How to Have a Mentally Healthy Online Presence?

How to Have a Mentally Healthy Online Presence? 7 Tips to Protect Yourself from Toxic Social Media

December 22, 2023
Community and Support, Lifestyle and Wellness
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Like it or not, social media is an important part of our lives. While it is a source of entertainment and relaxation for many, it is also a cause of mental strain and depression for others. In this blog, we will tell you how you can have a mentally healthy online presence and protect yourself from the toxic side of social media

Social media is a great tool to stay connected with your friends and stay up-to-date with the latest trends. However, social media can turn ugly pretty quickly. There is a dark side to social media that can impact your mental health and push you to a deep end.

As we move our relationships online, social media can trigger feelings of loneliness and isolation. Overconsumption of social media can also be extremely counterproductive. You might not even realize it and spend hours scrolling through pictures of celebrities who are more popular, attractive, and wealthier than you. This can trigger a lot of negative emotions like depression, jealousy, and low self-esteem. Not to mention online trolls who spread hate on social media for their own warped pleasure.

However, on the flip side of the coin, social media is also essential for entertainment and relaxation. In fact, a lot of people also advocate for mental well-being on social media.

If you know how to filter out negative and toxic posts, you can actually use social media for your benefit. Here are 7 tips that will help you build a healthy online presence:

1. Avoid Toxic Content Online Presence

There are a lot of people and organizations on social media that trade on anger, controversy, and suspicion. If you don’t want the negative comments and opinions to get to you, simply avoid the swamp. Stay from sites and pages that feed on rumors, trolls, and misogynistic ideas.

These sites and pages are very easy to detect. If you are coming away from a site feeling anxious and infuriated, it’s a clear sign that you need to stay away from it.

2. Be Active

If you only use social media passively by browsing through videos and consuming other people’s posts, chances are that you will feel worse than people who are actively participating and posting their pictures. Make social media a place where you can interact with people and spread positive messages.

If you only watch other people going out, having fun, and reaching milestones, you are bound to feel envious at some point. To make sure that doesn’t happen, surround yourself with positive energy and actively take part on the platform. And don’t compare it to what other people are posting online, it’s not a competition. You post for your happiness and pleasure.

3. Remove People

Over time, you add a lot of people to your friend list who are not even a part of your life a few years later. If you know that someone doesn’t have positive intentions for you, remove them from your socials. Keep your friend list short and limited to people who you truly know and like.

4. Choose What You Want to See

If you notice that recently your social media has been showing you a lot of toxic content, just go to your following list and remove accounts whose content you no longer want to see. Almost all social media sites give you complete control over what you want on your feed. Hide content that you think can affect your mental health and add positive pages to your following list.

5. Prioritize Human Interaction

Make sure that you are not too engrossed in the social media world that you ignore people in real life. Always prioritize real-world connections and hangouts over mindless scrolling through social media.

Trust us, there is nothing better than sitting with your favorite people over a cup of coffee. You will forget all the problems floating around you –at least for a few hours. So get out of your house and your mobile screens whenever you get the time.

6. Take Breaks

When you start feeling like you have consumed a lot of social media and start falling down a 10 am internet rabbit hole, put your phone down and take a break. If you have nothing else to do, learn a hobby. Try painting, cooking your favorite meal, or reading a book.

Using a lot of social media means that you will become an easy prey to advertisement and online marketing. Brands will fuel your insecurities and search engines will show you products that you might want to buy. As a result, your 10-minute social media session will turn into 45 minutes of scrolling through online shopping platforms and celebrity gossip channels. So make sure that you track your social media usage. Every night, check how many hours you have spent on each platform during the day to be aware and keep your social media addiction in check.

7. Don’t Do Everything for Views

To maintain a healthy online presence, you need to keep a crisp line between reel and reality. Don’t replace your social media with real life. Once people start gaining followers on social media, they become hungrier and greedier. They can do anything to get some more views.

It is essential to take part and share your life on social media with people you love, but don’t take it too far. Make sure that you are still being you on social media. Be authentic on social media and try to be honest with your followers. Posting lavish hotels and made-up luxurious lives will only make other people self-conscious and envious. Create a presence that can help people, spread positivity, and guide them through different problems in their lives.

While some people don’t agree, it is possible to create a healthy online presence –only if you follow these tips and are mindful of what content you are consuming. If you are a parent, put parental control on your devices and monitor what your kids are watching.

Learn more: Beyond Fight or Flight –The Four F’s of Trauma Response