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Despite all the scary reports about how social media is ruining everyone’s mental health, my news feed is generally a pretty good place to be.

I don’t often see content that makes me want to change my body, feel inferior about my lifestyle, or distance myself from the people I’m close to.

But that wasn’t always the case, and I had to take four conscious steps over time to make my social feeds a safe place.

“Social media is neither inherently bad nor good,” said Dr. Jason Nagata, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

Being active on social media can connect and educate people, but it can also make them feel inferior and alone, he added.

The environment you curate online makes a big difference, said Dr. Katherine Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York.

“It’s important to seek out different experiences and create a healthy environment, whether at home, at school or wherever we spend our time,” including online, she added.

Engaging with social media in a more positive way means managing the time you spend online and balancing the place it takes up in your life – and it also means managing the quality of the content in your feed. Here’s what I’ve learned to cultivate a healthier, happier social media experience.

What you spend time on is what you are sure to get more of when it comes to social media.

Many social media algorithms analyze what you spend time on – whether you like a post, comment angrily, or simply watch a video – and continue to send you similar content.

“We need to be more aware of this problem and think more deeply about how this algorithm is created,” said Dr. Marie Yeh, associate professor of marketing at Loyola University Maryland. “It’s very simplistic in terms of: You love this thing, and now it nourishes you more.”

“People need to be active,” she added. “It’s difficult, because it requires a conscious choice.”

Have you ever pulled out your phone to quickly check your apps only to find yourself an hour later binge-watching a relationship timeline on a reality show you didn’t even intend to watch?

It’s a common experience –– and even expected given the way social media works with the human brain, Dr. Anna Lembke, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University School of Medicine, told me. Stanford University. a previous article from CNN.

Many social sites are adorned with beautiful faces, colors, happy sounds and promises of instant social connection, all things humans have evolved to be attracted to, she said.

These tempting things stimulate the release of dopamine in the brain. Often called the “feel good” neurotransmitter, this hormone plays a role in intense drives such as movement, motivation, addiction and romance, Lembke added.

When such a rewarding neurotransmitter comes into play, it’s easy to end up chasing the exciting content that social media algorithms serve up to you rather than making conscious choices about what you engage with online.

Try opening your social media accounts with an idea of ​​what you’re looking for. For me, I know I’m going to stop and spend some time looking at all the memes my high school best friend sent me, videos of people restoring historic homes, seasonal recipes, and all the content on the dogs.

Making choices in advance about what rewarding content is for me personally helps alleviate the mental effort needed to decide whether I will continue reading or watch an article.

It’s just as important to know what you’re going to opt out of. And there is a lot of content online that is not worth looking at.

For everyone — but especially teens — it’s important to be careful not to engage in content that revolves around social comparison, especially when it comes to content about beauty, Nagata said.

“Research suggests that using social media for social comparisons related to physical appearance, as well as excessive attention and behaviors related to one’s own photos and comments on those photos, are linked to poorer self-image body, eating disorders and depressive symptoms, particularly in individuals. girls,” he added.

Comparisons and unhealthy beauty standards don’t just come from people you follow, so they can catch you off guard, said Dr. Patricia Cavazos-Rehg, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis.

“I see this on my own teenage daughter’s social media, where posts encourage unhealthy beauty standards and unsafe food culture, even though she doesn’t follow profiles that promote or discuss this type of content,” she said. she said in an email. “This is not only happening in the beauty space, but also in social media spaces related to politics, substance use, and other relevant, potentially polarizing ideologies.”

Not all content related to exercise, food, makeup, or fashion is bad. But keeping an eye out for some red flags about content that is unhelpful and unhealthy for you can make a big difference.

I’ll stay and watch a TikTok recipe if the first photo is a delicious representation of the meal, but not if it’s a full image of how thin the creator is. I’ll happily continue reading an article advertising an exercise that might relieve tension in my shoulders, but as soon as I see words like “bikini body” or “ripped,” I’m gone.

Finally, it might be time to clean up the accounts you follow.

It may seem important to keep your social media open to as many people, opinions and types of content as possible, but there’s a line between open dialogue and unnecessary conflict, Cavazos-Rehg said.

“It is important to recognize that polarizing social media content or clickbait aims to increase social media usage and trigger feelings like anger and frustration. This content gets more views and is more likely to go viral,” she added.

“Social media users need to recognize these motivations and be intentional about striking a balance between what they seek and what they passively engage with. »

It can be tempting to engage with people you disagree with, but often the limited time and space of social media posts doesn’t give you the best opportunity to have a kind and nuanced conversation, Yeh said. Having the conversation offline and talking in person can be more constructive.

“You can’t learn anymore even if I don’t agree with this person, I still love him as a person. He’s still a good person. We fundamentally disagree on this issue, but there are all these other things we agree on,” Yeh said. “We don’t see that anymore when we reduce people to who they are on social media.”

The level of my reaction tells me when it’s time to unfollow –– or even just hide –– accounts that annoy me. Do I bristle a little at their posts but ultimately learn something? Or am I so outraged that I keep coming back for more, only to continue to get excited?

“Readers should ask themselves, ‘Does this content bring me joy or connection?’ “Otherwise, they can consider unfollowing people or pages that don’t bring joy or connection,” Nagata said.