I think social media has been a net positive for me & my mental health, but only after an extensive amount of curation that I think the average user either isn't aware of or isn't conscious enough of their feed to recognise the effect it has on them.

for example, I used to get a lot of (seemingly positive) 'fitspo' and barely veiled eating disorder encouragement posts showing people's meals, weight, calorie intake etc etc. that were indirectly affecting my mental health by normalising unhealthy & overly self critical ways of thinking about my body & diet.

To avoid these types of posts, I've had to constantly press the 'not interested' button & block a large number of creators whose content wasn't healthy for me to be viewing, even if it was just a reel I'd see for 1-2 seconds at most.

To improve my social media's impact on my mental health, I've tried to seek out creators with similar experiences to myself & who post content that relates to more specific experiences, instead of just following generalised "mental health" "positivity" "support" pages that often feel hollow and insincere. Instead, I prefer creators that normalise and validate struggles I have without demonising them.

However, I've also found that a lot of these creators can post things that reinforce negative thought patterns & behaviours in me. One creator I followed wasn't directly encouraging self harm but was increasingly posting 'body check' type posts (posts where someone's body is the focus, frequently showing their wrists/waist/ribs to emphasise weight loss) and posts where fresh self injury marks were visible. Whilst I liked their other content, I knew that if I kept seeing it repeatedly it'd have a very negative impact on me over time, so I blocked them to make sure their content wouldn't be in my feed or be recommended to me. Whilst I know it's small, I'd also hoped that other people would do the same and they'd notice lesser engagement on their posts which would hopefully break the cycle (though I recognise that's unlikely)

If I had to condense it to 3 things, I'd say:

• be very conscious of the content you consume. a lot of people can reinforce negative behaviours without even realising it themselves, both online and offline.
• seek out people with shared experiences, not just general support or positivity pages. at least for me, generic messages of "it gets better!" or preaching self-love can feel hollow.
• don't be afraid to block or unfollow! it doesn't make you a bad person to not want to engage with someone or their content. just like real life, sometimes it's best to keep someone out of your life, and that doesn't mean you hate them