With so much of our life now spent online, it’s important to maintain healthy social media habits.
Social media is a great way to stay connected, but too much use can have negative effects on your mental health and well-being. Fortunately, itโs easy to create healthy social media habits that can help you take control and make the most out of your online experience.
This guide will help you identify what is and isn’t a productive use of your valuable time on the internet. Additionally, we will share advice on creating positive online habits.
Why It’s Important To Build Healthy Social Media Habits
Social media can be a wonderful way to make new friends, stay connected with current friends, and feel inspired. But while there are so many wonderful things about social media, it’s important to also understand the negative aspects of it. For some, social media can be detrimental to health – mental and emotional. That’s why we believe it’s crucial to set boundaries.
Setting healthy social media boundaries is important for several reasons:
- Protecting your mental health: Social media can be overwhelming. Excessive use of social media has been linked to anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Setting boundaries can help you control the amount of time you spend on social media and reduce the negative impact it has on your health.
- Maintaining healthy relationships: Social media can be a great tool for staying in touch with friends and family, but it can also lead to unhealthy comparisons. Remember that if you feel yourself comparing yourself to others, it might be beneficial to unfollow accounts or take a break from social media.
- Improving productivity: Social media can be a major distraction. By limiting social media use, you may experience heightened productivity.
- Protecting your privacy: Social media platforms often collect a lot of personal information about users. Setting boundaries can help you control the amount of information you share and protect your privacy.
- Developing a healthy relationship with technology: Social media can be addictive. By reducing your reliance on it – you may feel less pressure and anxiety. Try focusing on building habits that allow you to be present in the now.
While there are many reasons to limit social media, we’d also like to remind you why social media can be incredibly beneficial. Let’s chat through the benefits of social media before jumping into positive social media habits.
Benefits of Social Media
While everyone is saying to stay away from social media today, we also want to highlight the many benefits of social media. Through social media, many wonderful things can take place. Below you’ll find a list of the benefits of social media (in no particular order).
Social media has many potential benefits, including:
- Connecting with others: Social media allows people to connect with friends, family members, and other individuals from around the world. This can be especially valuable for people who live far apart or who have trouble meeting new people in person.
- Building communities: Social media platforms provide a space for people with similar interests to come together and form communities.
- Accessing information: Social media can be a valuable source of news and information. Many people use social media platforms to stay up-to-date on current events, industry news, and other topics of interest.
- Promoting creativity: Social media provides a platform for people to share their creative work. Whether it’s writing, art, music, or something else – it’s a great place to display creativity. For example, using Pinterest is a great way to inspire creativity. We love focusing on self-care posts!
- Marketing and business growth: Social media platforms are increasingly being used by businesses to reach customers and promote their products or services. For small businesses, social media can be an affordable and effective way to reach new customers and grow their brand.
Now that we’ve covered some of the pros and cons of social media, let’s talk about how we can build positive social media habits.
7 Ways to Build Positive Social Media Habits
If you’re a new social media user or an influencer, we hope these tips will help you navigate the task of building healthy habits. As a reminder, positive social media habits may look different to each and every individual. These are just suggestions so pick strategies that are best for you.
Share content you are passionate about, not just popular things to post
Sharing content youโre passionate about can be a great way to keep yourself engaged and connected with others on social media.
Refrain from posting just to fit in with the crowd. Instead, focus on expressing yourself in ways that are meaningful to you. Youโll find that your posts will be more genuine, and people will appreciate your openness.
When you post things for yourself and not your audience, you will show the most authentic version of yourself.
Getting to a place where you feel vulnerable enough to share content that you are most passionate about might not be easy work. If you need some help in this area, read about a few ways you can stop judging yourself.
By choosing to post about things you truly care about, you’ll show up as your “tru” self.
What are your hobbies? What are your passions? Post about them! If you want to post a million photos of your puppy, do it! Want to share info on your recent experience trying out self care bingo? Go for it!
Turn Off Notifications to Avoid Distractions
Turning off notifications and designating specific times to scroll through your social media accounts can help curb distractions from those dreaded pop-ups.
Set a time limit for scrolling through content, and take responsibility for checking your feeds instead of relying on the prompt of incoming notifications each time something new is posted.
If you find that notifications often get in the way of finishing tasks during the day, try the Do Not Disturb feature.
When you are in the middle of something and you are distracted by a social media notification, you may find it hard to get through the task at hand.
Unfollow Any Negative Influences
Choose who you follow carefully since this will form the basis of your social media feeds.
Unfollow any accounts or people that are negative influences and make you feel bad about yourself. Aim to create an online atmosphere where you can take a break from everyday stress and be surrounded by positive affirmations and advice.
Follow accounts that make you feel good. If you find yourself constantly comparing yourself to someone, maybe it’s time to mute them or unfollow.
Always remember, social media is often just a highlight reel. It’s a curated space that can be edited and heavily filtered.
Designate “Offline” Time for Activities
Designating a period of time as social media-free can help reduce the amount of time you spend scrolling. Take that time instead to do something exciting or productive. This is also a wonderful time to focus on making friends in real life.
Social media is wonderful for building and maintaining friendships but in-person experiences can really do wonders for your health!
Try out some self-care activities instead of doomscrolling.
Make a List of Productive Activities to Pursue During Social Media Breaks
Establish a list of productive activities to pursue during your social media breaks.
Choose activities that you enjoy and look forward to and that can also improve other aspects of your life like relationships, creativity, physical health or career progress.
When you feel the urge to check in on social media, use your break instead to engage with those activities.
Examples may include reading an inspiring book, going for a walk with friends and family, doing an engaging hobby, or volunteering for a cause you care about.
Sometimes it’s tough to take a break from social media because you feel bored. If you have a list of activities you love, you’ll find it easier to break away from social media.
Prioritize News and Posts with Educational, Productive or Uplifting Messages
When scrolling through your social media feeds, prioritize those posts that carry educational, productive or uplifting messages. Look for quality pieces of content that let you learn something new, teach someone else a skill, or contribute to a thought-provoking conversations.
If the post is something you feel indifferent about but doesnโt inspire or add value to your life in any way, simply scroll past it.
Engage with accounts that share positive messages. Seek out the good news in the world.
Learn Strategies for Dealing With Comments That Make You Feel Disheartened and Unmotivated
Remember that negative comments might come through on your posts or even posts you view. If you feel that some comments online are upsetting, find ways to calm your emotions and seek inner peace.
Remember that you can use the mute button and unfollow accounts that aren’t yours. If you get a mean comment on your page, remember that it’s not a reflection of you. Individuals who seek out others and write mean things are often struggling with their own issues.
If someone goes out of their way to say something mean, it says more about them than you.
Final Thoughts
Thanks so much for stopping by Tru&Well today! We hope that you’re able to use some of these social media strategies and that they benefit you!
Spending time outdoors, try a social media detox once in awhile, and remember to practice self-care!
If you have other ideas for positive social media habits, we’d love to hear them below!
As always, we hope you have the best day ever and that you live an inspired life!