If you are an empath, spending time on social media could impact your energy. How do you protect your energy on social media each day?
How often do you find yourself checking your social media accounts? The average person spends 2.22 hours a day on social media. People often use social media to spend time catching up with family and friends. But many others use it as a major source of current news. If you pay attention then you know that the news typically contains a negative spin. Why does this happen? Because negative news gets better ratings. Negative stories can fire up people’s anger or frustration and people always love a story they can talk about at the water cooler the next day.
On top of being a news source, social media has become the debate capital of the world. Scroll your social media feed and you’ll likely see people sharing their strong opinion about a variety of different subjects. Often they put down others who disagree with them. And there are trolls who wish to stir the pot by publishing outrageous, negative comments. It can be emotionally exhausting to be on social media with all of that negative energy!
Currently, social media is one of the top energy drainers. And it is particularly harmful if you are an empath!
I had an interesting conversation with someone at a party about social media. This friend talked about staying away from social media because of the extreme level of negativity. But I’ve been able to spend time on social media without it depleting me significantly. And I want to give you some tips and tricks on how to allow yourself to check your social media without impacting your energy!
I’m on social media regularly because I have to be. It’s part of the work I do here for this blog. And I used to work full-time as a social media manager. But without making some changes to protect my energy, I would’ve had a rough time!
Let’s take a look at how you can better protect your energy on Facebook.
The buttons are your friends!
If you’re going to be mindful of your energy then you need to know about the unfollow and mute buttons. They are your friends! Unfollowing someone on Facebook is different than unfriending them. But you can certainly eliminate the negative nellies that way as well! When you unfollow someone, you remain their friend, but will no longer see their posts on your feed. The unfollow option can be used for people like your negative Aunt Bertha who always shares highly negative political posts and wants to argue about them.
What happens when you follow a page and you don’t want to unlike it but you don’t want to see their posts in your feed? You can unfollow them as well, without unliking their page.
I have unfollowed some of the worst offenders and it allows me to remain friends but without all of the negative drama that they are broadcasting.
You also have the option to snooze people for 30 days. The snooze button is typically shown on an individual post. So if you see reoccurring posts from someone and want to snooze them, you can. That keeps you from seeing their posts for the next 30 days.
All you have to do is click the three dots in the top right-hand corner of a post and it will bring up the menu with options to unfollow or snooze someone!
Twitter and Instagram
The unfollow function on both Twitter and Instagram is different than Facebook. On Facebook, you have the option to unfriend or unfollow. But on Twitter and Instagram, unfollowing someone is the equivalent of unfriending them.
Instead, if you wish to stop seeing their posts in your feed, but wish to continue to follow them you will have to use the mute button. It has the same function as the unfollow button on Facebook and can significantly reduce the amount of negative energy chatter on your social media feeds…while allowing you to maintain connections with friends and family members.
Honestly, I personally limit my time on Twitter. While internet trolls can be pretty nasty and big energy drainers, Twitter trolls are really horrible! The overall energy on Twitter is pretty negative! So I opt to focus on other social media channels instead. That’s what works for me!
What should you do next to protect your energy?
Now that you know how to quiet the negative Nellies, go through your feeds. Look for those people or pages that regularly post highly negative things. Listen to your own gut and how you are feeling to help you decide. It’s really important to start becoming more aware of how you’re reacting to the energy that is being broadcast by different people or businesses!
If someone posts things regularly that make you feel angry, offended, scared, or sad…consider using one of the buttons!
I also went through all of my social media profiles and followed people and pages that regularly post very positive and uplifting posts. I am choosing to surround myself with more positive energy to balance out some of the negatives as well! Do what feels best for you! We all respond to energy differently. So things that lower one person’s energy levels may not impact yours in the same way. It’s all about tuning into yourself and becoming aware of what really is messing with your energy!
Managing screen time
Of course, it’s always a really good idea to keep track of exactly how much time you’re actually spending on social media. Most people are blissfully unaware of how much time they really waste scrolling each day.
I’m about to make an admission that I’m not very proud of. But being honest with yourself is how you begin to make necessary changes. Recently I started using an app to track my screen time. There is one already installed on iPhones, but you can also find them in the app store for your phone as well.
When I took a look at how much time I was regularly spending on social media, I was shocked. Now let me say that I do some social media for my blog on my phone. But that’s VERY little. Most of that work I do on my computer. I just check notifications and respond to comments and questions on my phone.
The average person’s usage is just over 2 hours a day. My average was almost double that! And I had times on the weekend when it was common for me to scroll for 5 hours…or more! Yikes!!!
It definitely was a time-waster for me. But it was also draining my energy! I was grabbing my phone first thing in the morning and laying in bed scrolling before bed at night as well. I was constantly reaching for my phone whenever I could.
I’ve had to work at changing those habits. I don’t automatically grab my phone when I wake up now. I get out of bed, let my dog out, set some intentions for my day, and spend some time meditating first! I’ve been able to really cut back on how much time I’m mindlessly scrolling and it’s allowing me to be more productive in other areas of my life!
Cutting down on social media and paring down the negativity can do a lot to help you protect and better protect the energy that you are absorbing each day. You’ll wind up healthier and happier as a result!
