7 ways to make social media a positive force in your life

Keep online fun from being a total waste of time

I will admit it — I find Instagram and X quite compelling. When I’ve got an uncertain amount of time and it’s hard to do much else, I’ll check these apps. Sometimes I get a laugh or an insight out of it. And sometimes, like when the news is ridiculous, I wonder why I bothered.

In other words, social media is a lot like life. Sometimes good, sometimes not. I also know that “social media” is such a broad term now that it can encompass things like YouTube performances of Beethoven piano sonatas, or a LinkedIn Learning course in addition to the classic post about someone’s breakfast. It’s hard to draw conclusions one way or another (even if people do).

So I’m not weighing in on that. Instead, in this post, I want to share a few things I do to make social media more of a positive and less of a negative force in my life.