5 tips to enjoy social media more
Tip 1: Remember that everyone’s social media is different.
We create the Internet and Social Media we experience. Each of us curates to some extent the content we are exposed to. Through the people and companies we follow, we carefully curate our feeds on social media. We tailor each social media to suit our needs and interests. If someone you follow begins posting things you consider to be ‘idiotic’ you can quite easily unfollow or block them to remove them from your slice of the Internet. These conscious decisions as well as targeted, personalised, advertising make everyone’s experience of the Internet and social media unique to them.
Tip 2: Maybe avoid the comments if you’re in a particularly anti-idiot mood.
Now, of course, even with the carefully chosen accounts and content you can never escape the idiotic comments left on the content you have selected to put on your feed. Which I feel may be the source of the stereotype that social media is for idiots. It’s the kind of thoughtless and seemingly meaningless comments that are all so easy to type and click send on — things that don’t appear to add any value at all to the original post. Comments like OMG, LOL, or merely commenting negatively on someone’s appearance for no reason other than to cause hurt. Negative or idiotic comments are often what stops people feeling like they can engage with each other as an online community without receiving a snarky unnecessary reply from a keyboard warrior. It’s sad, but its the truth.
Tip 3: Fill your social media with positivity.
As I said, everyone curates what they want to see on the Internet. The people I follow, for the most part, are positive, creative and inspirational. When the people I follow talk about something political or important to them I find they are respectful of people’s views and are open for discussion and for their opinions to be challenged. I suppose I would have to be naive not to acknowledge that the reason I am not upset with the politics I see on my feed is because I share the same views as them; therefore, their posts fit my confirmation bias. While I do still get enraged by what I see on social media, mainly twitter, from time to time, it is usually accompanied by someone disagreeing with it. I feel the space I have created for myself on the Internet is mostly positive. If you fill your feed with people and things you love as well as positive people, particularly those that promote body positivity and self-love, you will almost certainly better enjoy your time on social media.
Tip 4: Try not to scroll aimlessly.
I will admit that I do have some unhealthy habits when it comes to social media. I seek the satisfaction of reaching the end of my feed and feeling all caught up, often liking posts for the sake of keeping track of what I’ve seen. However, overall I think that my relationship with social media is mainly positive. I am personally pleased with my little slice of the Internet, that I have carefully crafted to fit my interests. It often boosts my mood to spend some time in my little Internet bubble. I actually find that these days, I follow so many people it’s impossible to reach the end of my feed — being so busy adult-ing and student-ing. I’m slowly learning to ignore the nagging feeling that I’m missing out when I don’t check social media.
Tip 5: Cleanse your feed.
Cleanse your timeline of anything that is annoying you — like that one page you followed because you thought they posted good memes — but in actual fact everything they’ve posted in the last couple of weeks you haven’t found amusing in the slightest. Unfollow them. If you find yourself missing it, you can always re-follow, it’s not the end of the world. De-clutter your social media of anything you no longer enjoy, that way when you do spend time on social media you enjoy and are interested in everything you see, rather than endlessly scrolling to find something worth paying attention to. Also as a bonus the fewer accounts you follow, the more likely you are to get that satisfaction of reaching the end of your feed that you crave (if you’re anything like me).
In conclusion…
Social media may be full of idiots, in the comments at least, but you can customise it to fit you. I have found a significant number of things I love and enjoy through social media. I wouldn’t have been exposed to so much content without social media, things like international media in different languages that are not played in the media here, until very recently and still minimally. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. For this reason, I love social media.
