Social Media can be a scary place:
- Millions of images and videos flooded into your feed with countless filters, photoshopped bodies and airbrushed skin.
- A petri dish of fake news constantly spreading with every repost, reshare or retweet, making it harder for us to distinguish between what’s real and what’s fake.
- The newfound confidence people have behind a screen has evolved into a back and forth banter of hateful comments, threats and irrational behavior.
Along with these negative impacts of social media
comes a decline in our mental health. We’re becoming addicted to our phones, we’re falling into the comparison trap and we’re allowing vanity numbers to inflate our ego. Finally, it affects our physical health too – too much time is being spent scrolling which means we’re sitting too much.
So why in the world would someone ever go on social media? Great question.
While I can’t speak to those that use social media for greed or brainwash with fake news, I can only speak to my personal experience.
In case you missed it, I shared my personal experience
already on, ironically, social media. The response I received was unexpected – hundreds of women sharing their experience too, positive and negative. This inspired me to write a blog as it was obvious we all struggle or have struggled with social media.
The key takeaway for me was the realization that at times I was letting social media control me versus me controlling it. Therefore, I created this list to help catch myself when falling into a slump or feel any negativity. These help me A LOT. Keep on reading and feel free to leave a comment to join the conversation.
Some tips and tricks are outlined below:
- Have an intention before opening up an app. What are you going on this platform for? To connect with others? Seek inspiration? Find a recipe? Know what you’re looking for and you’ll find it.
- Limit your time. I set my time in hour long increments (some times I set a timer to be extra safe) so I’m sure I don’t stay on too long.
- Don’t wake up or go to sleep on your phone. I have an alarm clock and plug my phone in the kitchen so it’s not the first thing I see in the morning.
- If someone makes you feel worse about yourself, block that person, unfollow that person, mute that person or if you see their story highlighted, skip it. Protect your mental health.
- Avoid interactions with negative people. It’s already hard enough to be completely vulnerable with your thoughts, pictures, etc. so when you have a person DM or comment on your page with a VERY mean message, it’s emotionally hard. Really hard. However, I’ve learned to simply not engage. Whether you delete the comment, block that person, etc. Remove it or them completely and move on.
- Get out of the comparison trap. It’s interesting how many of us will scroll through our feed mindlessly. We see beautiful images of travel or the hottest styles and at some point, we forget that there is a human being behind these images. I like to think of the concept “Link verses compare”. Feeds are less intimidating when you connect with people, whether it’s a comment or DM. Granted, you won’t get a response from everyone but in my personal experience, I’ve been able to connect with 75% of the people I reach out too.
- Turn your phone off, switch to airplane mode or flip it over. Simple.
- Remember social media is a business! There are people on here who make a full time living. While I have also been able to monetize my content, this remains as my side hustle. Health coaching is my foundation and social media allows me to be loud about it. The same holds true for others just trying to make it. Trying to make a living with this new career option. There’s a TON of work behind the scenes so be sensitive to those who are hustling, esp if you feel like you’re seeing #ad everywhere.
- Separate your close friends from social media. This may seem simple but I see it happen all the time. If you are looking to monetize off of social media, remember your close friends may not be. Therefore, you can’t expect them to understand the hard work that goes into it. Keep social media out of the conversation unless they bring it up. This will help protect your relationships and separate it from your business, aka social media.
- Make it a positive experience for you and others. There’s this amazing quote that I swear by when I engage with others…
“Before you comment, let your words pass through three gates:
At the first gate, ask yourself ‘Is it true?’
At the second gate, ask yourself ‘Is it necessary?’
At the third gate, ask ‘Is it kind?’
-Rumi
- BONUS: Take a social media detox. Whether it’s 1x week or for a week once a quarter, it’s incredibly eye opening and resets you.
That’s it! I hope this post is helpful to you and transforms your social media experience into a more positive one. After all, it’s not going anywhere.
In case you missed it, check out my latest article of where I’m donating too every month!