Group Gordon’s Rhani Franklin offers tips to keep your use of social media healthy during the coronavirus pandemic.
With everyone I know and love ordered to stay at home for the foreseeable future, I’ve found myself relying on social media to keep in touch with family and friends – and I’m not the only one. Unfortunately, though, as someone who spends a good amount of the workday scrolling Twitter for the latest news and angles for clients, having to switch between using social media for entertainment and using it to stay informed has proven especially difficult.
While it’s crucial to stay up-to-date at a time like this, it’s also important to stay connected with friends and family, both of which can be done on social media. Here are some tips for using social media in a healthy way:
Filter Your Feed
Many social media platforms (ex. Twitter, Facebook) allow you to filter terms and hashtags that you don’t want to see. This can help to eliminate unwelcome posts on your feed – including TV show spoilers – and cut down on any extra noise.
Unfriend, Unfollow, Unwind
Spring cleaning isn’t just for home. Now’s a good time to delete or mute that toxic person or phony news outlet that gives you grief every time you log on. Try to limit your Facebook friends and people you follow on other channels to close friends, factual news, and things you find genuinely interesting. (And keep the hate-following to a minimum).
Make a List
Twitter timelines don’t have to be chaotic. A useful way to keep your Twitter feed organized, especially if you use the same account for work and leisure, is to make use of lists. Twitter lists allow you to categorize accounts into separate timelines so that you can declutter your main feed and tune in and out of certain accounts whenever you want.
Follow Your Hobbies
Follow accounts that post about your hobbies – or accounts that can teach you new ones. I enjoy cross-stitching, so I follow several fellow stitchers on Instagram and Pinterest for tips and inspiration. There are many talented cooks, yogis, powerlifters, calligraphers, bodega cat enthusiasts, and hobbyists across all platforms that can teach you a thing or two about whatever you’re interested in. Learning a new hobby is also a great way to de-stress in a healthy way.
Get up and Move
Staying active while stuck at home is essential, and what better way to get up and move than by learning a new dance? Out with the Macarena and in with the Renegade and Savage – TikTok dances are the next big thing. While many of these dances are pretty tricky to learn, trying them out for yourself and seeing others’ moves is a fun way to stay active indoors.
@bronny@bryce23james♬ Something New feat. Ty Dolla $ign – Wiz Khalifa
Your social media accounts are yours to use however you’d like, but engaging in ways that are healthy and enjoyable to you is a useful way to power through these difficult times.
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