Social Chain co-founder Dominic McGregor has said social media is one of the biggest drivers behind mental health problems.
McGregor set up the Manchester-headquartered marketing agency聽with CEO and 聽Steve Bartlett聽in November 2014 and it has grown rapidly.
Its worldwide reach across the pages it runs across various social media platforms is now more than 386 million, meaning it can often cause hashtags to go viral in a matter of minutes.
It works with clients including Superdry, SkyBet, BooHoo, New Balance and Warner Music and employs more than 150 staff around the world.
However McGregor says social media is not purely a force for good.
“Social media is one of the biggest drivers [behind mental health problems],鈥� he told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淧eople constantly question themselves and their lifestyles against others on social media. This instability and lack of belief seeps into your day-to-day聽and can drive negative feelings.
鈥淥n top of social media, there’s a wider media influence from the likes of TV and newspapers.
鈥淭V programmes can have a huge effect on people’s mental health and, if you read the news, you’d think the world was ending soon.
鈥淎ll of these stimuli together have a negative impact.鈥�
McGregor recently told 老九品茶Cloud that he gave up alcohol to improve both his leadership and life in general.
He continued: 鈥淭he first stage of mental health is understanding what is happening. A lot of people are at this stage, unsure of what is going on with them and their emotions.
鈥淭he last few years, a lot of work has been done to raise the awareness of mental illnesses 鈥� but still people do not know if they are going through it.
鈥淭hose that do speak up understand themselves and the problems. I’d imagine this is only a handful of those who have struggled with their mental health and there are a lot more stories to come.鈥�
Social Chain hit the headlines when it employed a director of happiness 鈥� and McGregor says employee happiness is key to business growth 鈥渙ver any other metric鈥�.
鈥淚 wish there was a way to record the happiness of people in workplaces as this would be the best indicator for聽helping people with mental illness and a big step in supporting everyone across your business,鈥� he said.
鈥淥ur director of happiness鈥� role is to make sure Social Chain is the best place to spend your time. We don’t see it as work 鈥� it’s a lifestyle.
鈥淚 don’t agree with the term 鈥榳ork/life聽balance鈥� as this indicates they are at conflict with each other. They should be viewed as one thing: life balance.
鈥淣o one should have to make sacrifices: small things like allowing people the autonomy to go to the doctor’s, driving lessons and to see their family pays dividends in the聽long term聽as they build loyalty and respect amongst team聽members.鈥�