7 Ways social media is messing with your skin
It's not all fun and games, like Candy Crush, when your skin starts to become affected by your addiction to your phone, tablet, etc. Dr. Josie Howard, M.D., a psychiatrist who focuses in psychodermatology in San Francisco, breaks down exactly what social media can do to your skin.
Advertisement
1. Social media can cause premature aging.
"Spending hours in front of a computer screen and subtly squinting while you do so can hasten the onset of crow's feet," says Howard. "To minimize this effect, take frequent breaks and use an eye revitalizing product with anti-aging ingredients in it to refresh your eyes and the skin surrounding them."
2. Selfies can have a negative impact on your psyche.
"There is growing concern with social media and our psyche, and in turn, our skin," she says. "One of the best examples of that is the selfie, aka the Oxford Dictionary's word of the year. But selfies can have a positive or a negative effect on you. For a lot of women, they're quite empowering because they're a form of self-expression. For other women, they start to take over and replace real social interaction. For example, some women replace 'Likes' with real social connection, which is integral to your well-being and skin health, especially since your skin and mental health are so connected."
How? While everything in your body works together, your skin and mental health are particularly intimately connected because when your body first forms in the uterus between weeks three through eight, your skin and nervous system form at the same time from the same primary layer of cells. This is why when you're upset, tired, or happy, you can actually see it on your skin, Howard says.
3. Psychological stress, brought on by constantly being "on" and connected can impair the skin's barrier, cause your skin to be sensitive, and even increase breakouts.
"Psychological stress, which is based on perception, impairs your skin's moisture barrier if you allow stress to affect you negatively," says Howard. "This is why it's so important to treat the skin from the outside in. With psychological stress you can also be affected by delayed healing, so anytime there is an injury to your skin, it will take longer to heal. Your skin can also tend to be drier and more sensitive, and if you have a tendency to break out, your acne can even worsen."
What happens is that your stress hormones get completely out of whack, especially when the prolonged stress of constantly being "on" is present. "We are designed to be in the jungle and run from a tiger — fight or flight — and then go into a relaxation state, but it's when you're in that constant overdrive that you really start to see things like acne get worse," Howard says. "From that point on, it's cyclical because the effects of your stress can make you upset and then the stress gets worse and so does its aftermath."
4. Your smartphone can actually stress you out.
"Most people have something close to a panic attack when they leave their phone at home or they've traveled out of cell phone range — there's even a term for this: Nomophobia, which means the fear of no mobile phone or being out of contact with your phone," says Howard. According to The Lancet, a medical journal, the term was coined in a 2008 study by the U.K. Post Office that found that 53 percent of British cell phone users were nervous when out of touch (the anxiety was on par with wedding day jitters or a trip to the dentist). Most of those afflicted said they never turn off their phones.
And you know what happens to your skin when you're stressed: you can develop psoriasis, trigger breakouts, and cause premature aging to occur.
5. Your cell phone can cause breakouts.
"Your cell phone has more than ten times the amount of the bacteria that you'd find on a toilet seat," Howard says. "So when you press the surface of your phone up against the side of your face and transfer all of that foreign bacteria onto your skin, mixing the bacteria with the dirt and oil that is already on your face, it's likely that a pimple will form."
To prevent this from happening, Howard suggests cleaning your phone often, if not daily, by wiping it down with an alcohol wipe. "Also, try not to hold it directly to your face," she says. "Get a pair of headphones to avoid direct contact with your skin."
6. The bright light of your device can hinder your sleep pattern.
"Because of the epidemic of Nomophobia, we're also taking our phones to bed," Howard says. "But looking at your cell phone, tablet, TV screen, etc., right before bed impairs melatonin production, which can lead to sleep disruption. Melatonin, an integral hormone in your body that signals your body to go to sleep, starts to be released into your system when there are periods of darkness. Since melatonin helps you fall asleep, if you're exposed to bright light, your body can interpret it as sunlight, making it harder for you to doze off. We need sleep to look refreshed and revived — which happens overnight because that's when the body rejuvenates — so without enough of it, you end up looking tired and not well-rested."
To help you get the right amount of beauty sleep each night, Howard says to avoid looking at any screens right before you go to bed, make your bedroom as dark as possible with the help of blinds and curtains, and get yourself a sleep mask to wear nightly.
7. Social media keeps you going, and going, and going until you've run yourself ragged.
"In terms of social media, there is so much pressure to use it in our careers that it's important to set boundaries," she says. "So if you have to use it in your daily job, use it sporadically in your personal life. Constantly being 'on' adds to constant stress that can affect your skin by bringing on premature aging, since your skin is always in go mode."
To keep stress from showing up on your skin, use a day and night moisturizer to keep your skin's barrier intact, which will help you look more youthful. Remember to give yourself a break. Put yourself on a media fast occasionally (when you disconnect for an afternoon) so you're not a slave to the beeps and dings, Howard says. This will help aid in relaxation and overall skin rejuvenation.