Social media is a useful tool for millions of people. You may use it to stay in touch with friends from high school or college, keep track of birthdays or manage accounts for organizations to which you belong. A well-curated feed can help you stay connected and even inspire you.
Social media can have its downsides, though, and they're easier to find than you might imagine. You may open the app on your phone just to check in, and before you know it, hours have passed. Many users experience the fear of missing out when they see their friends enjoying time together at events to which they were not invited. Fortunately, there are ways to adjust your usage to minimize the stress created by social media.
Track Your Usage
The first step is to get a clear picture of how much you use your accounts. The simplest way to do this is to time yourself. Create a spreadsheet or bullet journal page for tracking. Before you open a social media app, start the stopwatch on your phone. Once you are finished, stop the time and log the name of the app and the amount of time you used it. Even if you forget to log a couple of sessions at first, you may be surprised at how often you check your accounts.
Be Mindful of the Effects
Do you feel sad or lethargic while you are using social media? Does it give you a more cynical view of the world? Are you angry at people you follow, even though you haven't fought with them in real life? If you answer, "Yes!" to any of these questions, the time you spend perusing these accounts may be doing you more harm than you realize.
If you have negative feelings but you can't pinpoint the reason for them, go back to your log and add more information:
- Which app are you using?
- What did you learn?
- Was the information helpful?
- Whose posts did you see?
- How do you currently feel about the people who made those posts?
Over time, you will be able to recognize patterns that lead to your most negative reactions, and you can use that information to inform how you interact with the app. This is also a good way to decide which platforms are actually helpful to you and which ones you need to drop.
Choose Friends Wisely
You probably follow a lot of different people on social media. Some of them may be people you know in real life, while others may be influencers, celebrities or people with whom you have a lot in common. Trying to keep up with too many people, however, can be taxing.
The good news is that you are not obligated to follow anyone on social media, even if they are close friends or family members. If seeing their names pop up in your feed doesn't give you the warm feelings toward them you would like to have, it's probably better for your face-to-face relationships to silence their posts or unfollow them. Use the information you have gathered to make informed decisions about whose posts you see.
Give Yourself a Time Limit
Finally, you may just need to impose a stricter time limit on yourself. This is particularly necessary if you are prone to doomscrolling. There's nothing wrong with being informed, of course, but if you find yourself just collecting a multitude of opinions on a topic, you're not actually adding any new knowledge, and you're stressing yourself out in the process. Give yourself a set time for checking each account and stick to it.
Social media can be helpful but only if you use it effectively. Setting clear boundaries for yourself can help alleviate a lot of stress.