You can’t deny the fact that 90% of the time, we are spending most of our time nose deep glued to our smartphones, scrolling through social media. We can spend endless hours looking at social updates, stalking someone you admire (don’t lie – I know you’ve done it at least once!), and uploading your stories on Instagram. 

Though social media tends to get a bad rep for being toxic or causing certain restraints in relationships, it doesn’t have to be that way. Social media can actually be a good thing if you use it in the right way. 

Social Media doesn’t have to be toxic – Here are several healthy habits for using social media:

1. Choose the right people to follow 

Have you ever scrolled through Instagram and immediately felt a negative vibe? If you are constantly seeing images, videos and captions of people spreading negativity, you are bound to be influenced by their negativity as well. 

Follow those who leave you feeling inspired, motivated, and all-around positive. If you’re seeing positive affirmations every day, you’ll automatically feel content and at peace with yourself. 

When you are suffering from anxiety or depression, you tend to get influenced easily, especially during vulnerable times. All the more reason for you to NOT follow those accounts that could trigger your negative thoughts and emotions. Not to mention, sometimes social media causes an increase in depression too.

Look out for accounts that could help you with those issues instead of accounts that could be a trigger.

2. Ditch the comparison, get inspired instead

Instead of comparing your life with all these people on social media, you could use their posts and updates as inspiration. Stop comparing your own life with other people’s life. If somebody shared a successful job offer they’ve gotten, don’t be envious of their success. Take it as a motivation to keep working hard to get the job you’ve always wanted!

Create your own success, rather than feeling jealous of other people’s success. As Bill Gates mentioned, “Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world, if you do so, you are insulting yourself”. 

3. Schedule some downtime away from social media

Turn off those notifications, and spend some time away from social media. You don’t have to always be scrolling through Instagram or Twitter while you’re out and about with your family or friends.

You won’t realize how free you’ll be once you take a break from social media. You tend to realize that you have more time to complete certain tasks, prevent procrastination and you can even have real, actual conversations with your loved ones!

4. Don’t get too caught up in the “virtual world”

You should know this by now – not everything shown on social media is real. You could be seeing a happy couple in a picture, but behind the scenes, they fight like cats and dogs, and maybe one of them is abusive or toxic. 

Everything is filtered on social media. We only post the best versions of our lives for the whole world to see. We don’t show the bad stuff to maintain our image or reputation. Once you find yourself wishing that your boyfriend would’ve given you that new iPhone as a gift, be grateful for what you currently have. Gratitude will keep you happy and content, you won’t even bother feeling bitter or frustrated, or wonder about the things you can’t have.

Social media will only be toxic and unhealthy if you allow it to be. When you take control of how you want your social media circle to be, you’ll view social media in a much better light. You can either choose to drown yourself in negativity or create a positive bubble that encourages and inspires everyone around you.