By Hannah Parton, Content Team Contributor

Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing ways in which social media can help for the better. It creates a feeling of community, support and connects the world together. Having said that, I feel it’s a double edged sword. Some great things come from using it, along with some not so great things. One of those not so great things is something we come to realise in recent years – the correlation between social media and anxiety.

I spend at least a couple of hours on social media everyday, and for the most part, I do enjoy it. Having said this, I often find myself thinking things like, ‘Is social media making me feel anxious?’, ‘How has this post made me feel?’, ‘Is this content I’m consuming, doing more harm than good?’. Over time, I’ve noticed how this makes me feel quite anxious about how social media is impacting me negatively.

It’s hard not to get caught up in the negative emotions connected to social media, when the reasons for using social media should be positive. Therefore, I’ve put together 3 things that I try to do to reduce the impact social media has on my anxiety.

Take Breaks:

Nowadays, we often feel like we have to check our phones, to keep up-to-date with the world. This can create an unhealthy connection when using social platforms. We feel forced to check the latest posts and news. This isn’t healthy or good for us. It makes us feel uneasy and can create an anxious attachment to social media and constantly checking our phones.

To help combat this, one thing I try to implement into my life is taking regular screen breaks. For example, in the morning, I don’t check social media until I’ve finished getting ready for work. It can be so easy to check our phones first thing, but by not checking my phone, I don’t feel as anxious in the morning and can just focus on getting ready for the day – with little distractions.

Another idea is that my partner and I, have no phones at the table during mealtimes. It gives us that break away from the screen and brings us back to the present moment. We have a much more meaningful meal, spending time together, and neither of us are focused on what’s happening elsewhere. 

This concept may seem scary and impossible to do at first, but trust me, it’s a really beneficial way of having a break from news, posts or content that can make us feel negative and anxious.

Select the Content You Want to See:

Anything and everything is on social media in one way or another. Sometimes things can pop up on our feeds that we don’t want to see. It could be something that upsets us, something that we’re not interested in, or something that can be really triggering to us. 

It’s super important to recognise the themes and content that impacts us negatively. Therefore, one thing I want to try to reduce this from occurring when I’m scrolling on social media, is by muting or blocking things from my feed. Whether it’s a person, page or topic that causes anxiety, worry or upset, I can try to reduce seeing it by doing this. 

There’s No Need to Rush:

In the entirety of human existence, we’re the only generations that are expected to be present or accessible 24/7, in one way or another. More often than not, nowadays it’s become normalised to have to respond to every text, comment or thing we see on social media, as soon as we see it. If not, we’ve been conditioned to feel guilty or rude if we don’t respond straight away. 

In my opinion, I think this is bonkers. We’ve all got so many other things going on in our lives, that social media should not be anywhere near the top of our list of priorities – unless it’s part of your job aha. 

We need to normalise not feeling forced to interact and respond to things on social media all day, everyday day. It isn’t healthy to focus on anything in life that much. If it’s important or necessary to respond to something, then that is different. But, dropping everything and making sure to like pictures on Instagram immediately is not something you should feel guilty for if you don’t do it. 

My tip here is, if you don’t feel ready or want to respond to something straight away, then don’t. You don’t have to. Take your time and do it when you’re ready.

I really hope these tips can help in one way or another, to reduce feeling anxious around using social media and to help create a healthy relationship with it. Give these ideas a go and see if they can help! 🙂

All the best,

Hannah Parton