FEMINISM IN INDIA

I asked K L Niharika, counseling psychologist and founder of Psinkin, if social media compels us to overshare to an extent that we lose grasp of ourselves. Niharika says, “It is not true that social media compels us to do anything, but the tendency to share our information in a beautiful manner, get likes and impressions is a form of validation seeking”. She gives me a real-life example, “parents ask their children to perform, tell rhymes and sing in front of others. That is one of the most common examples of how people tend to seek validation”.

The problem here is that the validation we receive through social media and in such similar life events could sometimes be mistaken as self-worth. She further explains, “Social media is not the cause, but is the result. To build self-esteem, keeping information private is not really enough, but one has to learn to share both achievements and failures, happiness and sadness, health and illness”.