Detoxing my social media feed
Every now and then you gotta go through your social media and do a bit of a cleanse. I'm very aware of who I have around me in my real life and I think it's important to be aware of what content you consume of a regular basis as well. Most of the time we scroll through social media while we're at home and it can affect your mood depending on what you are taking in.
It's important to take into account about every six months who you follow, what music you listen to, what posts you engage with. All these things can subconsciously affect your mental health if you don't take time tackle it. We all have heard of people doing a "social media cleanse" where we take a break from social media but how about also cleaning up our feed as well.
Before the new year started - I went through my instagram and twitter to declutter if you will anything that I didn't think was serving me or providing a positive experience for me. Let's talk about three ways you can declutter your social media feed to provide a healthier social media experience for yourself on a daily basis.
Unfollow, Unfollow, Unfollow
I remember the first time I made a myspace - I was so excited to create my background and choose what music I would add to my page. However, there was a part of myspace that I think impacts even how we treat social media til this day. On myspace you had your "friends" but then you had your top 8 friends that would show up on your actual page. People would take that stuff so seriously and if you removed them/unfollowed them it was a big deal. That's kind of how people treat social media these days. You get out of a relationship and the first thing they do is unfollow the person or they see who they are now following. Sometimes you may continue to follow someone just because you don't want to come off "mean" or make the other person feel as if you don't actually want to be their friend.
I definitely let this mindset go a long time ago. In reality, we as humans, should not have this much access to everyones lives. Before social media, you would call who you wanted to call and catch up. Now with just a click of a button you can see where someone is, who they're with, what they're doing at all times. Naturally that just can't be healthy especially if the people you are following are not aligned with you. When I am doing my cleanse I go through all my followers and do a purge. Truth be told, they probably won't even notice you did and that tells you all you need to know.
Muting is the cool cousin to blocking
The mute button is similar to DND for your Iphone
Maybe you don't necessarily want to cut someone off right away - maybe you just need a break from them for a bit. I think muting is a step in the right direction without completely unfollowing someone. I use this when there's a topic I don't want to see anymore or maybe there's a group of people that I want a break from seeing. That way they can still keep up with me and our social connect is still intact. Whenever I am ready I can go back anytime and unmute and they will never know. It's almost like creating boundaries for yourself and not having to have a full conversation about it in that moment. However, I would ask myself prior to muting them: if you feel the need to mute them is it temporary or do you really need to be disconnected from this person for good? I've some people who transitioned from the mute list to the unfollow list and that's where they needed to stay.
Find some new content
Social media can be great for more than just following friends. It can be good for consuming healthy and mindful content as well. I follow pages like Tabitha Brown for positive content, Alex Elle for word affirmations and content on healing, Signedblake for all things home content (she's also a Spelman sister so shoutout to her), and Adrienne Bailon for her fashion and family content. Take the time to find out what you're looking for and find content creators who speak to that. It makes such a huge difference in your mental health and how you feel on constant basis.