7 Ways To Stop Social Media From Affecting Your Mental Health

Social media has become almost an integral part of our life, especially since the pandemic hit the world.

From connecting with family and friends to keeping up with latest trends, we spend so many hours on various social media platforms.

You start watching one reel, one short video, then you keep scrolling videos one after the other and what was meant to be a 30 seconds long video ends up consuming an hour or more from your day... every day.

What we don't realise is that social media has this power of ruining our mental health if we don't pay attention to what kind of content we consume, how we react to the sea of posts and information that keep getting shared and viral online, how we react to people's reaction on our own posts, and much more.

There's no limit to the ways in which social media can affect our mental health, but I am listing some ways in this post that helped me keep social media away from my personal life and stop letting it get on my nerves. I hope it helps you too.

1. See What/Whom You Are Following

First thing first, filter your list of 'following'. You don't need to follow each page under the category of your interest.

You don't need to follow people that post toxic content, and sometimes, it's not even about the content, it's how we react to it. The best way is to cut down your list of following and follow only the accounts that lift you up or inspire you.

2. Block/Restrict/Mute

Block option is available on every social media platform and so is mute option (almost on all platforms). Blocking spam or creepy accounts is good but then comes annoying people whom you can neither unfollow nor block, and so come restrict and mute to the rescue.

You can mute people's posts and statuses to stop them from appearing on your timeline. You can stop viewing content from people that make you feel terrible about your own life or yourself even though you already have all that you need in life and you are enough.

Restrict option on Instagram allows you to hide comments from a restricted account on your posts until you make them visible. Till then, those comments would be visible only to you and the account from which the comment is made.

You can also restrict people from whom you no longer wish to receive messages as it sends their chat box back to message requests, from where you can see their latest messages without them getting marked as seen.

3. Deleting Comments

No, not all comments. Even some spam comments don't bother me but there are people who love pulling others down for no damn reason. Here's easiest hack—delete their comments and continue doing what you were doing before you came across that comment.

The more you argue with negative commenters, the more fuel you feed to their vain ego. Silence is indeed golden at times.

4. How About A Nap?

When everything feels too much, just pick up your phone and put it on silent mode—or better switch it off—and take a relaxing nap.

Rest is as important as being productive. So why spend your time being upset or worrying or envying when you can use that time to take a nap instead?

It truly feels good to put social media aside for a while.

5. Know Which Message Requests To Accept

Do not accept all the message requests that you receive. Most of them are just spams. I know you must already be aware of how to recognise spams but then comes messages with just a Hi or Hello and nothing more. Try to avoid them, especially if the profile/page doesn't look authentic or genuine.

If someone really has something to say or ask, let them add it to their initial message itself rather than making you accept their DM request with just a casual greeting.

6. Reality is Far Different From What We See Online

What we see online is just a well-shot or well-recorded picture or video; behind the scenes often tell an entirely different story.

Not all are living the life they pretend to live on social media. What you see can make you envious of others regardless of the life they are actually living. Don't believe everything that you see online.

7. Consume Content That Raises Your Vibes

The content that makes you feel motivated, inspired, feel good about yourself and life; the content that brings positivity to your mind helps you raise your vibes.

Consume that kind of content and stay away from anything that unnecessarily fill you with fear, guilt, ego, envy, or any other negative emotions.

So, be aware of what kind of content you spend most of your time watching, reading or listening to.

Hope this post helps you the way doing these things has helped me.