Four Ways to Detoxify Your Social Media

Social media is often a big contributor to anxiety and depression.  Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat show you others’ best moments, leaving you to compare your real life with their perfectly filtered photos.  It can very quickly feel like you’re not measuring up. Add to that the people who seem to see picking on others online as a sport, and it can very quickly get overwhelming.

At varying points in time, many people take a break from social media or delete it altogether.  I absolutely recommend taking a break or even deleting your accounts if you find them troubling, but I also know many people who don’t want to let go of the connection they have with friends and family.  Here are four ways you can maintain your social media accounts while also limiting the impact they have on you.

1. Quit following influencers

There’s a whole new brand of fame on social media - influencers.  They have thousands of followers and post perfectly photoshopped and filtered photos on a regular basis.  They’ve garnered their following by being fashionable, physical fit, or well connected. You don’t actually know them, but you follow them to see what fun things they’ve been up to or what the latest fashions are.  The catch for most people is that it leaves them feeling like their life isn’t good enough. Every now and then, these accounts are really empowering and encouraging to their followers, but most of the time, they’re just posting about their fabulous life and all the things you should do or buy to be like them.  When you stop following them, you remove the steady barrage of curated photos from your day to day. No one’s day is perfect every day, but those accounts will often make you feel like it should be.

2. Hide or mute negative people

We all have those friends or family members whose posts make us want to scream.  They might be family or even a close friend, so we feel like we can’t just unfriend or unfollow them.  The major social media platforms have all developed methods to hide or mute specific people without having to unfriend or unfollow them.  Are your uncle’s long political tirades adding to your already growing frustrations with the political environment? Hide him. Is your friend’s daily post about her fabulous life making you feel inadequate?  Mute her. Is your cousin’s constant stream of negativity getting you down? Hide her, too. You don’t have to banish them to the world of blocked people. Just make it so you don’t see them unless you intentionally go to do so.

3. Unfriend/Unfollow people you don’t want in your life

This one can feel a little scary.  If you unfriend or block someone, they might figure it out.  We don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings, but we also don’t need to maintain contact with people we genuinely don’t want in our lives.  You don’t see them in person. You don’t talk, text, or email. Maybe you avoid them if you see them out somewhere. Go ahead and unfollow them.  You’ve already done it in real life.

4. Limit how much and what you post

This is one many people don’t think about.  This includes both your own posts/snaps and comments you make on others’.  Everything we put out on social media is a literal invitation for others to interact with us.  While many people will be lovely and wonderful, some won’t be. Someone might chastise you for letting your dog lick the ice cream that fell on the ground.  Someone else could fire off a cruel response to a comment you made on your friend’s post. It can be so easy to offhandedly comment on something without really thinking it through.  There are a great many people out there who enjoy picking others apart behind the safety of a computer screen. In the event that someone does do that to you, see number 3 above. If they aren’t someone you’re friends with - go ahead and block them.  You don’t need that negativity in your life.

Social media has some great upsides, but it’s important to remember that it’s not the be all and end all.  It’s also a really good idea to limit how much time you spend on social media. It’s easy to think you’ll just pop on for a few minutes and before you know it, it’s been an hour. Give yourself time limits and always remember that what you see is only a tiny bit of the reality.

Learn more about these steps on the Live Happy podcast!