Connections have changed drastically since the advent of social media, and it presents both positive and negative results when you use it. While it helps you know what your friends and family are up to, talking directly to influential people and highlighting important stories to many people simultaneously.
Despite the positive attributes, you cannot avoid the negative consequences it brings when you use it incorrectly. For example, without setting proper boundaries in your ethical approach, it is easy to get distracted and become less productive when on social media. It can alter your behavior and mood when you interact with aggressive users.
Therefore, it is essential to learn the best ways to manage your social media use and be intentional about it, benefit your mental health and well-being. We will discuss several ways to be more responsible about your social media use.
Do not be afraid of curating your feed
You must remember that only you are in charge of what you see and hear online. So you can use it for beneficial uses like entertaining others and creating content, or you can use it for harmful reasons that make you feel unproductive and bad afterward.
Manage your feed as frequently as possible by deleting or unfollowing accounts that post irritating or false content, bully others, or are rude to other users. Additionally, recognize that social media apps are designed to hook you, so have conversations with your family and trusted people in your life about using social media in a mindful and better way.
Turn off your notifications
Before doing anything else on this list, an excellent starting point is to turn off social media notifications. While many people struggle with a “Fear of Missing Out” or FOMO, these notifications keep you in a loop of information saturation that is hard to break. It also results in dragging you down a rabbit hole of distraction at all times.
Rather than letting these apps tell you each time your feed has new posts, turn them off completely, or schedule the times you can check your notifications. This will help you avoid the attachment to your phone the whole day.
Follow everything with a purpose
Your social media feed always exists for a reason, and you must figure out what you want to achieve. For instance, you should ask why you choose to follow certain people and become more intentional about the people you give your time to. If there are no good reasons for following an account, feel free to unfollow it.
An excellent example of following purposefully is to follow music technology accounts if you are a music student. In this case, these accounts give you useful tips and information on your interest without resorting to jealousy and negativity in their posts. You can also follow people that add hope and creativity and be mindful of social media algorithms that bring you content based on your interests.
Avoid scrolling mindlessly
Here is a truth you likely are unaware of: scrolling your feed on social media is a stimulation slot machine. It is straightforward to scroll mindlessly, even if you make the biggest efforts to curate your feed, and the result of this scrolling is procrastination. In addition, you will eventually find yourself comparing your account to others who seem to have more exciting lives and look cooler.
Instead of this approach, figure out a person or account you want to learn more about and go directly to their account. Then, clean up your feed, especially eliminating accounts you do not recognize or know. This will eventually have a positive effect on your mindset.
Stay away from clickbait
Due to the onslaught of information, clickbait information and fake news are a major problem – mainly because we seem to have lost the patience to sort out false news from the truth, and people react irrationally to this content. It is easy to spot as well on your feed, as you will likely come across dubious headlines that do not have any content, and clicking on them re-routs you to sites that spread misleading information or fake content.
Unfortunately, studies repeatedly show that negative or controversial headlines have the highest traffic generation, especially if you post them on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. So before considering these as legitimate news sources, make sure to take your time and always seek alternative ways of figuring out your news content.
Know your privacy settings
Social media privacy is the building block to using social media properly, whether to protect you from cybercriminals or prying eyes. Every platform has its privacy settings, and you must know how they work.
Keep these settings updated as the policy changes, and know precisely what information you choose to make public to avoid exposing too much information about yourself.
Conclusion
While social media is a vital part of our connectivity today, it takes intentional usage tactics to make the most from it without feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or vulnerable from its use. You must be intentional about this goal, and these tips should help you start your journey to a more productive social media feed.