Hello Beautiful Humans,
Today, I want to address social media.
Social media is great! It allows us to connect with people and share our lives; but it can also become damaging at times. Social media can easily consume us and take up hours in our day. With the new screen time feature rolling out on the iPhone update, I am shocked by the amount of time I waste on social media.
Given, I have a lot of free time right now, but it is still not an excuse to waste so much time on it. Social media can be a great tool for businesses, entrepreneurs and influencers. However, It becomes ‘dangerous’ when overused or held to a higher importance than our real lives. It’s easy to begin scrolling through your feed and quickly discover an hour has passed.
I love Instagram and I don’t think I need to stop using it all together, but I think in moderation would be better for my mental health.
I wanted to write this post today not to tell you how to live your life or because I am giving up social media, but to make a point that social media is not as important as we make it at times. In my generation, and younger, we allow social media to dictate our lives. Whether we accept that fact or not, we are influenced by social media in our daily lives.
I decided to take a small break from posting and sharing on social media for a few days last week, and I found it to be really refreshing.
I’ll be honest, it was tough to stay off and not be tempted to share a post. After the few days off though, I found it difficult to begin posting to my story again or “remember” to post. I kind of just forgot. Overall, it made me realize how unimportant sharing ‘everything’ is and also, how many people don’t really care. No one noticed my break, which is totally okay but proves my point.
We can become so consumed in content and start to think it’s more important than our real lives. We start to feel pressure to post and compare ourselves to others. It’s so easy to do this; social media is a trap for major FOMO and we don’t even know it at times. I know when I scroll through social media, I can start to feel discouraged or guilty.
Thoughts that often cross my mind:
- “I should work out more so I look like this chick.”
- “Wow, they’re in *fancy destination* and I’m stuck here”
- “She’s so pretty, I wish I looked like that”
- “Aww, they have a perfect relationship”
- “I wish I could travel more”
- The list goes on…
I know I am not the only one guilty of these thoughts! That’s because social media tends to highlight the best moments and the best shots (out of 100 pics), and we think this is representative of a persons life. There is so much more below the surface that we never see. As someone who is in a transition point of my life, social media drives me nuts at times and just leaves me feeling anxious about my own life. I feel like I’m not doing enough and I’m not where I’m supposed to be.
Take a Break.
Bringing my point back around, I think social media is a wonderful tool and I love it. I don’t see myself giving it up completely but I do see the potential problems with it. It’s important to become aware of these social media traps and learn to utilize it more effectively and less as a time filler. It’s okay to take a few days off, or even just time off during the day. Social media can drain our self-esteem and leave us feeling down on ourselves.
Your worth is not measured by likes or follows. Posting and not getting 100+ likes is okay, if you’re posting with positive intentions and purpose. No one can determine your purpose but you. Don’t post just to “keep up” with everyone else.
If you are building a business or influencer account, likes and followers do technically matter but just don’t lose your sense of purpose in that. Authentic content goes a lot further than forced content. You want to authentically reach your audience and build off of that. My best tip to any social media guru like myself is to share your REAL life, not perfectly primped photos. Sure, I appreciate an aesthetic picture as much as any other millennial, but be aesthetically authentic.
Lastly, if you do struggle with mental illness, social media is dangerous. It can be a trigger for some. If this is you, it’s okay to remove yourself from certain platforms or monitor your time on them. Your mental health is much more important and you should never let likes or follows dictate your life. Unfollow any accounts that feel triggering to you or that just give bad energy. I tend to follow poetry accounts, friends and travel accounts; these typically make me feel good. If you must, purge your following list and minimize it to only those accounts that make you feel good and positive.
My Tips for Social Media + Mental Health
- Take breaks, often!
- Unfollow accounts that are triggering or negative vibes
- Share authentic content – post for yourself!
- Follow positive accounts that share mental health tips and positive quotes
Thank you for reading PYM blog today! I am sorry for my inconsistency in content but my life feels pretty inconsistent right now, so this is an honest insight of that. Until my next inspiration comes…
xo, Lyss
I love every post! You inspire me! I feel you queen! I feel this way! Recently . I decided to keep myself out of social media this year because I’ve had some struggles and i’ve Felt anxious, stressed… i choose to step back and refocus. One of my passion is writing and i love it how you do it girl! I hope someday I share my inspirational or experiences with others and help!
Thank you so much for your kindness. I’m so happy you could connect with my writing and took the time to read through my posts. Sometimes you just have to be vulnerable and share your story, you never know who may be going through it too.