For most people, social media seems like an innocent time-waster. It's something to do when you're bored at work or waiting in line at the post office and you want to daydream about lavish vacations or follow the (seemingly) fabulous lives of others.

The bad news? All those photos we're scrolling through might be doing us more harm than we think. As social media becomes more and more woven into our daily lives, we're starting to see the consequences of comparing ourselves to others on a near-constant basis.

Because thin and fit influencers and celebrities use social media to showcase a curated version of their lives, it's very easy to feel like you don't measure up, causing you to feel bad about yourself, especially your body. While data is still emerging on how social media affects body image, here's what we know so far.

The Hidden Dangers of Social Media

Social media, with all its inspirational quotes, cat videos, and memes, has a dark side—it's showing us a fictional version of reality that's typically stripped of any struggle. People are generally presenting the prettiest aspects of their lives, posting milestones, #fitspo photos, and selfies with perfect makeup. Photos may be retouched, showing us airbrushed beauty that is often unattainable.

The hidden danger of social media is comparison. While it's not surprising that people try to present a curated image of themselves online, the consequence of this is that people, especially young people, start to feel inadequate and unhappy with their own bodies. Thanks to the internet and social media, we are now able to get a peek at other people's lives whenever we want and compare what we see to our own lives, our own bodies.

All that time staring at the screen isn't doing us, or our opinions of ourselves, any favors. Screen time in adults has been associated with depression and since we spend around 11 hours a day consuming media, it seems that social media might not be as harmless as it first seems.

A Warped Sense of Reality

When we don't see a range of body types on social media and we continue to emphasize appearance, whether it's body-positive or body shaming, we get a warped sense of reality. We begin to see various flaws in our appearance and we wonder what we're doing wrong.

The worst part about this warped sense of reality is that we're chasing something that probably doesn't exist. Flattering lighting, camera angles, clothing, filters, and retouching can radically change the appearance of a photo and make the person in the picture look much different than they do walking down the street.

Maybe It's Time for Screen Break

If you're a college or high school student or a busy professional, then taking a break from the screen may be a great idea. Prioritizing your mental health is an important aspect of self-care. Physicians diagnose one in six patients with some form of mental illness, often anxiety and depression. Avoiding one potential trigger for these health concerns can be important for maintaining your mental health.

Fortunately, more people are beginning to understand the risks of social media and are realizing that it could be making them lonely or causing them to feel insecure about their bodies. A screen break might be the best way to solve the problems that social media causes simply because even looking at body-positive content focuses on how we think about ourselves and others.

Stepping away from social media for a while can help you reengage with reality and reconnect with yourself. You'll be able to find out how you feel about your body when you're not scrolling through a feed of perfectly slim, tanned images every five minutes.

The Truth: Social Media Makes Us Critical of Bodies

When we compare our bodies to others, we engage in self-objectification and tend to focus more on appearance than anything else. Body positivity on social media is better than body shaming, but it doesn't help us to move away from talking about bodies more than personality.

By changing the way we use social media and curating the content we see to focus less on bodies or by stepping away from social media entirely, we can reduce its power to make us feel worse about ourselves. Social media should be something fun and light—not something that makes you criticize your body and edit selfies for hours. Removing the source of your comparisons might be just what you need.