Out of all of the media developments the internet has brought, social media might be the most controversial. The proverbial Pandora’s Box of communication, today everyone can have their chance to give their opinions. Social media is addictive; the clout from strangers can feel pretty incredible. If you want to use social media, though, it is easy to let it ‘become’ you.
Here are some useful tips to make sure that you can use social media without becoming one of the many pawns in the game.
Stop going on liking sprees
If you are someone who spends lots of time on social media, you might find yourself just liking comments over and over. That is not healthy. Instead, engage!
Comment on the post, and discuss something. You will find that it is better to give your view than simply just like the post. It can give you a bit of conversation with somebody, and it means you are actively engaging instead of just boosting another account.
Make use of time blocking
Thanks to tools like Leechblock, you can easily choose when and where you can access social media. This is incredibly useful as it can make sure that you are going to stop yourself from losing hours. Apps allow you to set times and also set time limits so you cannot spend more than X minutes per hour on that particular platform.
Use this to your advantage: it can help you to use social media without growing addicted.
Ban all push notifications
Get rid of notifications. If you log into the app or website equivalent you will get in-app/onsite notifications anyway. You do not need your phone to tell you when someone liked a post, or when a random commented. You will find out when you log in. This removes that anxiety of waiting around to try and work out if someone will comment on your post.
Just go about your life as normal and check in on social media pages as you go. Do not let push notifications consume your day, wait for responses.
Stop the echo chamber
While it is not a good idea to follow accounts that actively make you feel worse, do not use social media as a way to find consensus and agreement on everything. It can be good to have disparate opinions and diversity on your feed; this can stop the world from feeling so unified, and can make it easier to accept when something/someone goes against what your curated social media dashboard told you was going to happen.