Social media users beware \u2014 connecting with people online could be damaging to your health.<\/p>\n
A new Pew Research study found that using social media can increase stress levels because it exposes users to undesirable events, such as an acquaintance getting fired from work or a death affecting one\u2019s social circle.<\/p>\n
However, researchers noted that there is no evidence that social media users feel more stressed than people who don\u2019t use digital technologies.<\/p>\n
Sudden emotional stresses – especially anger – can trigger heart attacks, arrhythmias and even sudden death, according to the American Psychological Association.<\/p>\n
With nearly 75 percent of the online adult population on social media today, Pew Researchers are calling the increased stress \u201cthe cost of caring,\u201d which they say is adding to a growing pool of evidence suggesting stress is contagious.<\/p>\n
And stress levels are not just being influenced in the virtual world. In the real world, experts are calling contagious stress levels \u201csecond-hand stress.\u201d According to stress management trainer Joe Robinson, founder of Optimal Performance Strategies, second-hand stress occurs because mirror neurons in our brains are \u201cmirroring\u201d what we see around us.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like when you\u2019re hanging out with somebody and that person starts yawning \u2014 within a couple seconds you\u2019re doing the same thing,\u201d said Robinson, who believes stress acts in the same way. \u201cMirror neurons are there because they\u2019re a bonding tool. They\u2019re supposed to help bring us together. But in the case of stress, well, they cause problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stress is dangerous and can suppress your immune system \u2014 causing heart attacks, back pain, even irritable bowels, Robinson said.<\/p>\n
According to a 2013 work stress survey conducted with Everest College, more than 80 percent of workers say they are stressed at work.<\/p>\n
Some experts believe part of stress at work comes from upper management and bosses who have the potential to destroy employee morale \u2014 depending on how things are communicated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re treated by someone else in a respectful way \u2014 who\u2019s your superior \u2014 most of the stressors that we\u2019re talking about have a hard time coming into existence,\u201d said Dr. Peter Schnall, professor of medicine at the University of California, Irvine\u2019s Center for Occupational & Environmental Health.<\/p>\n
And Schnall believes the more people we work with, the better.<\/p>\n
\u201cSocial support is a very important buffer against stress,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen your supervisors and your co-workers are trying to all do things together, then you\u2019re getting a lot of social support \u2014 and the job is less stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: Foxnews.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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