the need of the hour.

It is a state to have emotional, mental, and oftentimes physical exhaustion with elongated and perennial stress.

It’s said that psychological burnout is much grave than physical exhaustion such as being tired or running down.

Dr. Michaela explains how burnout, a psychological condition affects one’s outlook on life and work and if left untreated or unaddressed- day-to-day responsibilities could make you feel devastating, making it nearly impossible to work or function in every aspect of life.

The possibility of having burnout is defenseless to every field. And having burnout from social media is a real possibility.

The ‘Social Media’ Burnout

It is a form of online fatigue that can happen when you spend too much time on social networking sites or platforms.

If you apply your time on social media platforms to enjoy, make sure to denigrate and be intentional about your fingers, the accounts you follow and the emotions you carry when you surf on them.

Protect your peace while you unfollow accounts that don’t leave you feeling your best says Dr. Michaela. 

Those who are constantly on screens- working on social media makes it impossible to limit the time or for a get away from the same.

Burnout and Stress. What’s the difference?

Though they share the same side effects such as unhappiness, lack of motivation, and low energy levels, the fundamental difference makes them different entities from each other. 

Stress is referred to as mental or emotional tension often caused by pressure at work or other responsibilities.

This could be a tight knot in the stomach or waking up at night worrying about work and the future.

While burnout brings mental, emotional, and oftentimes physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged and repeated stress.

It brings out exhaustiveness, being completely drained and uninterested in things that you once loved to do, giving serious consequences to physical and mental health.

Stressing, overwhelming, or even feeling tired comes into the picture when one has tight deadlines, hours to spend on social media with a long to-do list.

But how could you state what you’re experiencing is burnout?

Identifying one can be challenging, especially when one may think of burnout as overworking or mental exhaustion. However, it stands more than that.

As per WHO, burnout carries three significant components of burnout i.e. energy depletion or exhaustion, negativity, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy.

Each component would demonstrate differently though being in a small business or even at being an Instagram influencer. These signs are completely different and aren’t a catch-all.

Eight signs of burnout

1. Feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, and irritated
2. Lesser or no motivation to complete the given tasks
3. Insomnia or waking up with a feeling of heaviness and being tired
4. Emotional fatigue, pessimistic, cynical, and drained than usual.
5. emotional exhaustion, professionally and personally.
6. Physically drained with headaches, stomach aches, and weaker immune function.
7. Wavered focus, manifesting into chronic stress
8. Overleaping your own needs and turning towards unhealthy coping methods.

5 ways to combat Burnout

1. Disconnect

Disconnecting from screens is essential, be it for an hour, a day, or a week.

If you have taken a break during the working days, make sure you don’t interfere with anything about your work.

Come back feeling rejuvenated.

2. Stay with boundaries and say no

Setting boundaries can be a necessity especially when you seem to find yourself a people pleaser.

To have this, settle down and understand what is a necessity and what could be having a low priority.

Have your high priorities been worked out and have the low priorities being set for a new deadline

3. Take time-off

Vacation time is a necessity for your mental and physical health. Putting it on your priority list is a must.

It is important to switch off to improve your work-life balance.

4. Inculcate a non-work life.

Find a hobby, play some instrument, play a sport, volunteer, or take part in extracurricular activities as ‘ switching-off ’ is a part and parcel of life to avoid burnout.

Find something that could reward you more. Apart from the above-mentioned solutions, sleeping, meditating, eating nourishing food, and staying active could help you.

5. Connect and seek support

Make sure to have a word with your loved one, be it your friend or a family member. This could at the most keep you in support and motivate you to have ‘me time’ whenever possible.