4 Mindful Things You Can Do For A Better Social Media Experience
Ditch the filters and delete editing apps
While it’s tempting to cover up a bad skin day or the signs of a sleepless night under your eyes, the more you reject your natural appearance, the more you’re going to resent it.
2. Hit ‘unfollow’
The models, the influencers, the actors - you don’t have to completely purge your feed but ask if you genuinely want to see what they post. In the process of my research, I spoke to several people who carried out an “unfollow spree” and saw it as a step forward in maturity. As teenagers, people were said to be less picky about who they followed. Getting older, they were more deliberate.
“I did not think that the people I interacted with had an affect on my mental health, and thought that following fitness influencers was an inspiration to eat healthier and exercise more,” one participant said, “Eventually I realised what a toll it was taking on my own body image, and chose to unfollow a few people whose posts I would've interacted with regularly. I hadn't realised what a toll it had taken before, but just from following people who looked more like me made my confidence grow significantly, and I was really surprised that such a simple thing made such a difference.”
3. iWeigh
When a post circulated in 2018 listing the weight of the Kardashians, Jameela Jamil responded with a post of her own, encouraging people to ‘weigh’ their worth beyond their body - listing character traits and accomplishments such as ‘got my dream job’. A year later, she campaigned against the very same family for flogging diet products that doctors had warned against. Always interesting, with an eclectic mix of famous guests (Reese Witherspoon, Jane Fonda et al.), ED survivor Jamil posits that the solution to the constant scrutiny and pressures of body image is not body positivity, but body neutrality. While it’s easier said than done, you’ll certainly come away caring a little bit less.
4. Set limits and actually stick to them.
Instagram has it as a built in feature and most phones now have ways of doing it too. You can set a reminder for when you’ve spent x amount of time on an app in a day. By setting a half an hour limit - and not clicking ‘OK’ and carrying on scrolling - your brain is rewiring social media as a fun hobby and not a constant stream of media you’re subdued to. For that half an hour, or how ever long you set it for, you’re seeing the top results for you and unconsciously miss the noise from long forgotten acquaintances.