Social Media Habits For the Soul
Social media is easy to misuse. It causes a lot of stress. But it’s too useful to get rid of, right? Sometimes it feels like there is no good way to handle the burdens of social media. It’s difficult to find answers to this dilemma. But it isn’t difficult to make small changes to our habits online.
Here are 4 ways you can begin protecting your mental health from social media:
1. Limit when & where you use social media
2. Take breaks or ‘detox’ from social media
3. Pay attention to how you feel on social media
4. Prune your community on social media
1 - Social media & the devices we use them with are supposed to be tools, not appendages.
We scroll & engage from our bedrooms, from the bathroom, from our cars, from meal times … We are active online too often at bad times.
When we’re always active, it’s easy for us to see our screentime grow from a few minutes to a few hours or more.
When we’re always distracted, it’s difficult to recognize how anxious we are or how tense our surroundings are becoming.
Don’t take your phone in your bedroom or to a bathroom. Keep those spaces screenless.
When you’re driving or sharing a meal or at church or in a movie or doing anything really deserving of your attention, turn your device on airplane mode or toggle notifications off.
If it feels impossible to control yourself even when notifications are off or your device is in airplane mode, download & utilize software or apps locking you out of social media or restricting your access during critical times.
Getting into healthier rhythms sometimes require some extra force.
Self control will come more easily the longer you distance yourself from social media.
2 - Taking a break is easier said than done, but not impossible.
Similar to restricting yourself from social media on your devices, extended breaks can radically improve your health, too.
You can go big with week or month long breaks.
You can also go smaller with hour or day long breaks.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
Impossible expectations are not healthy, either.
Use fewer apps: “I’m getting rid of Instagram but keeping Snapchat”
Or use apps fewer times a day: “I’m only using Facebook & Instagram for 30 minutes a day”
If you use social media a lot, & you have a safe or comfortable community online, consider posting about the changes you’re making, too.
Additional support, accountability, & discussions about the changes can help reduce certain anxieties.
3 - Take notes on or just think about how you’re behaving, how you’re feeling, how you’re reacting to the things happening around you virtually. Study yourself.
Pay attention to what time of day it is, where you are when you log on, what influences you to log on, what you’re hoping to get out of it, how you feel about what you see & hear, etc.
When you log in to Instagram, are you engaging in conversations with people or are you passively liking what you see?
When you log in to Snapchat, are you sharing content back & forth or are you just looking at stories?
When you log in to Facebook, are you connecting with family & friends or are you reading news & smirking at memes.
Ask yourself ‘why’ a lot.
Be mindful.
Be brave & be honest with yourself.
The more you are aware about what’s happening in your head & heart, the better your decisions will be in making positive changes for your health.
4 - Muting, Blocking, Unfriending, Archiving, Disabling Comments, Hiding Likes … these things feel aggressive to others but should be accepted as tools given to us to preserve healthy relationships & a strong community.
Prune your community.
Not everyone can be your friend.
Hell, not everyone wants to be your friend.
This truth can hurt.
Especially if you’re a people pleaser.
Offline, people ebb & flow in & out of our lives.
We shift between groups, schools, neighborhoods, countries, & more.
Life happens.
Aside from your family & your ride or die besties, people don’t stick around forever.
The Internet & social media are a blessing in keeping us all connected.
But we attribute too much value to those connections.
We begin to collect people.
This is overwhelming & unhealthy.
Again, be mindful.
Be brave & be honest with yourself.
Determine who deserves access to you & who doesn’t.
Keep your community small & keep your community strong.
You'll thank yourself later.
By:
Lance Lijewski