{"id":944882,"date":"2026-10-24T20:16:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T20:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/944882\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T20:16:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T20:16:29","slug":"how-social-media-is-impacting-mens-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/944882\/","title":{"rendered":"How social media is impacting men&#8217;s mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former CFL player and mental health advocate Henoc Muamba on how social media can cause harm for young men and how it can be beneficial too. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A former professional football player is hoping to inspire men across the country to be more mindful about the amount of time spent on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Mental health advocate Henoc Muamba \u2013 who\u2019s played on a number of Canadian Football League and National Football League teams \u2013 is using his platform to raise awareness about the link between the social media and self-worth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/menshealthfoundation.ca\/research\/2026-social-media-and-mens-mental-health-research\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canadian Men\u2019s Health Foundation<\/a>, more than half of men aged 19 and 44 are spending more than three hours a day on social media platforms. And that fixation with time spent online is taking a direct toll on their mental health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Muamba told CTV Your Morning on Friday, that while he was surprised by the amount of time Canadian men are spending online, he also understood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI spend quite a bit (of time on social media) as well, but I\u2019m actually trying to be more aware and conscious about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Muamba added that if you look at the demographic of men aged 19 to 29, 73 per cent said they spent more than three hours online a day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/menshealthfoundation.ca\/press\/social-media-mens-mental-health-research-2026\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/menshealthfoundation.ca\/press\/social-media-mens-mental-health-research-2026\/\">Previous research<\/a> from the Canadian Men\u2019s Health Foundation found that more than three hours of social media time a day could double the risk of moderate to severe anxiety, and triple the risk of depression, anger and suicidal ideation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Muamba said that the main reason those mental health challenges are triggered by social media is because of the comparison. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cYou\u2019re comparing your behind-the-stage real life to people\u2019s highlights,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely important for you to be aware of those situations, aware of those consequences, and find solutions to what can you do outside of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Muamba stressed that he\u2019s not trying to vilify social media, as it has the potential to be a great tool for finding community. However, he said it\u2019s important to figure out how to do that without doomscrolling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThat\u2019s the kind of thing to be aware about and take control with that relationship,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Muamba encouraged social media users to recognize how the algorithm might be impacting their mental health and find ways \u201cguard yourself from that trap.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He suggested understanding when it\u2019s a good time to put down your phone, or putting a time limit on it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201c(Logging off) presents a layer when you want to get back on there, which kind of lets you think about, \u2018Okay, what am I really going on this app for?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt gives you a reason to pause and maybe reassess.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former CFL player and mental health advocate Henoc Muamba on how social media can cause harm for young&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[712,49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-944882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}