How healthy is your social media diet?
I’ve been trying to be more intentional about what I put into my media “feed” as it’s called. About what I decide to spend my precious attention on. Since I (1) work for a news organization and (2) teach media literacy, this feels particularly important to try and get right.
Some folks talk about getting caught “doom scrolling,” trapped in an endless vertical stream of atrocities, rage bait, and “breaking news.”
Others choose to fill their feed with cute cats, ASMR-friendly crafting tutorials, travel tips, and other light, inconsequential nonsense.
And some just completely disengage from it all, and just focus on what’s right in front of them.
There is merit in all of these approaches — seeing the unvarnished ugliness of the world, seeking beauty and fun, and turning it all off. But just spending most of your time on one type of engagement is, I would argue, bad for your mental and spiritual health.
It’s like eating a diet of only one food — just candy, just tofu, or no food at all — which is bound to lead to negative health consequences in the long run. Your body needs a variety of nutrients to survive — vitamins, protein, sugar, fat, water. Too much of one and not enough of the other leads to dangerous imbalances, as your doctor will tell you.
The same goes for your brain. Just as your body needs a mix of nutrients to survive, your mind needs a balance of hard truths, uplifting content, and quiet space to process it all.
So for me, the challenge is to fill my feed with the things that I need to be healthy — accurate news and information about the world around me, positive stories and energy to get me through, and time away from it all to just be with myself. I don’t know if there is a magic ratio (33:33:33 , 40:40:20 , 50:40:10?).
And then there’s the challenge of finding a balance between feeding things INTO my system and actively DOING THINGS that affect the world around me. Mental health professionals note that doing even small positive actions to help people around you can help break negative emotional and mental spirals. [citation below]
So some questions for you to think about:
- How do you maintain a “balanced and healthy media diet”?
- What do you do to break out of “doom scrolling” and despair?
- What do you consume that feeds your soul and helps you make positive change in the world?
- What, for you, is the right balance of news, fluff, and alone time?
There are no “right” answers. But I know that there are of wise, kind, and positively engaged people in my life, and I want to learn from you.
SOURCE: https://www.tandfonline.com/…/17439760.2022.2154695…
AI IMAGE: Generated by ChatGPT / Dall-E on February 14, 2025