Social media self care/survival guide

So I've been seeing a few posts and having a few conversations in the last few weeks about negativity, hate and social media.

Through some of the work I do this has led to me putting together a bit of a social media survival/self care guide for LGBTQ+ people. The aim being to help people enjoy social media and reduce the impact of hate.

I'm still finishing it so any suggestions for extra bits would be great but also wanted to share it here in case it helps anyone.

• Take regular breaks. Do something with friends or even just stuff on your own offline. Read a book, write something, make some art, give a pet some cuddles. Remember to turn off your notifications for awhile.
• Report, block and ignore the hate and trolls. Don't waste your energy responding to them. Most of them are just trying to get reactions and attention any way they can. Engaging with it means the site may recommend similar content to you and your friends more often creating a horrible negative cycle.
• Block any profiles that regularly share hate or negativity. Remember on Reddit you can mute an entire subreddit so it doesn't show in your feed: https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9810475384084-What-is-community-muting-
• Don't go looking for the hate. Don't scroll past all the positive comments and focus on the negative ones at the bottom, don't click on links from people saying "oh my god this video is so bad" or "the comments are horrible" - doing this often is essentially a form of self harm.
• Share responsibly. Check for sources and evidence of news you share, avoid sharing misleading or exaggerated titles. Do not share anything you can't find a reputable source for. Avoid sharing examples of hate too often, we know it's out there, we know it's bad, we don't need constant reminders of it. (Note this sub specifically has a rule not to do this).
• Change up your feed. Follow a load of positive pages/profiles and block the bad. Sign in to a different account you just use for positive stuff or even just pictures of cats. Try signing out and either clearing your cookies or viewing in an in-private window so you get more neutral recommendations.
• Avoid information overload. Awareness of what's happening is good. Feeling you need to absorb every possible thought, article or blog about something every time is not. Balance your time between news and more fun stuff.
• Change your go-to boredom activity. It's easy to switch to using a social media app when bored, try something else. Play a game, read an ebook, fanfiction, webcomic or even an actual book. Download or bookmark a few so you always have some to go to.
• Spread some positivity. Rather than pour effort into arguing with trolls use the time instead to find someone who needs support, or has shared something cool and leave them a little messsage of support. Sharing positivty feels so much better than arguing with a troll.
• Reach out and talk to someone. If you feel you're struggling with the hate out there, social media addiction or even just feel a bit concerned about what you're seeing or how often you use social media.

And always remember that there are positive spaces out there online that try to tackle hate as much as possible and generally feel a bit safer than just the open internet in general. Find positive communities to be a part of and start filtering out the bad. Lots of people want you to be happy and feel part of the community, focus your time and efforts on them - not the hate and trolls.