Over the span of my life, I have seen the beginnings and the rise of online social media, and it has been fascinating to watch. I made a Facebook account shortly after they allowed us normal people in who weren’t students at an Ivy League school, and since then I’ve experienced social media as a part of my everyday life.

But, all this online interaction doesn’t always help our mental health. Having thousands of interactions via a screen every day offers a powerful tool, which can benefit our mental health, or be its detriment. So, if we have a few guidelines for how we use social media, I actually believe it can improve your mental health and be a net positive in your life; here’s a few tips that I follow for myself that I hope help you too:

1. Recognize how different content makes you feel

Many companies and algorithms carefully construct the content you consume online; it rarely just falls to you by chance anymore. These companies design content to make you feel a certain way, especially so you keep scrolling or typing or sharing. So, if certain content leads to you feeling especially angry, scared, anxious, or sad, notice that and cut down on that content.

Don’t be afraid to unfollow someone if you feel worse after seeing their posts. Your steadfast faithfulness as a follower will not offer you any rewards, and most of the time, no one will even notice if you unfollow them. Most of the content you consume will be from people you know distantly or not at all, so let them go when they have a negative impact on you.

If you’re searching for content about who to follow, check out the pages I follow on my Instagram account. I only follow accounts which I endorse to provide true and uplifting content, so check them out!

2. Ask the question “How can I help others with my contributions?”

In the same way that others’ posts affect you, so do your posts affect others. What if you viewed your social media accounts as opportunities to uplift and encourage others? Now, you have some purpose in why you post, not for attention or approval, but to make the online world a little brighter place.

If that feels like a foreign concept, that’s because it is a foreign concept to most people. But if you can reframe how you think when sharing content online, you will shape yourself to be the type of person this world so desperately needs.

3. Set time limits

Social media has consumed more of my time than I’m proud of, because that is how it has been designed. There are no commercial breaks, there are no credits to signify that the showing is over, the content streams never stops running. So, if you don’t set a time limit on yourself, no one else will. If you struggle to follow the time limit you set for yourself, that demonstrates how badly you need to re-evaluate the place social media holds in your life.

None of these principles come easily to us, but they can pay dividends in your life if you work to live them out. The companies profiting from your social media usage do not care about your mental well-being, but if you intentionally choose how you use social media, you can make their platforms serve you.

I strongly encourage you to put these principles into practice, because the life you can have with a healthier mind and heart is worth it.

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