We’ve all been on social media long enough to know that it’s not always a great environment.
FOMO, Instagram-inspired insecurity, and the ever-present toxicity of online trolling can make scrolling through your feed a little bit… miserable.
So, how can you make the experience better? Let’s talk about how you can lessen the negativity in your social media sphere.
Curate Your Sphere
In the age of algorithmic suggestions, it’s never been more important to curate your own social media environment to make your feed something you enjoy.
Follow people who make content that you like, and, more importantly, stop hate-following! If you don’t want to feel bad every time you open X (formerly Twitter), don’t follow people whose posts make you angry.
To take it one step further, block out that bad content altogether. Not only can you block users, but many platforms now allow you to mute keywords and topics. If there’s content or subjects you don’t like hearing about, you can insert them into a mute function and never see them pop up!
Don’t feel restricted by the algorithm, either. Make it work for you; if you see a post you don’t like, many platforms will allow you to indicate that you’re not interested in that post and will stop recommending similar content.
Limit Your Screentime
Making your feed better doesn’t solve the primary problem of getting away from social media entirely. For that, you’ll have to take a look at your screentime.
Screentime app limits are luckily built into the latest versions of Android and iOS, where you can set time limits on any app you feel you’re spending a little bit too much time with. Once you’ve reached your time limit, your phone will notify you and lock down the app.
Although, it’s pretty easy to snooze the lock or turn it off if you really, really want more time. If your self-discipline skills could be improved, there are stricter third-party apps you can install that are a bit harder to get around.
And what do you do once your screentime has run out? Well, the world is your oyster! If you can find something to do that’s just as engaging as social media as a follow-up, then you’ll miss the scrolling a bit less.
Turn Off Notifications
A little red badge, a resonating ding, an eye-catching pop-up… even if you’ve closed out of an app, the goal of a notification is to bring you right back.
What do you do? Easy—turn them off!
You can turn off notifications entirely or customize them to eliminate whatever is the most distracting. If the little red badges always grab your attention, you can just disable those.
Or—here’s a fun fact!—if you want to keep badges around to see, for example, how many emails you have unread, have you tried making your display grayscale? It might seem drastic, but studies have shown that removing color from a display can make your phone less addictive.
If you don’t want to disable notifications forever but are looking to limit your social media use at certain times of the day or in specific scenarios, you can also try things like the iOS Do Not Disturb profiles, where you can choose what notifications are silenced and when. The Do Not Disturb can be scheduled to run at certain times of the day, in certain locations, or you can manually trigger it.
Put Out What You Want to Get Back
In the pursuit of a positive social media experience, we can all play a part—as cheesy as that might sound. Part of making the social media realm more positive is putting out positive content yourself.
There are some people on the internet who lurk—they consume content but don’t put out much of their own. That’s fine! If you’re a lurker, try stepping into the light to leave a nice comment on someone’s post, or retweet or repost good content.
Be Intentional
Your own corner of the Internet is such a tiny part of the world wide web. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t make your little world a little bit brighter.
Social media is an incredible tool to connect with others and learn more about the world around you. However, when it becomes just a time-killer to scroll through, it can be addictive and draining without any of the positives.
Give your social media a purpose, and use it for growth, networking, and learning. Connect with the right people to curate your feeds into opportunities for self-improvement. When you can turn a brain drain into a brain game, then you’ve won!
So, in closing, approach your social media with intention. Set a goal; why are you scrolling today? How are you going to make it a good experience—not just for yourself, but others? With a little bit of intent and a little bit of consideration, you can make your corner of the Internet a better place to be.