Okay, listen, I don’t think that social media is inherently bad. I think social media is a great tool, and I love that you can connect with anyone from anywhere in the world. It is an amazing way to find inspiration and share your creativity and express yourself with others! But it is important to be mindful of your mental health on social media.
There is a lot that I don’t love about social media. Mainly the addiction, low self-esteem, and self-hating misery that it causes so many people, especially younger kids and teenagers.
These are all things that I experienced while using social media.
My Experience with Mental Health on Social Media
I began using social media in middle school, as did many of my friends. It was mostly a place to post funny photos and look up One Direction memes, oh the good ol’ days. But by the time high school came, social media quickly took a turn to caring about aesthetic and overly analyzing posts and likes or comments.
I fell into this mindset that other people really had the perfect lives they were showing on social media.
Spoiler alert, life is never as perfect as it seems on social media.
I continued this unhealthy mindset until about halfway through college. I had transferred colleges, and I was really struggling to make friends at my new school. So I did what any normal person would do when they are lonely. I compared my life to what my high school friends were posting on social media.
Why are they out having fun with their friends on Friday night while I watch YouTube all alone in my apartment? Why can they have lunch with friends during the week when I don’t even talk to anyone in class? How are they affording to go on a fancy spring break trip while I just sit in my childhood bedroom doing schoolwork?
Do you see why that was a super unhealthy mindset? I was making myself absolutely miserable by constantly comparing my life to the lives that people were carefully curating on social media.
Social media was probably the number one contributor to my poor mental health at the time. But I didn’t realize it. I kept following more and more people and falling down more rabbit holes of misery.
Social media really does feed on insecurity. And now that social media is all about “the algorithm” and showing you what it thinks you want to see, I think it can get a lot more dangerous. If the algorithm sees you looking at content that makes you feel miserable, it will show you more of that content. It’s a slippery slope.
Not to mention the advertisements on social media. How are you supposed to not compare yourself to others on the Internet when every time you go on social media, advertisements are saying how much you need new clothes, makeup, skincare, etc.?
The Shift in Mindset
One day I discovered a series of videos about minimalism, and specifically the concept of digital minimalism. I interpreted this concept as a way to form a healthier relationship with social media.
I slowly decided to start cutting out and optimizing my social media to be a place that would actually bring me joy, not misery.
It was a slow process, but I have come a long way. As I’m writing this, the only personal social media I use is Facebook. I am only friends with family or people I know personally, and I do not hesitate to block people’s posts from my news feed if they are causing me any negative emotions.
These are the steps that I took to form a healthy-ish relationship with social media!
Recognize Your Social Media Patterns
The first step to tackling any problem is admitting you have a problem.
It’s easy for people to say, “I use social media too much.” But what does that really mean? How much is too much?
Start to look at how you use social media from an outside perspective. Look at whose accounts you search most often. How do they make you feel? Look at how much time you are spending scrolling on your home feed or through the search page. Do you get more sucked into the profiles of people you know or people you don’t know?
Recognizing and being mindful of how you personally use social media will help highlight the areas where change is necessary.
Unfollow People on Social Media
Now that you understand how you use social media and some of the negative habits you may have, it is time to unfollow people who bring negativity into your life!
Many of my issues with social media were related to the people whose content I was constantly consuming. I spent a few days going through the people I followed on each of my social media accounts. I unfollowed people I wasn’t interested in anymore, people I didn’t even talk to, people I never spoke to, or people whose content made me feel particularly bad about myself. In the end, I unfollowed over three-quarters of the people I followed.
Once I cut those people out, I had a much more pleasant experience on social media. However, I still found that I wasted a ridiculous amount of time mindlessly scrolling, which I wanted to change.
Delete Apps That Affect Your Mental Health
If you are still feeling unhappy and comparing yourself to others even after unfollowing people, if you’re like me and you want to spend less time mindlessly scrolling, the next step is to just delete the apps from your phone.
This is what I decided to do with Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Twitter was the first to go, mostly because I stopped using it, and I wanted to free up space on my phone. Easy peasy!
Instagram was next. I struggled with deleting Instagram because I kept convincing myself that it wasn’t that bad and wasn’t really affecting my mental health. But after deleting the app and no longer having the immediate action of opening Instagram and comparing myself to people, I felt much better.
Snapchat was the most difficult for me to delete. I had already pared down who I was friends with on Snapchat, but I had a few streaks going that felt sad to break (you know you’re a millennial/gen z when…). But Snapchat was really unhealthy for me. Not necessarily because I was comparing myself to others (well, I was), but because I found myself really judging people. So, after a lot of internal conflict, I finally deleted the app. And I think not having Snapchat has genuinely improved my life.
Delete Social Media Accounts
But what do you do if you still find a way to use the social media you deleted from your phone?
Sure, you deleted the Instagram app, but it is almost just as easy to log in on your computer. In all honesty, I still do this. I recognize that it’s unhealthy, but I have so many memories tied to my Instagram that I don’t want to just delete the account!
But like. It’s probably a good idea. I don’t know. You do you, I’m not here to judge!
Use Social Media for Good!
If you don’t decide to delete your social media apps or accounts (no judgment, I still have my personal Facebook page and now all my blog social media accounts!), try to use it for good.
You are not alone in the comparison and lack of confidence that you may feel from social media use. Many people experience negative mental consequences from social media use. That is why we need more people to be using social media for good!
Share messages that spread awareness about mental health! Talk about causes you really care about! Share the good and the bad of your life (within reason and if you’re comfortable doing so, of course)! Let’s stop trying to make our lives seem perfect and just share our normal lives!
Take back the power that social media has taken from you.
What Happens to Your Mental Health When You Stop Using Social Media
I’m not going to sit here telling you that I’m perfect and don’t use social media anymore. That’s a lie. I still struggle with comparison on social media. I still fall down rabbit holes full of negative self-talk and jealousy.
But it’s not as bad as it once was. I am taking steps to make social media a positive experience for myself, and I think any progress is still progress!
Now that I don’t use social media as much, I have more free time for hobbies. I also have replaced the “bad” social media with some “good” social media. AKA Reddit. Gosh, I love Reddit. It is a perfectly curated endless stream of posts about all the things I love. Puppies, skincare, knitting, art, tv shows.
There is so much life to live outside of social media, and that is what I try to remember when I do fall back into my unhealthy habits with social media. My mental health is my top priority, and I need to treat it as such by not allowing myself to be exposed to content that will cause me distress.
Need some self-care ideas to help your mental health? Check out my favorite daily self-care practices HERE!