With the internet being a regular part of 4.8 billion people’s daily lives, navigating it in a manner that protects your mental health is a challenge.
With so much content flying past your eyes as you scroll through social feeds, it’s inevitable you’ll come across something that bothers you.
However, by taking advantage of a few tips and tricks to help protect your mental health, you can enjoy the time you spend online and feel better overall as a result.
8 Tips For A Positive Online Experience!
Although nothing is foolproof, these eight tips will go some way towards helping to protect your mental health while living your digital life.
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Limit social media usage
It’s easy to lose hours watching endless Tiktok videos and scrolling through Instagram.
Restricting usage of these social platforms will help keep you from draining your mind and energy on meaningless ‘doom scrolling’. There are apps you can use to limit your use if you struggle to step away from the phone using willpower.
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1,440
There are 1,440 minutes in every single day. What can you do with that time?
Looking at your day from this perspective will help you avoid wasting too much time mindlessly scrolling online.
Trust us; your brain and overall mental health will thank you for not wasting time and instead focusing on the more important tasks throughout the day. Try connecting more with your family and friends in real life, or doing something relaxing like reading a book or meditating.
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Detox
Taking a break from all online media and content for longer than a day will give your mind some rest and help you regain clarity.
Getting caught up in the scandals, gossip, and arguments the internet has to offer will negatively impact your mental health more than you might think.
Whether you realise it or not, we all find ourselves comparing our lives to others’. Taking a step back and having a digital detox will give you the clarity needed to improve your mental health.
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Listen to yourself
If something makes you feel uncomfortable, you might feel the urge to get involved and tell the world why it’s so bad.
While this desire for justice is healthy and to be admired, the impact on your mental health when getting involved in such discussions can be pretty damaging. And since when has anyone ever changed their mind following a row on Facebook?
If something makes you feel uncomfortable, just keel scrolling.
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Ground yourself in reality
This is easier said than done, but it will make a huge difference to the way you feel.
With studies suggesting that over 50% of people only have friends online, the online realm has become their reality.
By grounding yourself in true reality (you know – the world around you!), you’ll gain perspective and discover what really matters in life. Go for a coffee and watch the world go by. Have a walk in nature. Leave your phone at home.
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Abstain from the news
This might sound unrealistic in a world of 24-hour rolling news bulletins and social media, but with so much negativity in the news, it’s hard to stay grounded and rational if you read every single headline.
Reducing your news intake or taking periodic breaks from the headlines will have one of the most positive impacts on your overall mental wellbeing. Perhaps you could subscribe to some positive news or inspirational podcasts or Ted talks instead, to remind yourself that the world can be a beautiful place too.
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Prune
This approach to ensuring a positive experience while on social media will help improve your mental health – big time.
Pruning friends and accounts that fill your feed with negativity will make you feel happier – it’s that simple.
It might feel like you’re creating an echo chamber at first but remember that your mental health should always come first.
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Take brain breaks
Working online means you end up communicating constantly with people digitally and spend long periods of time nestled within your web browser. Taking a break every hour to go for a walk, meditate, or just live in the moment will revitalise your mind and ensure you’re ready to crack on when you next approach the computer.
We hope these tips help. Your mental health should never take a back seat – especially when it comes to the time you spend online.
If we’ve raised further questions in today’s blog post, just reach out to the Compex IT team, anytime.