How to Consume Social Media Healthily

Social media can be a lot of fun, but there’s a worrying side to it as well. It can lead to issues with low self-esteem, anxiety and even depression. From looking at who we follow to how much time we spend on certain apps, these tips will help you consume social media more healthily.

Impacts of Social Media

Increasing use of social media has been found to have a direct negative impact on mental health. Constant comparison to seemingly perfect lives and filtered good looks can cause users to feel dissatisfied or that they are missing out. Over time these feelings can build up and lead to issues such as poor self-esteem, anxiety and depression. You can learn more about mental health on mental health training courses such as those offered by https://www.tidaltraining.co.uk/mental-health-training-courses.

Unfollowing

One way to consume social media more healthily is to unfollow those accounts which make us question ourselves. Celebrities, beauty influencers and even fitness and nutrition accounts can all have an effect. They may be seemingly offering ‘positive’ content, but the disparity between our own lives and their filtered lives often impacts us. There may even be friends or acquaintances that make us feel bad about ourselves too. One way to combat this is to go through your list and unfollow anyone that makes you feel bad about yourself.

Set Time Limits

One of the easiest ways to reduce your social media usage is to set a time limit on your device. You can do this for individual apps, or you can simply set it to turn off completely at certain times of day. Although it’s always possible to override the time limit, the reminder alone can be good enough to help you see how much time you have spent on social media.

Social media has its positive uses, but it can severely affect the way we think about ourselves as well. Limiting the time we spend on social media and unfollowing accounts that make us feel bad are the first steps to healthier social media usage.