Facebook and social media be all up in our faces these days. Bless it’s little cotton socks, it keeps us connected on the go, allows us to stay up to date with friends and global movements, provides a business platform, tells us what people are talking about and hot topics being thrown around and allows a citizen driven feed of all sorts of goings on in our world. Not all of it makes us feel-good though. And for me, life is all about feeling as good as I can in any given moment, even when life’s got me by the balls, some sweet distraction therapy can stop spirals of emotional rollercoasters in their tracks. So about a year ago I got really serious about curating what my Facebook Feed was dishing up to me on a daily basis. So I set out to make a feel good Facebook feed that would feed my mind instead of filling it with fear and negativity.
I haven’t owned a TV for well over 10yrs so commercial advertising sticks out like dogs balls to me. When I started seeing more and more commercial companies spending their marketing dimes on Facebook, I knew it was time to build my own firewall, so I was forever choosing not to see those sponsored posts. I knew that every time I read a mainstream news article, I would inevitably start thinking of all the crap and shitty-ness in the world, so I started unfollowing pages that regularly shared or posted stories like that. I found groups that added fun and happy vibes to my sessions of endless scrolling so that more times than not, I couldn’t scroll for more than a few minutes without seeing something that made me smile or laugh. Before I knew it, I had a feed full of stuff that actually fed my mind rather than negatively impacted my mood. I could get a kick out of wasting 15mins before bed scrolling… scrolling… (yes my screen is on Night shift!) and then switching to airplane mode or turning the bloody thing off all together!
Sometimes I swear we are not far off from Obsessive Scrolling Disorder becoming a thing.
Technological smog is a thing… it wires us into a buzz, it’s addictive and it’s everywhere. So if thats the way of the world these days, I can get with that program, however I ain’t becoming a slave of a tiny screen that needs charging every four hours! I’m certainly not going to allow the stuff I see on it to affect me negatively and I’m definitely going to be aware and conscious of the content I absorb from it.
There’s a few other practices around our technology addictions these days that I think can be really healthy for us to consider. Things like:
- Adding a few chunks of Amethyst around our computers or screens to offset the buzz, it also helps with purification and releasing addictions.
- Limiting your time spent on the book of face, simply being aware of how long you spend down the rabbit hole of mindless scrolling is a great first step. Then if you start to beat yourself up for wasting too much time, immediately set yourself a timer and cap your screen time. We do it for our kids so why not for ourselves.
- If you use Facebook for your business or work, then use a scheduling tool like Hootesuite that keeps the temptation to check your feed at arms length and keeps you focussed on the work you need to do.
- Allow yourself a half hour at some point in your day or every couple of days to just schmooze about in Facey land on the proviso that after the half hour, you have to go for a walk outside, barefoot if possible.
- Get at least an few hours a day away from your phone. Definitely do not sleep with it beside your head. I put mine on the other side of the room on airplane mode (ensures I get a good sleep and can’t hit snooze in the morning a million times before I get up!) and I always try to have no screen time an hour before bed (TRY being the key word in that sentence!).
- A great move to make is to take the Facebook App off your phone altogether. That means you can only check it on a computer and its less accessible.
It all comes back to being mindful, being awake and aware of how you feel and choosing to feel good no matter what. If you’re not brave enough to deactivate your account for a few weeks or disciplined enough to limit the obsessive scrolling, then at least don’t do more harm by allowing crappy icky stuff to cross your field of vision!
So here’s my top 6 tips to formulate a feel good Facebook Feed.
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1. UnFollow people who post negative stuff regularly, you can still be friends, just don’t allow their icky vibes into your feed. You know the peeps in your feed that post cool shit all the time, go to their page, click on Following and choose See First so that you get the good stuff at the top of your feed. |
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2. UnLike mainstream media sites, anytime you see one pop up in your feed, kill that sucker! Seek out alternative media in the areas of your interest. Should you get a kick out of satire sites, find them and add them! If you don’t know where to look ask your friends about their favourite pages. |
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3. Hide Sponsored posts that don’t bring you joy! Facey is getting pretty good at serving relevant ads, but still pages who are throwing money at boosted posts will get into your feed from time to time. If they do, just click that little down arrow above the post and choose Hide Ad. Then click It’s not relevant to me and submit it! Facebook may be Big Brother but at least you can make it work in your favour sometimes! |
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4. Add a lighthearted feed or two, if you love animals for example, join the likes of pages such as Cool Dog Group or Cool Fun Cat Group and soon you’re feed is laden with images of fluffy four legged furballs to make you smile! Choose groups that have loads of members that post great content. |
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5. Bring your awareness to the things that you’re reading on social media. Continually ask yourself “Does this make me feel good or not so good?” and if the answer is not so good, unfollow that shit! |
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6. Why Like when you can Love! I find that the more times I hit that Love button (finally Facebook!) it makes me feel really good. I think of it as sending a little more oomph out into the world, the more love the better in my mind! |