September marks a new start.
New month, new college year, the end of summer, the feeling that autumn is truly upon us and the return of Pumpkin Spice Lattes – you get it, it feels different, it feels fresh.
Every September I try to do a little life check and reassess. Nothing major but, I sort out my budget, change my exercise routine (if I’m doing any), set work goals and prep myself for the darker and colder road into winter.
I take this month as a time to check in with myself, how I’m feeling and what I can do to make sure I’m minding my mental health.
A large aspect of this is always to do with how I manage my social media.
Social media is such a big aspect of all of our lives. We spend on average over half an hour on Instagram each day – refreshing, liking, sending and commenting on images of other people.
And throughout each year I follow so many accounts, look at so much fashion and accumulate so many bloggers on my feed that it becomes overwhelming, it becomes less fun to go on the app and see all the new clothing that I can’t afford and the endless places that I just “need” to travel to.
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It makes me jealous and inadequate – not a vibe.
And if you’re reading this, I’m sure you’ve felt the same way at some point.
So, in order to change this, I make the conscious decision to edit how it makes me feel. Instead of deleting the app, taking a break and redownloading it later, I do a cull.
If you’ve tried the deleting trick before as a temporary fix and it just hasn’t worked for you either maybe, it’s time you reassess what you’re seeing.
Do you need to follow 200 bloggers if all you’re viewing is their latest fashion on your feed? Is it good to still follow that makeup page if all it does is make you stressed you don’t have their latest products? And finally, is it necessary to follow endless travel wanderlust pages, like, honestly?
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If you looked at your following list you’d be surprised by how many people you follow that you don’t know. How many pages you actually have no interest in until they pop up on your screen and make you envious. There are so many accounts you can actually get rid of to make your Instagram a less toxic place.
The content both you and I consume on the platform is a large part of what makes it negatively affect our health.
Go figure.
Deleting the app to then just redownload it and see all the crap that was once making us sad, make us sad again isn’t going to help anyone.
Now, deleting the app for good is obviously one solution but since it’s easier said than done, culling it is certainly worth a shot and something that has really worked for me.
Make it your mission this month to sit down and unfollow 50 accounts. 50 accounts that you truly wouldn’t notice if they stopped posting today.
See September as a month to cleanse your digital life and start the new term with a new outlook.
It might not move mountains but it’ll certainly help, that’s for sure.
