The other day I came across a teacher complaining that social media is corrupting kids. I can’t blame her. When I used to teach college, I saw how our gadgets, along with social media started becoming a part of the classroom. As gadgets decreased in size, improved internet connection, and more apps to occupy our time, I would give lectures to students knowing that 70% of them were on their phones. But there are also positives. I see people of all ages using social media to build careers, connect with people they admire, and learn. And there’s joy in connecting through social media.
You’re In Charge
Part of the challenge of the modern world is to take control of our gadgets. I recently started becoming more active on threads and X, and it’s fun to connect with people whose books I have read, and ideas I respect. But I also understand how social media can drain my energy. It happened the other day when I was reading about @wolfgang2242 (Steve Greig’s) dogs (Juanita and Onion’s) crossing the rainbow bridge. I cried. I was still in the moment, when suddenly, the post was followed by someone talking about their outfit, then a cooking video. It felt jarring. It’s as if my emotions couldn’t quite keep up with the shift in attention. I wasn’t ready to move on from my intense experience with the dog.
After this experience, I made a list of how to best use these social platforms. So far, it has worked for me. I hope these strategies will benefit you. If like me, you enjoy connecting digitally to the rest of the world, but also can feel exhausted and overwhelmed, try these tips.
Finding Joy in Social Media Tips
- When you find something worthwhile, after watching or reading the post, close the app and give yourself a minute to reflect and process.
- Don’t be easily offended. There are trolls out there. You don’t need to engage with them.
- Comment with honesty and positive intentions. If you’re feeling off and you find your comments reflecting your mood, that’s the time to get off social media and move. Do yoga, walk, anything to get you off your phone. You don’t want to get into the habit of putting people down to pull yourself up.
- Don’t fall for posts that rely on the victim mentality. Most of the time, I find that the goal of victim mentality is to vilify others to get people on their side. It just makes you despise a group of people based on someone’s story. Also, people tend to remember the negative more than the positive. The people that use victim mentality may not be doing this consciously, but it’s something to be weary of. For example, a person can have 100 positive comments and 1 negative one. When one focuses on the negative, that’s playing then victim card.
- Be inspired, not envious. If you find yourself feeling shitty about your life after being on social media, either rethink the people you are following or it’s time to take a break. Figure out how social media is serving you.
- Time yourself: set up an alarm to let you know when it’s time to stop. 10 minutes works for me.
- Take a proper rest day, even if you enjoy social media. As for me, I try not to check on Sundays.
- Don’t use social media to pass time. Dedicate a specific time of day to it, but don’t just randomly open it when waiting in an office or when you’re feeling bored.
- Set up focus modes. Turn on notifications for social media on specific times of the day or skip the notifications on your rest day.
- Follow people that make you laugh.
