Social Media consumption
I'm a big believer in intentions so I want to set my intention from the very beginning. My goal here is to help you develop some guidelines about specifically how you want to consume social media and things to be aware of in terms of sources that you absorb and expose yourself to.
Things to consider before engaging in social media:
What's your goal?
Understanding what you're trying to do can be really helpful in monitoring your social media use. Is your goal to kill time? build community? make money? deep dive into fan theories about a favorite show? etc. Knowing what you want to do can help ring an internal alert as to when you have strayed away from that.
Could this affect what I am currently doing or what I need to do?
Connected to the purpose, but still a separate consideration is what needs to happen next in the flow of your life. Are you about to meet up with friends? getting ready for bed? spending time with family.
Things to consider while navigating social media:
Social media sites and content creators have motivations and goals. Those goals may be beneficial or harmful to you or what you need to get done on any given day
Content creators and social media sites are rewarded for engagement.
It is important to remember that the impact of your mental and emotional health is most immediately felt by you. It can also impact people within your circle. While some content creators take great care and consideration in their words, all content creators are rewarded for engagement. Even with that care and consideration of well meaning content creators they don’t know you personally and therefore there will always be a difference in level and type of connection between creators and their audience.
How do you feel after?
How you feel is an important data point in deciding how helpful your social media use at any given moment in time. Often client’s share a shift in mood and mindset after a certain amount time on social media. In my experience, short periods tend to be more positive and longer periods more negative (whether that is toward self or the world in general).
