40% of Brazilians report fear of being judged on the networks, says Datafolha

Four out of ten people (38%) feel charged for the content they post on social media and are constantly afraid of being judged. A third of them also report a lot of anxiety about whether their posts will be well accepted or not.

The data are from a Datafolha survey on Brazilian mental health, commissioned by Abrata (Brazilian Association of Family, Friends and People with Affective Disorders) and the pharmaceutical company Viatris.

2,098 people aged 16 and over, from all economic classes, were interviewed in person in 130 municipalities covering the five socioeconomic regions of Brazil. The margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points.

The survey, carried out last month, shows that 65% of respondents feel pressured to always face things in a very positive way on social networks, even when they are in trouble.

Women (71%) and people between 16 and 24 years old (65%) are the ones who report this pressure the most.

“Among the younger ones, the digital natives, sometimes there is not the same discernment of the older ones that there is a life inside social networks and another life outside”, says psychiatrist Fernando Fernandes, counselor at Abrata.

Fernandes recalls that, before the networks, the individual’s social development took place in the family nucleus, among friends, in the community where he lived. As a result, feelings such as respect, admiration or even disapproval took place in a more controlled environment.

“Now, everyone can measure this on social networks. Is the human psyche adapted? Does the young person have the maturity to deal with it? Of course, it becomes a source of anxiety for many people.”

For 65% of respondents, the fact that everyone looks happy, beautiful and successful on social media makes people feel dissatisfied with their lives. Women are the ones who report this feeling the most (69% against 61% of men).

“We live in a liquid society, with no guarantees about the present or the future. At the same time, on the internet, people are traveling, they have beautiful bodies and hair. You see all that and you want it too, but your reality is quite different”, he explains. Carolina de Souza, 30, holds a law degree from PUC-MG and has just released the book “Suicídio e Internet” (Dialética).

According to Datafolha, 79% of Brazilians say that social networks can contribute to increasing mental health problems. For 84% of respondents, haters, people who judge and spread hate on social networks, can influence the growth of the level of suicide in society.

In the author’s opinion, the main risk group is children and adolescents who use networks without parental supervision. “The internet has no borders. Content that incites suicide is disseminated worldwide and very quickly. Even when it is taken off the air, many young people and teenagers have already had access to it.”

Carolina talks about the topic of suicide knowingly. At less than ten years old, she had already tried to kill herself a few times. The search for understanding the problem led her to research on the subject and today she is a specialist in cyber crimes and educommunication for suicide prevention.

In the scientific field, there is still no strong evidence that social networks in general can increase the risk of mental disorders.

Some research shows that adolescents more exposed to electronic devices (such as computers, cell phones and video games) show lower levels of self-esteem, life satisfaction and happiness.

Other studies point to a relationship between suicidal behavior and self-injury to intense habits of internet consumption and contact with websites where there was content related to the topic. And other works failed to establish this cause-and-effect relationship.

For psychiatrist Fernandes, it is difficult to even relate social networks to a greater risk of depression because people who already have the disease tend to prefer solitary and passive activities. “Nothing is more solitary and passive than being in front of a screen. It’s coupled behavior.”

According to him, sometimes, this excessive consumption of screen, of media, is the only stimulus that a person can have to keep himself entertained with something.

Another fact that draws attention in the Datafolha survey is the high rate of people who report that they have suffered exhaustion and mental imbalance or that they live with someone who has gone through this situation.

More than half of the women (57%) say they have experienced some form of mental breakdown for more than a day. Among young people aged between 16 and 24, 63% say they have experienced situations of stress and fatigue for more than one day.

“The self-demand to handle so many roles in everyday life, especially women, can be a trigger for depression. It is necessary to reduce the time of access to social networks, especially at night”, says Marta Axthein, president of Abrata.

The survey also revealed that 34% of Brazilians report having experienced psychological problems during the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, 44% had reported these issues in another Datafolha survey.

“The reason for this drop may be related to a different perception of health risks, in addition to an eventual improvement in the economic environment compared to the most acute moment of Covid-19”, explains psychiatrist Fernandes.

The research is part of the Campaign “Bem Me Quer, Bem Me Quero: Caring for Mental Health is a Daily Exercise”, alluding to Yellow September, suicide prevention month. The action alerts to the valorization of self-care in favor of mental health.