3.96 billion people actively use social media in the world.

Back in 2015, there were only 2.07 billion users. That’s a 92.76% overall increase in users in just five years.

Now consider that social media has been described as more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol. When you think about it this way, it makes sense that 80% of U.S. teens report being on social media almost constantly or several times a day.

Limiting social media use is key to safeguarding health and wellness from social media’s wide variety of negative mental health outcomes.

So, Halcyon launched a campaign that focused on facts of social media’s relationship to mental health, answering how social media can damage mental health and how to prevent that from happening.

The results

Relative to other Halcyon campaigns, a lower percentage of respondents to the quiz reported caring more about the social media problem after completing all ten questions. The same goes for the percentage of respondents who reported being more inclined to change the way they live to address social media.

That being said, we were encouraged by the fact that, even though these first two percentage categories were lower than expected, 100% of respondents still went on to read our resource blog, “5 easy ways to keep your social media use in check”.

Here’s a look at the numbers:

• 65.6% of people who took the quiz reported caring more about the social media problem after what they learned.
• 59% of people who took the quiz reported being more inclined to change the way they live to help address the problem of social media.
• 100% of people who completed the quiz accessed our resource blog.

What you can do

If you want to learn more about social media’s impact on health and wellness, and gain the tools to keep your social media use in check, follow these easy steps:

1. Start by testing your knowledge and take our quiz!
2. At the end of the quiz, check out our resource blog.
3. Share both these things with your friends and help us spread the word on the social media problem.
4. If you would like to see this campaign reach more people and touch more lives, consider donating and be sure to reference the campaign.

When we compare ourselves to others, it can lead to big problems.

Excessive comparison has been linked with increased anxiety and depressive symptoms, negative body image, sleep problems, and cyberbullying. It can also lead to destructive behaviors like lying or disordered eating.

The campaign

Recognizing the serious risks of excessive comparison, we launched a campaign to educate people on the problem and provide ways for them to manage it. 

We put together a 10-question survey to present respondents with the negative mental health outcomes of frequent comparison, as well as some statistics pertaining to the issue. 

At the end of the quiz, we included a resource blog called “5 Tips to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others” for those wanting to work on limiting comparison in their own lives.

The results

The results of this campaign were, in fact, unusual! Going by the percentages, this campaign was less successful than Halcyon’s previous campaigns in terms of mind change and behavior change (respectively, the first and second bullet points below). 

What is unique is that the percentage of “Yes” responses for behavior change (second bullet point) is higher than the percentage of “Yes” responses for mind change (first bullet point). In Halcyon’s previous campaigns, it’s been the opposite!

To sum it up:

• 42.3% of people who took the survey stated that they cared more about the problem of comparing themselves to others after what they’d learned.*
• 53.3% of people who took the survey stated that they would be more inclined to change the way they live to help address the problem of comparing themselves to others.**
• 100% of people who completed the survey clicked on the resource blog.

What you can do

If you feel like you or someone you know has trouble with the problem of comparing yourself to others, just follow these quick steps.

• Take the survey!
• At the end of the survey, check out the resource blog for tips to stop comparing.
• And share, share, share! 

Last but not least, if you’re inspired by what you’ve learned about this campaign, donate! When you donate to Halcyon, you help us continue to run campaigns against problems like comparison that get in the way of human flourishing.

The word FOMO is actually an acronym. It stands for the “fear of missing out” and, if you’re like most people, this is a feeling you’ve probably experienced before.

In fact, FOMO is a recognized form of social anxiety. It can negatively affect both mood and life satisfaction and can even lead to more serious, long-term anxiety or depression.

What makes FOMO happen? Well, for starters a big contributor to FOMO is social media. This is because social media makes it possible for people to know what other people are doing all day, every day.

Think about it: when you’re stuck at work, the last thing you want to see is a picture of your friends out having fun.

So, it’s easy to see why 56% of social media users suffer from FOMO. Recognizing FOMO as a mental health risk, and seeing its prevalence in society today, Halcyon focused an entire campaign on the issue.

The campaign

We recently launched a campaign to educate people about the causes and effects of FOMO, with the end goal of equipping people with the tools to overcome FOMO in their daily lives.

We put together a 10-question quiz with the intention of presenting the facts about the problem of FOMO, both as a personal mental health risk and a common phenomenon.

At the end of the quiz, we attached a blog that could serve as a resource for people in search of ways to deal with FOMO.

The results

This campaign was less successful than some of Halcyon’s previous campaigns in terms of mind change* and behavior change**. That being said, 100% of respondents who completed our quiz visited the resource blog on how to deal with FOMO.

To sum it up:

• 66.9% of respondents stated they care more about looking after their FOMO after what they learned from our quiz.*
• 67.7% of respondents stated they would be more inclined to change the way they live to address FOMO.**
• 100% of respondents who completed the quiz accessed the toolkit at the end of the quiz with 8 ways to deal with FOMO.

What you can do

If you want to learn more about FOMO’s causes and effects, as well as some ideas for how to solve it, just follow these easy steps:

• Take our quiz!
• Read the resource blog for 8 easy ways to deal with FOMO.
• Share! Everyone gets FOMO. All the more reason to send your friends our quiz and help spread the word!

Donate! When you donate to the Halcyon Movement, you help us continue to bring awareness to issues like FOMO that get in the way of human flourishing.