Right now we’re living through an unprecedented experience and whilst social media can be a real negative, it also has potential to keep us sane in tricky times. Honestly, I have to agree with a lot of the negativity around it. A vast amount of my day job involves spending time online and the habit (addiction?) is a hard one to break. Especially in times where many of us are spending more time at home and out of our normal busy-busy routines. It’s all too easy to turn to the little windows on the world that are our phones.
Over the years I’ve been both a blogger and a social media consultant, I have started to recognise a few ways I can make social media a more positive place for me and wanted to share these tips with you. I actually drafted this post well before we got into the thick of the Coronavirus challenges. But now seems as good a time as any to share them, and please consider these as coming from someone who doesn’t really have the option to ‘just delete’ accounts. Here are some ways to manage things when it can get a bit too negative.
A social media clear out is a positive thing to do. Updating who you ‘allow’ into your space and removing those who make you grumble. You don’t really need to justify your reasons for why they make you grumble, but just stop allowing them to take up any room in your feeds. Of course there are some ‘politics’ of the whole unfollow thing. In this case, there’s the option to mute. Which means you can stay following but don’t have to see what they post. So no awkward ‘why did you unfriend’ chats necessary, but you can still clear out that little bit of negativity from your feeds.
If you are comfortable unfollowing people then that’s fine to do too. No matter who they are or how you know them – you don’t really ‘owe’ anyone a follow. For example, my own brother unfollowed my account – because honestly, beauty posts aren’t his thing! Can’t really blame him so, no offence taken (ok, I’m still slightly bitter… but I get it and it’s fine…honestly, it’s FINE). I joke, but it’s just an example of how you really don’t have to follow anyone. If for some reason you unfollow someone and they do ask, just reply honestly and say you totally respect what they do but it doesn’t fit your current interests and wanted to refresh what you see online a little. OR you could tell them you’re sick of endless affiliate links & selfies. Whatever floats your boat.
The same advice follows at the current time when anyone and everyone has an opinion or wants to share something about the latest Coronavirus news. Whoever they are, if you feel their reactions aren’t something that are helpful to you in keeping calm then feel free to mute or unfollow as you need. If you mute, you can always un-mute as things do calm down in future should you wish.
It is no doubt a tricky thing to do when your job is unavoidably linked to being online. But just because I work online does not mean I need to scroll instagram mindlessly at night. OF COURSE I am guilty of this and I know I still spend more time than I should just scrolling and reading stuff that doesn’t really ‘need’ to take up my time. One of the best things I did was largely reclaim my weekends and I don’t tend to post myself over the weekend all that often. Of course I’ll still browse from time to time but my online time drops significantly Saturday/Sunday and it definitely helps.
Of course if you’re a community manager then you may need to cover evenings/weekends and do ‘out of hours’ (when I say this I mean ‘usual office hours’ monitoring. But if you do make sure you allow windows where you are ‘off’ and split with a team or make it clear to a client that you can’t monitor 24/7. Set a switch off time ahead of going to bed or decide that you won’t be online for weekends. Whatever it is that works for you.
One of the best things I’ve done amid the Coronavirus crisis is limit the time I can spend on certain apps (Twitter mainly). I have time limited to 15 minutes and I felt the difference within days. I can still have a quick check and scroll, but I don’t have the constant need to feed my brain with new news.
I know, I said I wasn’t going to suggest a delete it all approach but I have to include this because it really is a positive thing to do. Last June I took a week ‘off’ where I was still working but I did delete Instagram from my phone and you know what, the clear headspace I gained was incredible. I can back more interested, clearer on what I wanted to do and less weighed down my comparison. Even if just for a few days, I really do recommend giving yourself the time to really step back if social media is starting to get you down. Even if it is your job, everyone needs to take a break.
Right now I am going against my own advice and have my main attention-draining apps on my front screen. One thing I did after I did take a break was move Instagram in particular to the back page. So it wasn’t there to be mindlessly clicked on, it took that couple of seconds more effort to open and this alone has reduced the time I take browsing.
Social media can be a pretty isolated space. Ultimately we’re all stuck behind a screen reading and reacting to stuff alone. A quick vent on a tweet or a chatty stories post can only go so far where spending time face to face talking to a friend about things can go a long way. As much as I love working for myself I really do thrive off time with other people and it makes a world of difference to how I feel. So whenever I’m feeling less positive, I try and get some time with people who always leave me feeling good. Last month a sushi date with my amazing friend Zoe left me feeling good for the rest of the week. A dinner catch up with my London girls just helps me put the world to rights. Which is a tough reality right now as I know these things aren’t options. But the positive of the current world situation is that my WhatsApp group has been on fire with support and humour to help us get through. I sincerely hope anyone reading this has a similar support around you. My friends and I are planning a Skype ‘date’ for Friday where we can ‘see’ each other, chat and catch up. No, it’s not the same but we do what we can to get through.
It might be social media online, but I really feel like nothing can make a difference to how positive you feel like talking to those you care about. Right now it’s tricky to encourage that real in-person interaction that’s so important to us as humans. But make the most of what you can. Pick up the phone, message your friends and speak about how you’re feeling. Look after yourself and hopefully we can find a new found type of community spirit as a positive to take away from a difficult period.
Oh and as a little bonus, a few lovely accounts that are worth filling your feeds with:
Taking a break is super helpful! Thanks for sharing these tips.
Love this post, and what an amazing time to share it. I’ve noticed so many more people are using social media now more than ever. It’s the time when they definitely need to only be following people who make them feel good. Definitely agree with you on setting boundaries too, sometimes it’s easy to get so wrapped up into scrolling!
jodiemelissa.com
So easily done, especially when in times like this it’s like you NEED to find some new-news to keep yourself updated. But it’s made such a huge difference to me to have those boundaries in place so hope it helps for others.