SOCIAL MEDIA IS A HUGE PART OF OUR LIVES. FOR BETTER AND WORSE. let's figure out what a healthy balance looks like.

Ah, the internet. An ever-available source of wisdom with endless information at your fingertips…and a frequent mindless time-suck. Especially when it comes to social media.

This may sound familiar: you’re at lunch with a friend and they get up to visit the restroom. Without even thinking, you grab your phone and start firing up apps, mindlessly jumping from TikTok to Instagram to Twitter – anything to pass those dreadful three minutes of solitude. What else could you do with yourself if left alone for all that time? Think? Reflect? Oh, the horror!

In the age of social media and smartphones, we’ve conditioned ourselves to turn to our phones in almost any moment of downtime. While the habit of “phone-checking” can pass the time and add some humor and lightness to our day, it can also distract us from something very important that we should also be checking on: ourselves.

It’s difficult to figure out how social media should fit into our lives, and no one really has an answer on the perfect way to use it. It connects and inspires us, but it can also feed into your anxiety, depression, and loneliness. And it’s impacting our mental health more than we realize.

Social media isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. So let's figure out what a healthy balance looks like, and how to use it in a way that betters your mental health instead of making you feel worse.

Here are a few different ways to work towards building a healthy relationship with social media:

1. Set a time-limit

How often have you opened up Instagram, and before you know it an hour has passed? To avoid that, make an agreement with yourself about how much time you can spend on social media each day. If you have an iPhone, things are even easier. In your settings, you can actually set a Screen Time limit for yourself. It can be difficult to set those boundaries, but the less time you spend on social media, the more positive the outcome.

2. Check-in with yourself

Before you even open up an app on your phone, take a quick survey of how you’re feeling. Are you hoping that social media will validate something you’re thinking, or are you trying to escape from your emotions? Recognize what your intention is, and make sure that it’s really the best thing for you at that moment.

3. Step away from it

If you check-in with yourself and realize that social media isn’t going to help with what you’re thinking or feeling, set your phone down and do something else. Go for a walk, stretch your body, make yourself a cup of tea...whatever it is, just engage your senses in something other than social media. Sometimes you just need to take a break from technology entirely. Try turning off your phone for a few hours. Think of it as a technology detox. Those hours can be a great reminder that you are more than what social media dictates and that there’s more to life.

4. Clear things out

There may be someone you follow whose posts make you feel less-than, or like a failure by comparison. Why invite those negative feelings into your life? Take some time to clear those things out. Organize your social media to include all of the people and things that make you smile, teach you something, match your interests, pique your curiosity, or builds a genuine connection – then unfollow the rest!

5. Find your purpose

This one is all about putting social media back into your own hands. It’s easy to get caught up in what other people comment and what other people post, but what are you putting onto the internet? Really consider the purpose behind everything that you post. Is it representing the things that you truly value, and does it help or hurt your mental health?

6. Remember the humanity behind it

At the end of the day, remember that behind everything on social media, there’s a person. It’s just another human that’s probably working through struggles of their own – even if their content suggests otherwise. Give yourself a quick reality-check when you start comparing yourself to others or you get sucked into the negative aspects of social media.

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Building a healthy relationship with your phone and social media can be difficult. But once you set some boundaries, things will get easier. It’s worth taking the time to develop that healthy relationship with social media – your mind will thank you.

6 Ways to Build a Healthy Relationship with Social Media