3 Ways To Have A Healthy Relationship With Social Media

There is often a love/hate relationship with social media. I love that I can scroll through apps like Instagram, follow pages that I am interested in, keep up to date with my friends, support small business, support charities etc… However, I don’t love the amount of time I spend on it daily or the countless amounts of new trends that I feel compelled to purchase.

Social media is now more popular than ever, and there are many studies that have indicated the copious amounts we spend on our phones.

We can also not disregard Netflix’s most recent documentary, Social Dilemma and the ideas the tech experts put forward as they explore the negative impact of social media.

So, without deactivating all of our social media accounts, how can we find that healthy level of interaction with social media apps?

Put things in perspective  

People rarely post pictures that they don’t like, or they look bad in.  There are also so many apps that can drastically change the way people look.  So, whilst social media has its many advantages, it can also be inauthentic; it’s hard to know who, what or where to trust.  Fake news, sponsored ads, photo-shopped pics, trolls etc. have a way of misleading people into a false sense of what is real. Social media can make us ruminate on what we don’t have and where we would rather be.  So, with this in mind, avoid the trap, remain objective and be perceptive when scrolling through social media.

Remember why you logged on in the first place

I definitely get distracted by social media.  At times, I go to bed early in the hope of getting some sleep before being woken up by the kiddies throughout the night; however, one scroll after another and I am lying in my bed after an hour and still on my phone.  By being clear about what your purpose is when logging onto a social media site and sticking to it can ensure that you are using social media the way you want, rather then get distracted by what people are posting.

Set limits for yourself

We don’t need to drop off the face of the virtual Earth, but we can set limits on the amount of time we are spending behind our devices. According to Ernst and Young’s digital partner Tom Kennedy, people are spending an average of 10 hours and 24 minutes every day engaged with their devices.  This amount of time can lead us to becoming mentally drained and less productive in other aspects of our lives. So, perhaps try turning off push notifications from emails, chats, and social media applications or limit how many social media apps you have open.  It’s all about finding the right balance so that your time online doesn’t affect with more important areas of your life.

A healthy mindset consists of living a real life and interacting with real people.  Too often we get caught up in trying to make our profile wonderful that we spend too much time behind our device rather than making mindful memories.

Let’s be awesome in the real world.