Protecting Your Mental Health Online

At its core, media—including social media—is simply another tool used to communicate information. Like other tools, it can be used to do harm, but it can also be a great way to engage with issues you care about, find and consume content you enjoy, and keep in touch with colleagues, acquaintances, friends and loved ones far and wide. Here are some things you can keep in mind to protect your mental health and well-being while online.

1. Curate your online spaces

When engaging with media online starts to make you feel anxious, angry, sad or hopeless, it may be time to do some “redecorating” in your online spaces. Choosing to not engage with distressing content, groups or individuals some (or all) of the time can be an effective way to protect yourself from chronic stress exposure. Allow yourself to scroll past, close the page or browsing window, or block accounts, hashtags, messages and other content that makes you feel unhappy, uncomfortable or unsafe. Remember: you can always unblock or revisit them later if you wish. This can also help curate a more peaceful experience over time. Some online media sources use algorithms—sets of computerized rules and calculations whose outcomes determine what content you see—to amplify or prioritize certain content based on who or what you’ve previously engaged with. So, spending less time on certain content now can make it less likely that it will be recommended to you later.

2. Trust your gut!

However, you may not always want to avoid “distressing” content, for many reasons. So before browsing, remind yourself that media outlets rely heavily on ongoing engagement from users to generate revenue and stay relevant to the public consciousness. If a post, headline or thumbnail seems too awful, outlandish or inhumane to be true, it’s possible that it is. Online media sources
often deliberately try to increase the amount of exposure and engagement their content receives using tactics like guilt-tripping and sensationalizing. These techniques are designed to rev up your emotions as a consumer, which in turn encourages you to click on or share content impulsively. However, they can obscure the true nature of the content’s message and contribute to the spread of harmful misinformation. If you encounter something distressing while browsing, check in with yourself: do you feel safe and able to continue consuming content like this? If no, consider going back to step one and “redecorating” your online space, or practice self-care (see below for some self-care tips). But if yes, you want to continue, refer to the next step.

3. Flex your critical thinking

Lastly, practicing media literacy—the ability to critically analyze stories or content presented by mass media outlets to determine their accuracy and/or credibility—can help us consume and digest online media content more calmly and objectively. It can also help prevent us from feeling overwhelmed or inundated by negativity. When engaging with different forms and sources of media, slow down and take the time to ask yourself questions like:

WHO:

• Who made this?
• Who else was involved in the creation of this? Who was excluded?
• Who is the target audience?
• Who paid for this? Who will make money from this?
• Whose perspective does this present? Whose are not presented?

WHAT:

• What does this want me to think (or think about)?
• What could I or someone else learn from this?
• What sources of information or ideas were used to make this? What sources were left out?
• What meanings, values or perspectives are obvious? What meanings, values or perspectives are implied or alluded to?
• What is left out that may be important to know?
• What is my interpretation of this message?
• What does this want me to do?

WHERE:

• Where was this shared first? Where was this shared later on?
• Where is this taking place?
• Where am I seeing/reading/hearing this?

WHEN:

• When did this happen/take place?
• When was this made?
• When was this shared with the public?

HOW:

• How does this make me feel emotionally? Physically? Mentally?
• How are my emotional and/or physical reactions influencing my interpretation of this?
• How might different people understand this message differently?

By consuming media critically, we can stay aware of our physical and emotional reactions, regulate ourselves more effectively, and more deeply understand the messages, viewpoints and agendas being promoted by the media we consume. Slowing down can also help us recognize when we have reached or exceeded our capacity to engage safely with certain topics or types of content, so we can then take time to care for ourselves.

be resilient – A Helping Hand Poster

For more information call the Employee Assistance Centre at 204-786-8880 or toll-free 1-800-590-5553 or visit mb.bluecross.ca. For the Deaf, hard-of-hearing and speech-impaired community, our EA centre can receive VRS calls.