With the holidays approaching, I thought now might be the perfect time to talk about something that I think is pretty important – social media self care. Obviously, self care in general is super important, but I think taking care of ourselves with relation to social media is just as vital and often overlooked. Honestly – this can be especially important for those who are struggling with things like loss or infertility or just with comparison in general.

I started utilizing social media self care several years ago when I started playing the comparison game with other photographers. As a creative who is self-employed, it can be easy to struggle with your own value and self worth – especially when you’re comparing yourself to others. Seeing how busy other photographers were compared to me often made me feel like a failure. And seeing my family, friends, and former clients go to other photographers was crushing as a newer photographer. I’ve grown a lot since then and learned that social media is full of distortions. Those busy photographers were often working for very little and burning themselves out, and truthfully sometimes it’s better for friends and family to go to another photographer.

But at the time – I gave myself permission to quit following a TON of photographers. And truthfully – I’ve kept it this way. I follow maybe 2 local photographers, who I consider close friends and a couple long distance photographers whose work I admire! And that’s it! And I can tell you that it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’m not those other photographers and seeing their work or business rarely helps me in any way. It’s better for me to focus on my business and let other people focus on theirs. And I can more genuinely enjoy their success this way.

Another way in which I gave myself permission to take care of me was by unfollowing people. When we were in the heat of our infertility struggle – every pregnancy announcement was PAINFUL. I could not bear seeing them. If you posted a pregnancy announcement – sorry – I probably unfollowed you. The perk of this – is that the people you unfollow – never know because you remain friends on facebook – you just no longer see their posts in your feed. I’ve also used this with people who I find to be overly negative or post things that make me angry. I don’t dislike them as people – but I don’t need constant negativity in my life. Again – this was a hugely beneficial decision and has made my life infinitely better.

So if social media is upsetting for you – I’d encourage to find ways to make it a better happier place! Being selective about who you accept friend requests from or who’s business pages you like is not a bad thing. Unfollowing someone because they bring too much negativity to your life is totally acceptable. Narrowing down your friend list, deleting the app from your phone, or taking a break from it all together are great too. Because let’s be honest – social media isn’t as important as we often make it out to be. So you do what you need to do to remain happy and healthy!