Secure your mental health by being a savvy social media user

What social media does to you depends on your habits and how you use the medium. You can avoid many problems by being smart and savvy.

Social media often has to bear the blame for many mental and physical issues. It has been blamed for depression, anxiety, loneliness and also inactivity. A 2018 study at the University of Pennsylvania says that Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram may not be great for personal well-being. This is the first experimental study examining use of multiple platforms and it shows a causal link between time spent on these social media and increased depression and loneliness. The Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology published this study.

But is it really all that bad? Another study at Brigham Young University finds that the amount of time spent on social media is not directly increasing anxiety or depression in teenagers. Computers in Human Behavior published this study. So, from these two conflicting results of two separate studies, we can come to the conclusion that what social media does to you depends on your habits and how you use the medium.

Here, we give a few tips to maintain good social media habits or digital hygiene.

Avoid toxic accounts

Once you start on social media, you will notice that some accounts post a lot of negative things. If it bothers you, stop following these accounts. This will help you to keep away anxiety and depression.

Don't compete with other accounts

If you want to maintain healthy relationships with social media, you need to let go of competition. So, what if someone else has more followers than you? Good for them. You must be happy with whoever is following you. Just because you have less likes or followers, it does not mean that people like you less.

Don't keep all notifications on

If you keep the notification button of all your social media accounts on at all time, it will interfere with your daily life. You may be in a meeting or at lunch with your family when your phone will suddenly ping. This can disturb whatever you are doing. So keep the notification off during the day or when you are busy with other things.

Don't lose yourself in the virtual world

Sometimes, some people get so busy in social media that they neglect their work and responsibilities. Avoid this at all costs. This can affect your health, career and relationships.