Setting yourself boundaries is important for any healthy functioning relationship, not forgetting our relationship with social media but that’s definitely easier said than done, when one things we need a break from i permanently attached to our palms.
Online and offline world very often becomes blurred, which can leave us feeling disproportionately discounted from our reality. So the most obvious question is ‘how do we find a way to navigate social media in a way that serves you?’.
In this blog post i will be discussing how setting boundaries online can protect our mental health and allow social media to have a positive influence on our lives.
1 Take ownership of your feed
In order to take control of the content that your consuming, you first have to take control of who you’re following. Remember, you feed is your space and if something doesn’t contribute to your life in a positive way or make you feel good, use that powerful buttons mute or unfollow to preserve your happiness. It’s simple, if it doesn’t bring you any joy then block it out. Treat you social media profile as you would do with your home and don’t be afraid to ask people to leave if they cross the line.
2 Check in with yourself
Have you recently asked yourself what you’re looking to get out of this platform? Is it to stay in touch with friends, network with likeminded professionals or to find entertaining content? It’s very easy to find yourself fall into a trap of mindless scrolling before bed or the first thing in the morning and in doing so, we quickly lose sight of the purpose and intention of looking at the content in the first place.
3 Set app limits and downtime
If the though of going completely phone free for entire day doesn’t sit well or is unrealistic, utilise your your phone settings to help establish some practical boundaries and hold yourself accountable.
Go to settings > Screen Time > Down Time and App Limits to kept you social media consumption in check and to remind you when you’re meant to be switching off.
4 Remember not everything needs to be shared
To maintain a healthy relationship with social media is just as important to create boundaries for yourself as it is about creating boundaries with others. Not every experience you encounter has to be public-facing and part of practicing self-care online is holding back something of yourself. Allow yourself to let go of the pressure to share everything on the internet.
5 Disable push notifications
Being constantly distracted by notifications on your home screen can trigger anxiety and stress. Set aside a time slot to check-in and reply to messages as well as allow yourself to be ‘unavailable’, even if it;s only for an hour a day. Remember, you don’t have reply to every notification immediately.
6 Stop comparing
Do you feel yourself falling into the comparison trap, try telling yourself that social media for the most part, a highlight reel – most people use it to project an ideal life, not a whole life. A picture is just a moment and it almost never tells the whole story.
