Often social media is seen as the cause of mental illness, but what if it’s a symptom?

We’ve all heard about how technology is poisoning our minds and leading to the degeneration of humanity. You’re sad? It’s cause you’ve been on Instagram. Feeling hungry? You forgot how to eat, cause you’ve confused mukbangs with sustenance. You fell and broke your leg? Those 5G radio waves have weakened your bones.

Usually the advice we hear about how to become more digitally mindful echoes those sentiments. It treats technology like junk food — your consumption of it isn’t necessary, and it’s just a bad habit you need to break.

Sure, ten years ago you could delete all your social media and messaging apps, stick to using a flip phone and leave the wi-fi plugged in for no more than an hour each day.  However, there are two main problems with this approach:

1. It’s not really realistic to unplug. Today we are more reliant on technology than ever, and that trend is only going to continue. Our academic, professional, and personal lives are all touched by technology. For most of us, choosing to unplug can be incredibly expensive as it can lead to lost time, money and breakdowns in communications and teamwork.
2. You haven’t actually solved the problem. After your social media detox, you’re still going to come back and you haven’t acquired any new skills or habits that would improve your relationship with technology. All you’ve done is create a cycle of when things get tough, you shut down, come back, shut down, come back…

So the question becomes, how can I, as a working student with a social life become truly digitally mindful? How can I form a healthy and sustainable relationship with technology?

Starting off simple, try out the ‘do not disturb’ function.

It’s important to be realistic with the goals that you set for yourself. Rather than cut yourself off for six hours, start out small.

Perhaps you’re studying for a test or working on an assignment – block out thirty minutes or even an hour to work. Set your devices to ‘do not disturb’ (creating allowances for important notifications) and forget about it as you focus on your task.

Rather than simply promising yourself not to look at your phone every five seconds, it’s better to set a specific time. That way, when you get the urge, you can tell yourself to hold out for whatever remaining time is left.

Tailor your algorithm to you.

Social apps are constantly competing for your attention — between other apps, your work, assignment, friends, family — the list goes on. That’s the main goal, and it’s accomplished through the algorithm.

Simply put, social media algorithms are the result of data analytics, computer science and statistics working together to learn your interests, and recommend content to you based on them. 

Whether the user reacts positively or negatively to the content doesn’t matter as long as they are reacting. So while the algorithm shows you things that interest you, it also shows you things that can trigger you. Because if you’re arguing in the comments or hate watching content, you’re still on the app — and sometimes you’re more engaged when upset than if you aren’t.

All this information is great, but how do we tailor the algorithm to ourselves, and why would we?

Answering the first question is simple: just be mindful.

When content shows up on your feed, ask yourself why. Ask yourself how it makes you feel, and if you gain anything from it. If for example, it’s funny, insightful or just plain entertaining to you, and if you want to see more of it — interact and that’s the content that will be recommended to you because it’s what keeps you on the app.

On the other hand, if you find the content triggering, uncomfortable or inflammatory, then scroll past. The least time you spend with it the better.

Eventually this will become second nature, and you’ll even find that your feed not only better reflects your interests, but also doesn’t work against your mental health!

Doom scroll mindfully.

Interesting title, I know — but hear me out.

A criticism of the previous advice  is that you create a bubble for yourself that’s a little too safe. You create a false reality that only reflects your current views and opinions. This at best leads you to being naive about the real world around you, and at worst, leads to the adoption of extreme ideologies.

So if you’re like me, wanting to remain knowledgeable of different view points despite it not always making you feel the best, how do we strike a balance?

What I like to do is be conscious about the information I take in. Similar to the last step, but rather than simply rejecting all that makes me unhappy, I think about why it does. Stepping outside of my feelings for a moment, I ask myself: am I learning something from this post? (yes? Interact. No? Keep scrolling) or am I just emotionally self-harming? (Yes? Keep scrolling. No? Interact)

Why are you on your phone all the time?

A quick Google search will reveal countless articles and research studies talking about and investigating the link between social media and mental illness. Often, the link highlighted is social media being the cause of illnesses such as depression and anxiety, which of course, makes sense. But what about other angles such as excessive social media use being a symptom of mental illness?

Whatever the case, if you find yourself glued to your technology and it’s impacting aspects of your day-to-day living, maybe take the time to have a little mental health check-in. Even if you don’t end up going to a healthcare provider with your concerns, try communicating your feelings with someone trusted.

Protecting you and your loved ones.

When we were kids, we were told by those older that cared for us to never take candy from strangers and to look both ways before crossing the street. Now it’s time to return the favor. Educate your loved ones with basic internet safety practices and try to keep up to date with the current practices of cyber criminals.

While it’s not surprising that a lot of older people fall victim to cybercrimes due to their lack of familiarity with the internet, let’s not forget that young people do too. We tend to fall victim because of our lack of ability and experience safeguarding our interests, and our tendency to subscribe to the ‘it can’t happen to me’ mentality.

According to the Canadian Center for Cyber Security, there are ways to protect yourself from cyber crime such as:

• Not repeating passwords and changing them often
• Keeping your applications and operating systems up to date
• Before downloading anything, make sure you’ve done your research and its from a reputable source
• Be conscious of the information you post online (remember, once something is on the internet, it can never be removed)

The amount of cyber crime victims is only increasing. Don’t let you or the people you care about become one of them.

Keep up to date with the tech.

Even if you haven’t watched the senate hearing with the Tiktok CEO, chances are you’ve seen at least some of the memes and videos poking fun at the members of the United States Congress’ utter lack of basic digital literacy.

It seems like every day, there’s something new with the tech world. At times it can feel overwhelming, and you may want to simply turn away from it all. But the thing is, technology is going to continue evolving and being more interconnected with every aspect of our lives. The question isn’t whether you like it, but whether you’ll at the very least tolerate it, lest you be left behind.

Hearing technology news can be a source of anxiety — and rightfully so.  A great way to combat it is to become more knowledgeable.

For example, let’s talk about what everyone is talking about: artificial intelligence (AI).

There are countless stories about AI usually set in dystopian worlds, used as a tool to see ourselves through a black mirror. And coverage on it tends to take on an apocalyptic tone, feeding into the fears we already have.

But while it’s made incredible strides, many AI experts will tell you that the tool still has a long way to go before robots surpass humans and we become their play-things. There’s also the chance that it never will, so long as we are vigilant in creating proper regulations and safeguards.

What’s really happening with AI now is that it’s learning, and it’s often doing so with the data of unconsenting individuals found on the web.

Remember the senate hearing? Where those members of congress had trouble grasping the concept of wifi? Leaders like them are responsible for creating laws that protect you and me, and one of the things we need more protection from is malicious use of technology. AI companies stealing people’s data, deep fakes being used to steal identities, revenge pornography… the list goes on. How are they supposed to create legislations that protect us, when they have trouble simply logging into their emails?

The truth is technology often evolves faster than laws can keep up, so unfortunately it’s up to us as individuals to keep up to date with things as they come out and take necessary precautions in order to protect ourselves the best we can.

The last thing I want anyone to leave the article with is a greater fear of technology now, and what’s next to come. It can be pretty harrowing at times, but by choosing to become more digitally mindful you protect yourself and the people around you. You contribute to creating a culture where individuals are more knowledgeable of technology, and are able to elect — or become — representatives that are better at implementing proper legal protections.

There’s a lot to look forward to concerning the future of technology. How will you be part of it?