Is social media getting you down? Here's what to do.

Social media can provide a bunch of benefits if you are mindful of how you use it.

Here are some ideas that might help to make your feed a more positive place to be:

Unfollow accounts that make you feel terrible.
Use social media as a second-best way to manage your relationships (with ‘in real life’ ways of communicating being optimal).
Try using voice calls, video chats or good old snail mail to communicate with your pals.
Avoid online drama – not your circus, not your monkeys, not worth getting involved and having your phone pinging back tit-for-tat notifications.
If you find that you can’t stop checking social media (to your detriment), try a time-limiting app, such as Forest, or disable notifications to give yourself a break.
Bring your thoughts back to your own values and goals, rather than what you see scroll past.
Remember that everyone you follow is sharing their ‘social media persona’, not their real life or true self. There’s no point comparing yourself to something that’s not really, truly real.
Focus on connection on social media, not consumption.