Social Media Habits That Are Mistakes

We all know that social media is “bad”, so how can we make it not bad?

I remember for 6 months in 2020, I was completely off Instagram and social media in general. But because I started a blog and wanted to grow my platforms, I had no choice but to make social media a part of my life.

I was always told everywhere that social media is bad, and that we should stop going on it all the time. And that’s true and exactly why I took my social media break. Once I started becoming active on social media again, I knew I had to build simple habits to improve my relationship with social media.

This blog post is going to go through 6 social media habits that are BIG mistakes. Don’t worry, you will learn how to stop doing these habits, which are pretty simple! This blog post is for anyone who feels that they need to go on social media less, or want to improve their social media habits.

If you have any missed social media habits, please let me know in the comments! I’m the only one that sees them so feel free to be as open as you like!

Let’s dive in:

1 – Using social media first thing in the morning

Using social media first thing in the morning means that the first thing you see when your day starts is other people’s lives. When you go on social media, you’re seeing other people’s posts. When you see other people’s posts, it’s prone for comparison. 

Maybe consciously, your mind doesn’t compare yourself to those other people. But subconsciously, your mind does. You’re pretty much spending the first moments of your day comparing yourself to other people.

Your mornings are supposed to be a time dedicated to you and setting yourself up for the day. Not only is using social media first thing a waste of time (because it could lead to longer times of scrolling), but it also affects your mind as well.

Instead of using social media first thing, try alternative activities that can help motivate you for the day. Examples include reading, journalling, meditating, or having mindful moments with your favorite drink.

Your mornings are supposed to be all about YOU and let’s face it, social media isn’t going to help with that.

2 – Using social media last thing at night

The same thing, except you’re using it at night. Just like how you don’t want social media to be the first thing you see, you also don’t want it to be the last thing you see.

When you go on social media before you go to bed, the last thing you see is other people’s posts. The last thing your subconscious mind will do before you go to sleep is compare yourself to other people.

Plus, social media is a big distraction when you’re trying to sleep. Maybe we only intended for 5 minutes of social media scrolling, but there’s always a chance it will end up becoming an hour.

And honestly, it does sound a bit toxic to your mind. Imagine going to bed thinking about other people’s lives and comparing your life to theirs. We already know that “comparison is the thief” of joy, so it may be a good idea to not do that before bed. And to accomplish that, we need to avoid social media at night, or at least before we go to sleep.

Like the previous habit, have alternative activities to help you wind down. Maybe instead of going on your phone and social media, you can take a relaxing bath or shower, read a fiction book, or journal down your day. Have activities dedicated to you.

3 – Using it as a time filler

This means that you’re using social media to kill time. For example, if you’re in the doctor’s waiting room, you’ll use social media while waiting.

I’m super guilty of this too! Whenever I’m waiting in line or in the waiting room, I’ve used Instagram and Facebook as a way to kill time. Although it’s not harmless, there could be more beneficial things we could do.

So I’ve tried this little technique that I’m going to share with you! I make a go-to list of things that I will do during my dead time. Deadtime is basically what I told you about earlier, where you find yourself with some random free time during the day and you don’t know what to do with it.

In this list, I write down things I can do anywhere and anytime during short blocks of time like that. An example of my list includes:

• Answering messages
• Checking emails
• Editing social media content (yes, I know IRONIC)
• Brainstorm social media content (hmmm, the irony)
• Look for networking events to attend.
• Do my 5 minutes of language learning time.

Now, whenever I find myself with random free time, these are the things that I do. If I have NOTHING to do, I’ll go on social media.

To be honest, using social media as a time filler isn’t that harmful. But if we want to make our day more efficient and productive, it may be worth thinking of alternative activities we could do whenever we find ourselves with random small blocks of free time.

4 – Using social media as a downtime activity

Downtime is when you’ve finished everything, and it’s time to wind down and relax.

Yes, this is something I’m guilty of too. Once I’ve completed all my work and studies, I tend to go on social media as my downtime to “relax”.

When I do this, one of two things would usually happens:

• I end up scrolling for HOURS and waste time that I could’ve used to do something else.
• I make myself upset because I see other people on holidays when I know I just stayed at home all day working.
• Or both.

There’s nothing wrong with using social media when you have free time. But again, if we want to make our day more efficient and productive, it’s worth thinking of alternative activities.

Maybe we want to prepare for the next day instead so that tomorrow will be easier.

Or maybe we want to spend time learning a new skill so our future self will thank us.

Or maybe we want to spend the time exercising to benefit our health or read a book so it’ll benefit our mind… possibilities are endless.

And when you think about it, consuming social media doesn’t add a lot to our lives. With the extra time we end up having after work/studies, we probably want to do something that will ADD to our life.

Plus, it’s also good for our mental capacity too. The last thing we want to do is consume so much social media that we start WISHING and COMPARING, which is something that we want to avoid. It’s always a better feeling to do something more beneficial.

5 – Posting stories in real time

This one is for two reasons.

First, for SAFETY and we all know that it’s important.

Regardless of our privacy settings, we still shouldn’t post our stories in real-time, especially if it has our location in them. We never know who’s watching and when it comes to this, we have to prevent the worst-case scenario.

Second, posting stories in real time doesn’t allow us to live in the moment. Yes, we should take photos and videos for the memories, but in terms of coming up with a caption, and editing the photo, that can all be done once we’re home.

We don’t want to associate any memory with us just trying to think of the perfect caption and post. Just take the photos and videos you want and live in the moment. Post it when you get home, and chances are you’re able to think of a much better caption.

6 – Looking at your story views

At least constantly, because it’s so easy to see it, and we can’t help it sometimes.

But still, it’s not healthy for our minds to always look at who views our story or how many story views we’ve got. Here are some reasons:

• Who our “stalkers” are don’t matter.
• We don’t want to ruin our day when that SPECIFIC person hasn’t seen your story yet (if you know, you know!!)

We also don’t need to overthink why we see a lot of views in the first story, and fewer views in the second story (posted a few minutes) later. We don’t need to drive ourselves crazy with these things. It’s not worth putting our energy into. Here are the benefits of not constantly obsessing over your Instagram story views:

1. You live in the moment rather than for social media
2. You stop caring about what other people think of your life
3. You save yourself from unnecessary grief when THAT person doesn’t view your story – please tell me I’m not the only one guilty of this.

But anyways, you’re allowed to still check it, just don’t make it an obsessive habit to check it every time you open Instagram.

Take a SMALL Step

Here are some small steps to help you break these habits!

1. List 3 ALTERNATIVE activities to going on social media in the morning – List down 3 activities on what you’ll do in the morning instead of social media.
2. List 3 ALTERNATIVE activities to going on social media before bed – Similarly, list 3 activities on what you’ll do before you sleep instead of going on social media.
3. Create your dead time activity list – Make a list of activities you can do anytime and anywhere for short amounts of time. So when you find yourself with random free time (e.g. waiting room, or waiting in line), these are the activities you can do!
4. List 3 ALTERNATIVE activities to going on social media in your downtime – List down at least 3 activities you can do instead of going on social media when you have downtime.
5. Stop posting stories in real time – If this is something you do, it may be time to just start posting stories once you get home… I think this is easy to do  😊
6. Stop looking at who views your story – If you think you do this constantly, do this little exercise:

• Make a tally of every time you view your story daily.
• Every day, aim to decrease that number from the day before (e.g. if yesterday you viewed your story, viewers, 12 times, today try to decrease it to 11 or less).

To Wrap Up

It may not seem like much, but even just implementing little habits such as not letting social media be the first and last thing you do in your day, replacing social media scrolling with other beneficial things during your downtime and deadtime, and not obsess over the perfect stories and views, can make a big difference to your mental capacity!

That’s why it’s important to just start with small steps. These were all small steps that can help you have a better relationship with social media, and not let it take over your life. If you need some help with taking small steps, I have a book called Small Steps to Progression which you can download for free HERE!.

In the meantime, remember to focus on building your amazing life, and CREATING your amazing life, rather than consuming social media filled with other people’s lives.

-Lauren 😊

P.S I recommend you read these blog posts next:

• Digital Habits for Personal Growth
• Boundaries – an overlooked form of self-care
• 8 personal development goals to start setting

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