I would extend this to ALL forms of social media.

At the root of all this is the dopamine fix one receives from interactions on social media. As Sean Parker (founding president of Facebook) noted, when someone likes your post, "we… give you a little dopamine hit."

More insidious for me are the following media:
1. Twitter. I post on Twitter about 2-3 times a day. Interesting articles, responses to questions raised by other "tweeps," and retweets of noteworthy posts. The advantage of Twitter over Facebook is the anonymity, and relative homogeneity of the content. On Facebook, you know the people whose posts appear in your feed. You went to school with them, worked with them, or met up with them at a Meetup or some other social setting. So their posts can be infuriating: photos of sipping pina coladas in Waikiki while surfing. On Twitter, however, you don't really know the people you interact with (of my 1,100 followers, I probably know 20 IRL).

The main problem is that Twitter has increased my need for instant gratification. Whenever I make a post, I eagerly await the vibration of my phone. This signals that someone has either liked my update, or I've gotten a new follower. Conversely, a post that goes unnoticed is a "shot through my heart" that compounds my already acute sense of defeat.
This "validation addiction" is dangerous. I'm currently applying for jobs, which is already an uphill battle. The minute I click "send" or "submit" on an app, I check my mailbox repeatedly. My mind gets flooded with anxiety, and thoughts swirl interminably through my head: "Did they see it?," "Why aren't they responding?"

2. LinkedIn. The destructive impact of LinkedIn is greater than that of Facebook. For me, at least. As I've intimated many times on this forum, my career is essentially in the toilet. After a string of career failures (i.e., getting canned more than a field of tomatoes) that accompanied personal disaster, I was diagnosed with Bipolar I in late 2016. My mental health has improved (at least according to others), as have my relationships with my family (thankfully). My career, however, has failed to rebound. I had one dead-end 8 month contract, and have been unemployed since October.

Now I'm in the process of looking for jobs. As I log in to LinkedIn, I see promotions of people who are younger than me / far less qualified. It makes me want to scream. Why did I fall so precipitously down the career ladder? The discouragement is already very profound; seeing these smiling faces only intensifies these feelings.

There are so many jobs out there that are well below my previous position in terms of pay, seniority, and prestige. Even though I have 2,000 connections, I'm loathe to reach out to them. As most of them have C-level titles, or have launched a successful business or 2, I feel humiliated approaching them for help with virtually entry-level positions.

Don't get me wrong: Facebook is a tough one. I get really discouraged when my posts get less than 50 likes, and seethe when I see groups of people living it up while my social life is rather boring. Additionally, the stream of information becomes overwhelming. I would say this is the "troublesome trifecta" of social media. Each feeds on separate weaknesses, and damages our mental health.

I would like to wean myself off of Facebook. Every time I've tried, however, I've "fallen off the wagon" after 1-2 days.
Oh well, I'll just have to "keep on truckin'," as the famous Grateful Dead song advises.