Social Media and Overthinking One of the most famous sentences from RenΓ© Descartes is βI think, therefore I amβ. The ability to think is a gift that the creator gave to humankind. It is the single most important capability responsible for where the human race is with the development of its civilization. We often hear: βThink before you act! Think through it!β With the ability to think, can one overthink? We definitely can. We also often hear: βDonβt think too much about itβ. But what exactly is over-thinking if it does exist? At the risk of over-simplifying, overthinking can be defined as thinking way too far beyond the point of where reality actually stops. And no, this is not ignoring the question: what about imagination, which often happens beyond reality? Imagination is not the same as overthinking. It does not follow the same kind of logic. While thinking concerns what is possible within the domain of everyday life, imagination has its emphasis more on what is desirable, often without regard as to whether it is possible in the context of everyday life. Overthinking has many variations. A scientist can do this by, for example, missing a critical clue that often takes a simpler and more mundane form than what they believe. A economist can overthink which subsequently leads to them over-complicating their model so that its ties to reality become tenuous. And so forth. However, the main focus now is on overthinking in our daily lives. Overthinking often occurs subconsciously and without us realising that we are doing it. It could be a simple phone conversation after which we worry that we may have said the wrong thing. As a result, we call another friend to ask for advice. This friend then repeats it to a third person, with their own colourings. The third person then to a fourthβ¦then back to the person that they had the original conversation, resulting in a misunderstanding. This overthinking has thus mushroomed into a complex situation that cannot be easily resolved. Take a job application: it is possible to overthink the cover letter: fifty drafts later and we might still worry that whoever receives and reads the cover letter may still potentially have questions that are not addressed the text. These so-called βwhat ifβ questions aggressively popping up in our minds every second. Eventually, our brain becomes so muddled that we can no longer think clearly, ending in a phenomenon known as βparalysis-byanalysisβ trap. Into the fray of these common daily overthinking situations comes social media. The biggest psychological effect of social media on many is the fear of missing out (FOMO). Seeing all those stories and images of other peoplesβ glamorous lifestyles spin our minds into ways of overthinking that have never been seen before. We start to think of the many ways other peopleβs lives are superior to ours, worrying that we are missing out and that life is passing us by. The constant checking for messages even though there are none, or when there are only notifications from those who we arenβt wanting a response from as badly. When messages from friends donβt show up at the moment we refresh the page, we panic, thinking that they must have abandoned us and moved on to greener pastures. Furthermore, we imagine that at this very moment our friends must be at some big exciting gathering to which we have not been invited. Being human has its perks, but it also has its drawbacks. One can argue that overthinking is one of these. At its worst, attenuated by social media, overthinking can bring ruin upon us. Overthinking can be like having the devil on our shoulder, with the ostensible purpose of protecting us but can instead lead to our downfall. One of the things it says is: βdonβt let anyone else steal your thunder, only you are allowed to ruin your life!β. In certain cases this might be considered useful, however, once it sticks in our minds, we adhere to it and bring it around with us
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