how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

does anyone else get depressed looking at facebook or any type of social media? what do you do when that happens? how do you talk yourself down or control your thoughts?

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

Social media doesn't depress me and honestly, if that is how you feel when you're on it you should think about walking away from it.

I think in order to be on social media and NOT get depressed you need to be secure in yourself and your own life. If you are happy, confident and content in who you are and what you have then you shouldn't be bothered or affected by what others post.

Social media isn't for everyone, as fun as it is to keep up with old friends, share recipes or just BS with friends and family it can also be detrimental to someone's mental health. If you find yourself getting depressed, being jealous or getting agitated than I really think the best course of action is to stay off of social media all together.

how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

You stop using it.

how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

what about it depresses you?

people being a$$holes or because you're not doing the fun things others are posting about?

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

To me social media is a front. People only post their happiest moments, and I know real life isn’t like that. I mean I know I only post my happy moments, funny things I see, or travels, and I never post miserable moments.

They also post things for attention, vaguebooking.

I go into it with that mindset. I keep it light. When you remember that it is only a website, then that should ease your mind.

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

Message edited 4/30/2019 7:12:21 AM.

how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

I get where the OP is coming from. I wouldn't say I get depressed over it but when people post pictures of their kitchen remodel and I have the original 40 year old kitchen, it bums me out. Or vacation pictures and I can't afford to go anywhere. It can be disheartening. I also have a friend who can post the most trivial things and get so many responses and positive feedback, and it makes me feel like I could really use a few more friends.

But in the end, you just have to be happy with your life. I recently met someone and came to visit them at their home. The house was in shambles, literally falling apart, filthy disgusting, and the kids had very little including food. But they were happy to have a roof over their head and loving family. It really put things in perspective for me and made me realize that happiness is not things or how many friends you have, its what you make out of what you already have.

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

Social media does not depress me, I do not let it control my life.
I've unfollowed certain people, limited my FB friends and have in my feed only what I want to see.
Even then, I only scroll thru FB maybe once a day.

If I want to communicate with someone, I call them.

If social media depresses you, then stay off of it. Most of the crap on there is bull$hit anyway.

how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

Social Media does not depress me, but if it did, I would limit my use of it. I know one of my friends is always commenting that she wants to know how these people afford X, Y, or Z or always get the "perfect" family photo. I told her everyone lives their lives differently and while they may have X, they may also have a TON of debt. The "perfect" photo probably took 100 shots to get.

Also, people typically only post the positive. It is a snapshot of their life; it is not there day in and day out life. To give you an example, my friends are ALWAYS posting how great everything is in their family. How they have so much love for everyone. In reality, they are in couples therapy and they have frequent HUGE fights. From social media, you would never know this.

Message edited 4/30/2019 8:43:41 AM.

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

Not sure what it is that is depressing you. If it's certain people. Unfriend them or stop following them so you don't see their status.

I stopped following all news outlets. It was getting to be too much. And started following happier pages like Love What Matters and On The Road With Steve Hartman.

ETS: Maybe take a break from it for a few days. See if that helps.

Message edited 4/30/2019 7:54:22 AM.

how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

I had to stop reading Twitter for months b/c it was too overwhelming with politics and stuff. I've gotten a little too sucked into FB but then I have to purposely take a break so it's not so consuming.

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

If social media is getting the best of you, then maybe it's best you get off it. Like many have said here, people will only post the happy moments, travel, outings. Doesn't mean they are going out all the time or happy all the time. I honestly only post when I have a family gathering, am traveling, posting my kids birthday. Never do I post when I hate my husband or when the kids are driving me nuts. I have learn a lot from social media. I follow a lot of fitness guru, makeup artist. I take what applies to me to better myself. Sometimes I see people post pictures of a certain restaurant/location and put it on my list of places to go. You can't get worked up over it. Half of it is all fake anyway.

how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

I would just get off, easy peasy!

As for the comments that social media is "fake". Well, do you really want to read people bitchhing about everyday problems all day everyday? People get pisssed when you post the happy moments, and pisssed when you post the sad moments in life. If it bothers anyone that much, just get off it

Message edited 4/30/2019 8:41:13 AM.

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

Take it with a grain of salt. I honestly mostly read the light, fun posts.
See, I don't see it as bragging when people post new things they got or vacations. I actually scroll through them and are happy for them.
I roll my eyes at the political posts or those "pot stirrers" and keep scrolling.
I like to read the funny posts or watch the videos of animal recues (which I still can never understand who takes out their phone when they see a poor dog trapped first instead of running over to them )

I actually like to post vacations a lot or the kids. THen it gets to show up on timehop later and I smile at the memories. I don't really post new cars or construction. We do get new cars bc we lease, but don't think about posting it. I also haven't had too much construction done bc I live with a contractor so I'm last on the list. LOL
If I got my son a new car at 17 I would post that.
Enjoy the fun stuff and scroll through any negative stuff. Not worth getting you upset. It's Facebook. Not the real world. I call my friends when something's bothering me... not posting it on social media

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

I would definitely either stop using it (I know it's hard), or limit my use.
I'm not on FB, but I had to stop reading certain news stories. Just brought me down.

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

What other people have/do doesnt depress me in the slightest...

What DOES depress me is all the devastating news stories that somehow populate my feed because someone shared something. Stories about sick children, parents dying, children dying...dear god..and if I see it it stays with me for days...

But I keep Facebook because I use it for school stuff for my son, PTA, Town stuff, its helpful in those ways. So I try not to really look at the actual feed and just look at the notifications for the pages I follow.

how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

Playing the comparison game is never, never a good idea.
If social media is making that difficult for you then don't use it.
I really only use instagram - and my feed is mostly puppies and other animals.

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

DH hates social media. He has pretty much deleted all of his accounts.

I personally think social media has created the most narcissistic society and it's sad to see what many people post on a daily basis.

Not to mention it feels like many people can't do anything anymore without needing to capture it on camera. A simple walk in the park needs a full photo shoot, so we can't just be in the moment anymore.

If it's affecting the way you feel in a negative way, I highly recommend doing a SM detox and deleting the apps off your phone, for say a week or a month. And see how you feel. I do that from time to time and really enjoy it. Lately I see more and more people completely leaving IG and FB and they don't regret it.

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

Spring break is THE WORST. I think when schools are out for a week vacation this is the most important time to avoid social media.


I agree with most of what has been written.

The only thing I'll add - if you look at your "friends" list - there are certainly some you can pick out where great things are happening for them. I bet though that you can go through and pick out a few where someone just lost their job, or they are having trouble paying bills or they were recently diagnosed or had a family member diagnosed with something awful. It makes me sad to think about the impact on those friends.

Message edited 4/30/2019 10:32:53 AM.

how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

I'm seriously thinking about leaving social media before this election cycle heats up. On the one hand, I like getting as much information as I can and sometimes seeing the other side can be helpful, but when I see the misinformation being spread, and the hateful/racist posts by some people I know, and I know nothing I say or post will change their minds, then I feel depressed for the world. On the one hand, I'm not sure it's good to be a bubble and not know what horrible things people think and post, but at the same time, it makes me kind of hate people so maybe that's not healthy either.

As to people posting their perfect lives, I always kind of assume if you need to post about your perfect life, then it's probably not that good. You'd be enjoying it instead of posting about it on Facebook. So maybe I can't go on a fancy vacation like you, but if I did, I also wouldn't be on facebook posting a million pictures of it, because I'd be enjoying it.

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

Hide people that make posts that depress you, or just don't go on it altogether.

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

I don’t use it at all for that reason, it’s very detrimental to mental heath whether people realize it or not

Re: how do you stop facebook/social media from depressing you

I think a majority of what people put on FB is for attention and it's only the good stuff- to me it's the part of their life they want you to see - I always think the more they put on FB the shittier their life is.....