13 Ways to Tell if Your Online Social Time is Productive and Healthy

It is important for our mental and emotional health for us to have social interaction. Some may wonder, with the popularity and availability of online social networks, will that suffice or not?

National Social Media Day is June 30th.  It is a way to recognize social media’s impact on global communication, and social media is a mostly positive thing in that regard. But I think we all know that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing and it can be tempting to over-indulge.

Here are some ways to tell if you are on track with social media and not in need of a digital intervention:

  1. You spend less than an hour a day on social media.
  2. You log in only during breaks or when there is not something more important to be doing, such as work or sleeping.
  3. You opt to talk to the person sitting next to you rather than view their social media profile.
  4. You don’t feel the need to post every.little.thing that is exciting—lunch, name-dropping who you know, events, get-togethers, or something your man did—just in an attempt to impress others.
  5. You don’t interrupt fun or special moments to take a selfie and post it for followers and friends to see.
  6. You don’t look at everything for its post-potential and how many likes it will get.
  7. You don’t incessantly check how many likes your photo or post gets and delete it if it doesn’t perform well.
  8. You don’t digitally stalk someone who: a) you don’t personally know, but wish you did, b) is not someone you consider a good friend, c) is your ex, or d) is an ex of your man.
  9. You don’t have to snap a pic of your food to post before you eat.
  10. You prefer to call, text, or visit someone in person rather than looking at their wall to see what they have been up to.
  11. You don’t compare, judge, or turn green with envy when you see others’ posted pics (how they look, where they went, what they’re showing off, how much fun it looks like they had, or how many likes they get), the amount of “friends” they have, etc.
  12. You don’t stage things just to get a photo and you don’t travel to exciting locations just for a photo op.
  13. You don’t feel depressed, jealous, guilty, creepy, or dirty when you log off.

If this describes you, your social time is A-OK in my book.  Keep up the FANTASTIC work! <3