Social media can be an awesome thing. It can also be a source of extreme stress. Studies of shown that social media used in excess can actually decreased self-esteem. Teenagers are often experiencing cyber bullying on various social media sites. They’re also dangers that kids run into with strangers being able to message them on different forums. As adults we can delete or ignore these messages the kids can have trouble differentiating between troll-ish annoyances and taking things personally. Below are three healthy things you can do to keep your sanity in social media interactions.

1. Unfollow – Family member’s and some friends feeds consistently have negative posts and whining about life, the universe, etc. I don’t necessarily want to unfriend these people because I enjoy keeping up with them occasionally. For these folks I recommend unfollowing. Then if you want to catch up, go to their wall and peruse the pictures, stay away from those negative posts.

2. Unfriend – So many of us, myself included, still have FB ‘friends’ that we have not seen in years. I joined back in 2005 and still have people on from back then. This is true for other social media sites as well. If these people are posting negatively and it begins affecting you when reading their posts, take the leap and unfriend them.

3. Don’t read/respond – I generally apply the TLDR (too long, didn’t read) rule when the first sentence of a post is either a disclaimer or clearly about to be a rant. Getting sucked into the comments of a thread can be addictive, wanting to make sure we get our two cents in and defend our point of view. The reality is, people are not going to change their minds based on a social media argument. The healthiest thing for us may be to just keep scrolling.
Following these few simple steps can improve your outlook on social media. While, yes, the super positive posts are often a facade on otherwise normal hectic lives. These posts can lead to jealousy and feelings of inadequacy. However, social media is a great way keeping up with family and friends, especially far away ones. Use your judgement one what to read and take things with a grain of realism.