April 24, 2025 — just 2 days before her birthday—Instagram content creator Misha Agrawal committed suicide. She chose suicide to end her suffering, a suffering that wasn’t even real for so many, insignificant for the society we live in, a society that gave nothing but a lonely corner of life to our young minds in the name of social media.
 |
| Misha Agrawal, content creator (R.I.P) |
Misha Agrawal, a talented young girl of 25, was upset and depressed about not reaching 1 million followers on her Instagram account, her love, as she said to her older sister. Despite doing all the hard work and dedication, her followers kept decreasing, her anxious mind couldn’t cope up with it, and she lost her life to a social media algorithm.
In a post on her Instagram, her sister wrote, “Since April, she had been deeply depressed, often hugging me and crying saying, ‘Jijja, what will I do if my followers decrease? My career will be over.” Her career will be over, her words showed the pressure of success and being above of any average individual, but for that she chose social media, a medium of illusion, a midia of where everything and everyone is living in a constructed reality.
She was an LLB degree holder, preparing for PCSJ, (Provincial Civil Service Judicial Exam), a state-level exam in India for law graduates who want to become a Civil Judge. It wasn’t enough, Misha was also running her cosmetic business, Mish Cosmetics, she named it. But in the influence of social media, nothing was enough for her, in comparison to her desire to reach 1 million followers.
Social media in numbers
India has the largest number of mobile users, and according to the TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA as on 28th February, 2025, there are 944.04 Million broadband subscribers, which tells how easy internet access is.
Through to the easy access to the internet, social media has become an integral part of everyday life, deeply influencing an individual. In India, the widespread availability of smartphones with low-cost internet has rapidly boosted social media usage and reach, making it an integral part of young people's daily lives. According to available data on the internet, social media has 800 million active users, which is almost 33.7 % of the total population, and the major users are teens to young adults, curious and hungry minds.
Though some studies have shown that using social media can strengthen social connections and enhance well-being, especially among older adults, on the other hand, young adults, we can’t deny, fall as a victim of social media due to the negative impact on their mental and physical health.
According to articles by Wikman et al. (2022), excessive social media use can cause depression, anxiety, body dissatisfaction, and negative emotional experiences. As we all know, how dislikes and negative comments cause social rejection and emotional distress; in our minds, we have all experienced it at some point, which happened to Misha Aggrawal's case as well. Excess use of social media cuts them off from the real world and real situations, and they find themselves trapped in a distressed mind. Let’s see how it happens.
How actually social media impact negatively
Excess use or not using it the right way, social media may increase feelings of anxiety and depression, specifically in teens and young adults.
First: Activities on social media activate the brain's reward center by releasing dopamine. This is a "feel-good chemical" linked to pleasurable activities. What happened is, when we post something interesting, we think it is for us basically, according to us, our friends, family, and followers are supposed to “like” it, it gives our mind a boost of dopamine. However, when we don't get that boost or approval, it can negatively impact our sense.
Second: Social media heavily focuses on physical appearance. This is why many social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok provide filters. Filters give you access to edited photo of yours, different from the real one, with different kinds of touchups. Filters create an illusion, a false image, that is different from reality, not entirely, but different from the actual that hides imperfection and alters physical appearance, which psychologically creates low self-esteem and dislike the way you look.
Third: The use of social media increases feelings of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) for many users. If they don’t post in days, or constantly, they feel they would be forgotten and lost, thus they post regularly, and check on social media accounts of their friends and family just to be aware of what they are up to and how good they are living, unlike you.
Social media causes dissatisfaction, and dissatisfaction impacts our self-esteem, triggers anxiety, and makes us want to use social media more and more. FOMO can also compel users to constantly check social media so that they don't miss out on what's happening. This is how so many talented lives and their careers have been ruined.
Note: Everything has a good or bad side; all we need to focus on is which side can lead us to a good future without costing our mental and physical health.
.png)
.jpg)
