Decluttering Social Media

Recently, I have refocused my time to being more present in the moment, rather than scrolling on my screen. Starting this summer, I deleted Snapchat and removed Facebook from my phone. Currently, the only social media apps I have are Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and my e-mail. I’ve been happier my “social media change”.

1. Find the unnecessary posts.

Do you still follow your old high school friends who used to be friends, but are no longer? When I scroll through social media, there’s numerous names of people who are no longer relevant to my life, nor bring much joy to seeing their media.
I often find myself continuously scrolling, hoping to find something interesting, telling my mind that I’ll find a cool post after this one, and then after this one, and by the time I realize it, 15 minutes have flown by.
In these 15 minutes, I could have gone straight to seeing posts that I cared about, shared by people I am interested in. Even better, I could have been satisfied with my “social” scroll, and have started reading a book or tackling down my daily to-do list.
If you want to emphasize the social in social media, consider removing the friends and posts that you wouldn’t want to interact with, IRL.

2. Find the negative energy.

Notice how your mood or attention changes when you are on social media.
Do posts make you happy and inspired? Seek them.
Do posts make you feel upset or frustrated? Find out why, and work to eliminate them.
To me, social media is a space for me to feel creative, to challenge my ideas, and to share opinions respectfully. When I come across content that doesn’t align with my definition of this space, I find it to be not engaging, which is the opposite of what social media should be.

3. Unfollow people.

Alas, what do you do when you come across these unwanted posts?
Unfollow the person who posted/shared it.
I always find it amusing how many are worried that people will notice their unfollow,
but why put anxiety and worry to whether they notice?

There is a stigma to social media that it is permanent, everything viewed online will forever be online, and technically – that is true. However, social media is a weird blob.
It’s constantly shifting and molding itself to whatever the creator makes it to be.
So why not shift and mold your blob to something that will make you happy?

On Facebook, there is a beautiful option to “unfollow” someone, versus “unfriend”.
This allows you to remain connected on FB, but will remove their posts from your News Feed. There is always that one family member or friend who loves to share an infinite number of posts, causing you to have a clogged Feed. Avoid this view by unfollowing, without the worry about losing their mutual friendship or ability to message them.
I’m not a Twitter gal, so I’m unaware of any options they have, but if you know of any, feel free to share in the comments below!
As for Instagram, there’s a few Instagrammers where I love their content, but do not love how often they post. For accounts like these, I will save a few of their posts, and save it into a collection. By doing this, their account handle is accessible, and I can easily view their feed, just by a few taps – rather than scrolling aimlessly.

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Social media is great for connecting us all together, with the sake and beauty of technology.
However, I wish to remove the stigma of social media needing to be about staring at your phone 24/7. How is staring at a screen and not noticing your surroundings = social?
For me, I view social media as a stepping stone to creating actual social interactions with people, whether that be a comment or a message to collaborate on a project – instead of a double-tap on their photo. Don’t get me wrong, I love social media.
It’s a vibrant community of people sharing ideas.
But, it will only be a functionally and creative blob, through your control.

So hunker down on a weekend day, brew a nice mug of tea, and reevaluate how your social media “feels” to you.

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