How I made social media much less toxic
Hi everyone!
This is the first issue of my newsletter where I’ll be going over thoughts that help us feel better and achieve more every single day. I really appreciate you being here and I hope you find these useful!
Today, I’d like to talk about how I improved my relationship with social media by using it as an ally for self-improvement.
Main points:
Social media can be toxic but it doesn’t need to be.
It can (and should) be used to perpetuate our self-improvement.
Share what you’re passionate about and you’ll create a healthy environment.
For years, I perceived social media to be somewhat problematic. And it can be for sure. But I know now that I wasn’t optimizing my consumption and extracting as much value as I should have. So here are a few things changes I’ve made on social media over the last year.
01 Create a separate ‘productivity’ account
Yes, I think you should create another set of social media accounts! Whether, it’s Instagram, Youtube or Twitter, make an account where you only follow pages that provide you with quality information on feeling better and achieving more. And to be clear, I still genuinely want to know how my friends are getting on with their lives but I just need useful content without unnecessary clutter, ya know?
02 Follow accounts that create transparent content
Social media gets a bad rep for it increasing our tendency to compare our lives to others right? It’s true but we need to be smart about who we follow. I believe that we can preserve our mental health when we follow accounts that show us why and how they do what they do. For my own good, I’ve started to avoid accounts that only show their ‘highlight reels’.
03 Teach the algorithm what you want to see more of (and less of too)
Please keep liking your best friend’s daily mirror selfie but also be as strategic as possible. Let’s assume here that you’re not convinced about creating a new set of accounts. That’s cool, I get it. But if you know what makes you feel better and improves your day, go find and give those pieces of content a like, save, comment and share. This is exactly what happened to me - when I stopped engaging with ‘useless’ content, I only saw ones that helped me improve.
04 Use others to hold you accountable for new habits
If you’re struggling to stick to habits you’ve been wanting to cultivate, use your friends and followers to keep you on track. You might be like, “but why would they want to see that?”. And yeah, they may not but who cares? The ones that do will support you and push you on. I did this earlier this year and it was highly beneficial for me to get a few habits going and to boost my confidence. I’ll be doing more soon and I urge you to do so too. Use the month of November to post your new habit daily.
05 Share your progress publicly
Due to fear of rejection, a lot of us may refrain from doing this and instead resort to waiting until something is ‘perfect’ before we show it. But I don’t think this is the optimal way to start and build. Showing my growth on social media has felt so meaningful and it allowed me to connect with others who want me to succeed as well. And even if you try this and don’t succeed, you’ll feel great about helping others prevent the same mistakes. Boom, healthy environment.
06 Share your passions and expertise regularly
Some of us tend to avoid this for reasons that shouldn’t exist. We all have something that many others don’t and I believe that we should share it with others. Unfortunately, we’ve started to perceive many who do that as just '“flexing on the gram” but it’s not about that. By understanding my strengths and focusing on the people that might benefit from them, I feel much more purposeful on social media and I’m never wasting my time.
If this was useful to you, do share it with someone else that might feel that way too! If you have any thoughts, do drop me an email to hello@arunjayaraj.com. Talk to you soon!
About Me
My name is Arun and I'm a 4th-year medical student at King's College London. I'm also a certified personal trainer and fitness photographer.