How To Set Healthy Social Media Boundaries ?

4 min readMay 18, 2022

How to set healthy social media boundaries ?

If you are like most people, then you have strong opinions about what is right and wrong when it comes to social media use, especially if it affects your health.
Perhaps you think if searching the food on internet, you just ate is fine, but posting pictures of your personal life at the home would just be ridiculous?
Or maybe you believe posting personal pictures is fine, as long as you do not overdo it?

If you are ready to create your own boundaries, here are some questions to help you get started-

How much time do I spend each day on social media?
Is that amount of time healthy for me?
Do I use it to help me relax, or is it stressing me out more than relaxing me?
Am I using social media as a coping mechanism or tool, instead of a vehicle for building relationships and community in my offline life?
Do I feel like I am sacrificing my health or wellbeing in any way because of my use of social media?

If so, how can I be healthier with my online time and usage, even if that means reducing it significantly?

Social media has been found to increase feelings of inadequacy, inspire a sense of competition and spark body image woes in women.
That is because, it gives us access to other people’s seemingly amazing lives, right at our fingertips whether or not those lives are really anything to envy is another question.
According to one study by Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, 25 percent of college-age women with active Facebook pages said they checked their profile daily in order to compare themselves with others.
10 percent had deleted or edited a post after seeing that someone else had more likes or comments than they did.

In a world where social media is more prevalent than ever, do you have health boundaries with it?
Are you strict on what you will post and how often or are you lenient and careless about it all?
The question here is not whether or not social media is good for your health. Of course it is, but like everything else in life, balance is key.
Spending hours on end scrolling through Facebook or posting silly Instagram stories will soon catch up to you if that’s all your doing.
That said, being strict about your online habits doesn’t mean quitting social media altogether unless that is what works best for you.

We are all aware of how much time we spend on social media, but some of us need to be reminded that it is not helping our self-esteem.
All those likes and positive comments boost our confidence at first but after a while, these illusions start to lose their magic.
In fact, studies have shown that people who experience self-objectification tend to have lower levels of self-esteem and more body-image problems.
Keeping up with other people’s lives can also create feelings of FOMO (fear of missing out), which can lead you to comparison shop with your own life and make you feel inadequate.

How to set healthy social media boundaries ?

It is easy to get lost in social media, when you are trying to spend more time working on your goals. The problem is that, if you don’t set boundaries, it can quickly feel like a slippery slope.
Make sure you remember to take care of yourself and recognize how important it is not only to have that alone time, but also those face-to-face interactions with your friends and family.
At last, most important thing is social media is not real life. Spend some time with family and friends and maintain a balance between them.
Considering your health and wellbeing you should understand social media boundaries.
Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to social media, but having the right boundaries can help you keep your social media use healthy and prevent it from causing any issues in your life.
To make this process easier, we’ve put together a list of social media boundaries to help you set up boundaries that are right for you and what you want to accomplish on social media. Use these simple tips as your starting point.

Originally published at https://www.nirajhealth.com on May 18, 2022.