How to Have a Healthy Social Media Diet
When I was younger, nutritionists popularized the saying, “You are what you eat.” It was their way of reminding us that unhealthy diet choices resulted in poor health, while healthy diet choices promoted strength and vitality in both mind and body.
The same is true with social media: You are what you consume.
But there’s a twist.
With our food diet, we want to consume fruits, nuts, and vegetables because they are good for us. They make and keep us healthy. With our social media diet, on the other hand, consuming unhealthy content turns us into fruits, nuts, and vegetables.
It’s hard to keep up with all the latest social media platforms, and many of them don’t even pretend to encourage social interactions. A user sits in isolation (ironically, often while with other people) and scrolls through videos or looks at photos, for instance. And the fact that social media isn’t always very social has become a growing issue for anyone who cares about the influence it has on their personal lives and the lives of their children.
Peggy Noonan, a columnist for The New York Times, recently pointed out that this type of social media “keeps you where you are” rather than taking you places that develop “generous and imaginative thinking” like when we read a good book.
“Social media is passive,” she wrote. “The pictures, reels and comments demand nothing, develop nothing. They give you sensations, but the sensations never get deeper. Social media gets you stuck in you. Reading is a rocket ship, new worlds.”
So, does that mean you should only read books and never spend time on social media?
I don’t think so. Read more books, for sure. Then also avoid or limit your time on passive social media, while engaging in content that actually benefits your mind and spirit.
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My friend Clint Hurdle, the former major league player and manager, joined Twitter/X and Instagram about a year ago when he was 66 years old because he had committed himself “to pushing out positive engagement and encouragement through media that were new to me.” That’s always been my goal with posts on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and Instagram.
When Clint began that journey, his son Christian gave him some wonderful advice that all of us would do well to follow: “Hunt for good, and you’ll find it. Hunt for bad, and you’ll find it. Be light, bright, and polite.”
In an age when social media can turn our brains to mush as quickly as an overdose of cocaine, it’s vital that we consume only what makes us mentally, spiritually, and emotionally healthier. And if that’s what we hope to consume on social media, then it’s also on each of us to produce that type of content as well.
We need to grow, share, and consume the equivalent of social media fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Otherwise, that’s what we will become.