In our short series on how best we can make use of social media to keep our online lives smooth, productive and positive, today we look at how we can go about optimizing our feeds. This is very crucial so that we don’t sink into a hell of anxiety or even depression.
Here are a few things we can do to stay on the best side of social media.
Connect with likeminded people
There are millions of people online and it would be unrealistic to expect them all to be nice. Actually, social media has some of the most toxic people in form of trolls, hackers, identity thieves and generally people who make the online space quite scary. They are enabled by the faceless nature of digital presence to spread negativity.
Luckily, we all have control of how to curate our individual spaces and make them more positive and optimistic, and one of the best ways to do this is to connect with people you identify and agree with. This way, you end up consuming content from the right people and sharing the right content yourself. The algorithms will pick on this and keep you on the more optimistic side of things.
LG Electronics optimism campaign
Have a look at LG Electronics global campaign ‘Optimism your feed’, which aims to make the content we engage with online more positive and optimistic. How does this work? By creating and availing a playlist that is engineered to teach your algorithms to bring up more positive content for your consumption. A study by LG shows that if left to be, algorithms will serve negative content half the time. That shows just how much of an influence algorithms have on us and our mental health, and this also goes to show that there is need to turn them (algorithms) around.
Beware what you watch
For a smooth and optimist social media experience, do not fall for the trap of clicking on every other clickbait out there. Have your stand on the content of content you generally want to be consuming. It could be motivational posts, cooking shows, health and fitness or general health to name a few. Do not allow other posts that come with enticing titles to derail you from this path. Be intentional about this and the algorithms will learn what not to send your way.
Learn the basics of cyber security
One of the nastiest and most negative experiences on social media is to fall victim to frauds who are there to do just that. Defraud people. These can range from smaller matters like scamming people by borrowing money on false pretenses to more elaborate schemes like phishing and getting access to financial details of victims.
Every social media user should have some basic knowledge of the dos and don’ts of the online space, both for themselves and for minors of there are any involved.
These are just a few pointers, otherwise there are tens of more things we can all do to make our experience better. Our mental health is of paramount importance and as we sit and scroll through social media every hour of every day, we may not realize how much the content is either building us or chipping away at our wellbeing every day. Be careful out there, and happy browsing.
