Social media, festivities and your wellbeing

Social media can be a tricky old thing. Despite Instagram making moves to alter the way we measure our following and likes, we are still inherently interested in how many hearts or comments we get on our newest post. Let's face it - why else do we post?

A positive way to look at it is to invest yourself in something creative and feel a sense of reward or accomplishment from your own definition of a "successful" social media post/story is great. "Thanks for the like Mum". But, we can find ourselves measuring our success in unhealthy ways; for example, comparing ourselves to others. So, how do we find the happy medium?

During the festive holidays, many students travel home to their families, some go to a friends house because their turkey is better, and some settle down to a cosy rest in their very own student rooms. No matter where we are for the holidays we can't help but take to Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter and more to share what our amazing Christmas tree, super fancy presents, or puppy with reindeer antlers on look like. #puppywithreindeerantlers #christmasnails (you won't believe how many types of festive nails there are) 

It is so great to see how people celebrate and to feel like you are connected to this big international bowl of joy. Equally, it can be challenging to see another's festivities looking 'better' (whatever that might be) than yours. Here is where you have to remind yourself - everything on Instagram is made to look amazing!

That is not to say that your friends dog's antlers are not amazing, but simply that they are different to yours. Try approaching your social media with a celebratory vibe this year and see if you can allow the world of #'s to only enhance your festivities and not put a downer on things. One exercise to try is viewing your own social media feed and consider how someone might reflect on seeing it for the first time. Food for thought!

Keep the fun in your social media use this holiday season and more importantly put your wellbeing first. If that means a break from the followers then do it!