Take Charge of Your Social Media

Quick Win

Setting social media boundaries can help lighten your mood and improve your concentration — and it also frees you up to do something more mentally stimulating, like reading a book or meeting a friend for a walk.

Try This Today

• Set a time limit. Schedule short, specific times within your day to check social media. Consider checking in for 15 minutes in the morning, then another 15 minutes at the end of the workday. And although it’s nice to stay informed, social media can contribute to information overload, so try getting your news from a different source, like your local newspaper.
• Out of sight, out of mind. Remove social media apps from your smartphone and commit to only logging in when you’re in front of your computer. Not seeing these apps front and center on your home screen can help keep you from automatically opening them to check your likes and messages. Not ready to part ways with mobile Facebook? Create a folder, move it to the back page of your phone’s menu and drag your social media apps inside. Tucking them out of sight may make you less compelled to log in.
• Filter your feed. You enjoy perusing Facebook and Instagram to see friends’ travel and baby pics, but do you really want to be spending your time scrolling through a casual acquaintance’s political rants? Every time you see a post from someone you don’t wish to prioritize, go to their Facebook page and “unfollow” them. You will still remain friends, but their updates won’t show up in your news feed. You also can “mute” accounts on Instagram, which will cause their stories and posts to disappear from your feed in a similar manner.

Why

The average American spends close to four hours a day on social media, according to the Pew Research Center. “Social media is intended to be addictive,” says Andrew Selepak, an assistant professor in media at the University of Florida. Still, that’s a lot of time that could be spent engaging in activities that are better for your brain health. And, as mentioned above, limiting social media could even help you feel more positive. A study of 230 undergraduate students published in Technology, Mind, and Behavior in 2023 found that those who restricted their use of social media to 30 minutes per day for two weeks showed improvements in anxiety, depression and loneliness and experienced more positive emotions than those who used social media as usual.