In this second installment of the "30 Days of Radical Healing" series, Dr. Jameca Cooper examines three key disadvantages of social media use. She first references a prior disadvantage discussed in Part 1, then focuses on (1) the heightened experience of Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) that intensifies with increased platform use, explaining how FOMO drives negative self‑comparison, diminishes gratitude, and erodes life satisfaction; (2) the growing dependence on external validation—likes, comments, shares, emojis—as a substitute for real‑world acknowledgment, noting that frequent users increasingly seek these digital affirmations, especially when offline validation is lacking; and (3) the cumulative impact of these factors on mental well‑being. Dr. Cooper concludes by previewing Part 3, which will present practical strategies for healthier social‑media engagement, and encourages viewers to like, subscribe, and watch the preceding and upcoming videos.
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Hi, I'm Dr. Jameca Cooper, and thanks for joining us. We're in the 30 Days of Radical Healing, and this is part 2 of Radical Healing for Social Media. Make sure you check out part 1 so that you can find out about some of the research involving social media use and moods and all of that good stuff. But today we're talking more about social media and specifically about some of the disadvantages of using social media. In part 1, I talked a little bit about why people we use social media. So make sure you like this video and subscribe to this channel. So I already mentioned the first disadvantage of using social media. The second disadvantage is FOMO, fear of missing out. Everyone knows about FOMO. Everyone knows what it is. You probably felt it at some point here or another. I know I felt it before. I don't feel it a lot because one of the things I know about FOMO is that it decreases with age. In other words, the more life experiences that you have, probably the less that you care about missing out on things, or the more tired you are, the more other things you have to do. Could be set for a lot of things, but the second disadvantage is FOMO. So using social media, and the more that you use social media, the more that you increase the amount of FOMO that you have. And that's not a good thing because we know what happens when people feel FOMO, right? You're sitting there, you're like, oh my gosh, they're having such a good time. They're in Mexico. They're partying, they're doing this, I'm sitting here at work. You're like, duh, I don't like my life. And the other flip side of that is I really like their life. They're doing what I want to be doing. I'm not happy with what my life is. I'm not appreciative. I'm not grateful. Even though in reality my life could have gotten a heck of a lot better than it was this time last year. But instead of focusing on just how great my life is and how much things have improved, I'm focusing on what I don't have. Because I'm comparing my life to other people. So FOMO is definitely not something that is good if it's present in your life, right? Because it's just going to make you focus more on the things that you don't have in your own life. The third disadvantage of social media use is the increased need for validation. This is definitely not something that I'm a fan of because I can see it just in my patients. And the people that I know, the more that people use social media, the more that they start to need, look for, expect, and depend on the validation that comes with using social media. So what do I mean by validation? Likes. A like or a love or a laughter or any emoji is validation, right? It's the validation that someone sees you. They see my post, which means they see me, and they are reacting to seeing my post. It makes them happy. They like it. They're smiling. They're laughing. That's validation, right, that you are doing something good and that you are seen, right? What are other types of validation on social media? Comments, right? Shares. All of those things are validation and just supports the fact that people like you and like what you're doing. It starts to feed that need of, "Hey, look at me and look, look how much people are paying attention to me." And this could be present in individuals' lives when they don't have that type or that level of validation outside of social media. So maybe in real life when they walk into a room, they don't get noticed. Or maybe when they walk into their workplace every day or show up or pop up on Zoom, nobody notices. No one says hi. No one ever compliments them on their appearance or their dress or anything good. So it could be that this is the only place that people get that validation. But what I found in my practice is the more that people use social media, the more that they end up needing that validation in a way that they probably did not need the validation before. So you've heard it here, my 3 disadvantages for social media use and why I think it's probably not the best use of time, right? So let's switch gears a little bit and talk about solutions. What are my solutions? Stay tuned. You'll need to watch part 3 of the social media and radical healing video just so that you can find out how can we fix this? What can we do about it, right? Social media is everywhere, but there are a few things that I recommend that you do in order to make better use of your social media time. And again, we're still Radical Healing, so like this video, subscribe, and join us for part 3 of this Radical Healing and social media video. Thank you.
