Social media, it seems, is the great equalizer. Everyone can sign up for free and post whatever they want. Those who have more money could post about luxuries, but it doesn’t follow that it’s just rich people who can post those kinds of things. There have even been experiments where people tried to fake vacations and wealth to see its effect on their social media.
Given this, it’s hard to eliminate social media from anyone’s life. It takes conscious effort to be aware of your app usage and how they affect your emotions.
Limiting Social Media’s Role in Your Life
You could be an entrepreneur or a consumer; it doesn’t matter. You use social media when connecting with other people and prospective clients. You even use it when you decide on selling a business. In Utah, it’s impossible to keep a business running if you’re not active on social media because people will check your activity and responsiveness as a gauge of how effective your brand is. This doesn’t mean you should be guarding your account 24/7, of course. Many have learned that they can outsource social media management so that the accounts are still active even while they sleep. Doing this means you could lessen your own use of social media without compromising your own brand.
Using Social Media for Validation
Social media can be something you use to update friends and family about what’s going on in your life. However, it can quickly turn into an unhealthy obsession when you keep a close watch on the number of likes and comments your posts receive. It’s not the process of getting connected that’s important for you; it’s the validation you get from each post. If you have ever deleted a post because it didn’t “do well,” you know there’s a problem. It’s different when you’re working on a and you want the ad to do well. There are metrics you can use to measure engagement, and you know that it’s for work. What happens to most people is social media becomes their source of validation, and without it, they don’t feel appreciated and happy.
Conscious Management of Social Media Use
Even if you are a busy owner who needs to connect with prospective buyers of your company or you are an influencer who makes a living by being on social media, it is important that you are managing your use of apps properly. Many have already talked about going on a social media cleanse, and it sounds like a good idea–if it will not affect your living. However, if removing social media from your phone is not an option, you can work on your behavior towards your phone in general. It’s not surprising that you always feel the itch to check your phone every few minutes even when you’re conversing with someone in person. Put your phone face down on the table or better yet, put it away so that you can have an actual conversation. If you actively change the way you interact with social media, you can use it for what it’s intended: a way to share your day’s highlights just because you want to.
Social media seems important in your life, but it doesn’t have to be everything. Know when to put your phone down to give way for real conversations.
