Anxiety manifested by social media

[Jfb007]

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to know what do you guys do to keep anxiety controlled when you are on social media.

Social media gives me a lot of anxiety; Reading the news, people complaining and injustice gives me anxiety. I have closed social media a couple of time, but when I open them again, just because I’m bored, everything starts again. I wish that, for example, facebook had this option to avoid such things. I have no issue with instagram since most of the things I have is food hehehehe and crafts. To be honest I wish I can get of facebook, I have so many photos and memories that I can’t close it for good.

[HelpingElbow]

Hi

You are absolutely right. It's not easy for us to simply close our social media accounts.

However, we must understand that what we receive in our newsfeed, wall, home page, quick read, etc. are all preference-driven content. Long story short, you might be following certain news sources, socio-political or similar pages, website, people, etc. and hence the anxiety.

In the past, these things used to induce negativity; therefore, I started following pet animals, funny videos, arts, music (which I guess, you must be doing already, and if not, you should start doing it).

Other than that, social media or news sites have an option to mark inappropriate content and hide irrelevant content. It takes time, but eventually you will derive a positive outlook without having to sacrifice your photos and posts.

Cheers! Wish you a good health.

Lots of love.

[Jfb007 in reply to HelpingElbow]

Thanks for sharing! I’m going to see if I have the time to do that. I will hide content and start following things that make me happy like animals, food, funny videos and others. I appreciate the comment. Xoxoxo

[Thearc]

Thank you for sharing. I work as an Outreach worker with the homeless dealing with Addictions and Mental Health. I never, ever watched the news or read a newspaper because of my work, I see so much heartache everyday ( positive things as well ) so I wasnt interested about the news until Covid started. My daughter insisted I watch the news, now I cant stop, It's like I'm obsessed with reading everything negative on Social media regarding Covid . I wake up in the middle of the night to check to see if I have missed anything. My first step was to delete FB. Gradually I hope I can stop this bad habit.

[Jfb007 in reply to Thearc]

Thanks for sharing. And yes, I find it as an obsession thats the correct word for it. I wish I could delete it,but I need a lot of time to be able to download every memory I have on that platform... I had it since approximated 2009.

[Hidden]

I'm not on social media at all because of the negativity. I'm not strong enough to not let it bother me. I play games on my computer, I'm on this site. Oh, my therapist told me, since the news gives me anxiety, to not watch it. It's all triggering. I watch funny videos and topics I'm interested in on YouTube and other positive stuff @ HelpingElbow mentioned.

[Jfb007 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for your comment and the suggestion. I will watch it soon. Xoxo