6 Healthy Social Media Habits to Elevate Your Sense of Wellbeing. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and even TikTok have defined the 21st century by offering transformational mediums. The ability to connect with loved ones, read news, engage with communities, shop, and network is like never before. Nearly everybody we know uses one platform or another, giving them an online presence in the world wide web. However, too much of a good thing is not always a good thing.
Social media, though entertaining, does come with a set of challenges that are of detriment to our health and wellbeing. Studies have found these mediums to be addictive (don’t we know it!), and can cause increased levels of stress, sadness, and jealousy, while not actually allowing us to be more “social”. Fortunately, these negative effects can be limited by increasing your awareness and using mindfulness while navigating social media.
Here are 6 healthy social media habits to help elevate your sense of wellbeing.
Tip # 1: SCROLL WITH PURPOSE
It is important when using social media to use it with purpose. Be mindful and intentional as you scroll through your feeds, and work on being in tune with how you feel. We are saturated with news today that highlights our world's greatest catastrophes, it's natural for your body to respond with a heightened state of anxiety and fear. If you are scrolling through your platforms to touch base with family or other businesses, then focus on just that. If you find yourself getting lost in headlines and opinions, take note of how you are feeling, redirect yourself.
Tip #2: LIMIT SCREEN TIME
As mentioned above, it's too easy to turn on autopilot and get lost scrolling through social media feeds. Not only is this prolonged screen time hard on our eyes, but it takes away time to be productive. Prolonged screen time is also known to have a negative effects on our mood. While it may be difficult, reducing your screen time can decrease feelings of depression and loneliness. Reducing screen time may even give you a reason to get active, or get back to more meaningful tasks.
Tip #3: RESTRICT ACCESSIBILITY
Having trouble reducing your screen time? Try restricting your own access.
The muscle memory in the fingertips is likely alive in everyone at this point. Opening up your phone, selecting your favourite apps, and engaging in mindless scrolling is now habitual.
You can work to break that habit by deleting the apps off of your phone. This will not delete your accounts, just require you to be more intentional when checking your social media. Instead of having the world available at your fingertips, you are required to log onto a different device.
Tip #4: ENGAGE IN REAL-TIME
While social media is a fantastic tool to use to keep up with friends and family across the globe, it can provide us with a false sense of knowing, and an excuse to neglect real-time connections. Touching base with your people in real-time affords you the opportunity to communicate on a deeper level, and really check in with one another instead of offering likes, comments, and shares on a surface level social media update. Social media is great, but it should remain as a secondary tool to maintaining long (or short) distance relationships.
Tip #5: INVITE JOY
Following people, businesses, and pages that bring you joy is essential to forming healthy social media habits. Particularly when our world is in such a political divide, it's easy to come across posts that leave you feeling disturbed, or upset. To silence the negative social media noise, unfollow, block, or mute any content or creators that post bothersome content. Instead, fill your feed with people and things that make you feel joy.
Tip #6: NIGHT MODE
The blue light from our screens (phones, tablets, computers, and other devices) can have a negative impact on the quality of our sleep. This can become problematic, as sleep can directly affect our mood and productivity levels during the day. Log off of social media and turn off all screens at least an hour before heading to bed to achieve optimal sleep.
Using social media is a great tool for so many different reasons, but adopting good social media habits is essential, particularly for long-term use. In following these tips and being mindful of how you are using these apps, you can navigate the world of social media in both healthy, and productive ways.
