Making Social Media Reflect Positivity
Making Your Social Account Reflect and Influence Positivity
During this crisis I’m reminded of when I first got sober. It was so hard to keep my head on straight and to avoid cravings. I could smell liquor from a mile a way. On top of the obvious sensitivity, when I pulled up my facebook I was flooded with pictures of friends drinking or people at big parties. It was impossible to escape. I knew I wanted the freedom and positivity of sobriety, but my life was surrounded by the opposite (I also didn’t want to delete my friends!).
Likewise, during this time I have heard a lot of people ditching their facebooks and instagrams due to the huge, unsetting influx of negative social media posts. May they be political, argumentative, or just ignorant they reflect a type of drama that increases cortisol and affects us in horrible way. When our stress hormones are so high, we take drastic steps to minimize them, like ditching our social media.
But, do we have to?
Well, I’m here to tell you that although I occasionally see the unsettling post, my feeds are largely positive. I have actually been surprised by all the great, loving content in my feed. During this time I have actually been using my facebook and Instagram to lift me up and that’s because the robust social media algorithm knows what I like. Yours may not be in that spot, yet. But, it can be. This holds true for the newly sober person too. Actually, it holds for anyone who sees on their feed a mirror that’s showing them something that’s not them.
When I first got sober, I went into Instagram and began searching for positive sober motivation. I added about 20 new people who posted positive things. Then, as they came up in my feed I would like them and comment and when I saw negative stuff, I’d simply scroll past. I didn’t delete old friends or people posting negative things, I just started interacting with the stuff that reflected the new me and avoiding the stuff that didn’t reflect me. (Yes that means not commenting on something negative I don’t agree with… Ultimately, I ask myself, IS IT BETTER TO BE RIGHT, OR HAPPY?)
After doing this for a couple of weeks your feed literally begins to change. So, if you are fed up with the negativity, stop interacting with it. Find some positive profiles, follow them and interact with those messages. Since the algorithm really only shows you content from a handful of people you follow, namely your most popular 25-30 people, new content will begin popping up in front of you!
Try it, it works!
When you are sensitive to abrasion, it’s easier to cut it out. So what better time then now to refocus your social media presence and start getting some uplifting, beautiful content to fill your life!