Social media can be overwhelming. If you were active on your account pre and post-election you know exactly what I’m talking about. The barrage of opinions, facts, emotional reactions, and perspectives can be daunting during times of social anxiety. Even on a regular day, these things can overwhelm us but social media does not have to be such a heavy load.

I find that when I am most overwhelmed by social media, it happens at times when I am active for prolonged periods of time. We are overwhelmed simply because we give it too much of our attention. Imagine if your news feed was a gigantic room. It would be filled with hundreds, maybe even thousands of people all speaking at once – well, that’s what goes on in our minds as we scroll through our timelines reading dozens of comments, captions, statuses, and posts.

Give social media less of your time

Start giving less and less time to social media. My method of approach is to log into Facebook or Instagram, read/post a couple statuses, like a few pictures and maybe even share a post or two and get off.

Try it.

Don’t refresh your timeline every two minutes; don’t scroll back down your news feed to read the same statuses you just read 30 seconds ago; don’t fulfill that burning desire to respond to someone trying to argue you down on a post; just close the app and go on about your day.

Like I mentioned earlier, I (we) tend to be most overwhelmed as a result of giving it too much of our attention. Once every other day or two, I log in and interact with my friends; in between that time, I being present in my day-to-day life. You’re not going to miss anything. Those same posts will be there when you log back in.

A good deal of the thoughts we think on a daily basis are not our own original thoughts. They’re influenced by advertising, music, listening to/reading other people’s words, etc. and it is imperative that we dial-down and mentally make room for ourselves or get caught up in other people’s thoughts, fears, projections, or judgments.

Do your mind a favor, log out, frequently. You deserve the peace.

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Jordan A. DeLoach is an entrepreneur, Nationally Certified Emergency Medical Technician and author of So You Want to Be a Vegetarian?: A Step-By-Step Guide to a Plant-Based Diet. To have Jordan’s articles delivered to your email click here.

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Jordan A. DeLoach

Writing since November 2016 · 1 story contributed