Transcripts
1. Introduction : Imagine that you have
entered a grocery store, but you're not carrying a list. You wander aimlessly
and pick some stuff. You reach home and realize that not only you bought
the wrong things, but you also wasted time and money and will have to go again. Then you think if only
there was a list with you? Well, I do wish the same though, not for shopping, but
for social media. Hi, I'm Neha Modi an artist, mindfulness practitioner, and a top teacher
here on Skillshare. So I love social media. It has played a huge
role in my career. But what was once a
way to share my art, connect with others, and get inspired, slowly became into
obsessive checking, refreshing, and just
plain mindless browsing. I started getting lost in
the never-ending aisles of content and kept loading
my basket with noise. I forgot what I really wanted. the excessive social media
use drained my energy, yet I kept doing it. So if you also feel the
same and are looking for a solution to make
the shift from mindless to mindful
social media experience, then you have come
at the right place. In this class, I will
take you through a mix of exercises and will provide you step-by-step
guidance so that you can reclaim your
time, energy, and focus. To take this class, all you need is an open mind, a pen, and a paper. You can access the
workbook provided in the resource section
to do the exercises, or you can follow along
in your own journal. By the end of this class, I hope that you're
not just ready to make conscious choices
about when and how to use social media
but I've also created space for diverse experiences
that go beyond the screen. Let's get started.
2. Class Overview & Project: [MUSIC] Welcome and thank you so much for joining
me in this class. Now, the quick
solution to get over excessive social
media use can be to delete all the apps
or go on a detox, and it does work for
a lot of people. But the problem is
that it doesn't work for the ones who are dependent
on social media for work. It doesn't work for the ones
who keep falling back into the old patterns after
the detox is over. As for my own experience, we need something that is
sustainable for the long term. We need a mindset
shift and that is where mindfulness and
this class comes in. Now, I won't be giving
you a fit-for-all solution because as
with anything else, you get to decide how social
media adds to your life. Though I will share the
learnings from my own journey, the roadmap that I used to get started and move ahead on this
mindful social media part. I have shared a workbook in the class resource
section to help us work on the concepts that we will be talking
about in this class. Go ahead, download it
and take a printout, or you can also use your own notebook or
journal to follow along. Now let's talk about
the class project. The class has two projects. The first one is to
finish the workbook, and the second is to share the images of the new behaviors, the new habit that you have taken up in place
of the old one. I understand that a lot of these self-reflection
exercises are very personal in nature and you might not be very
comfortable in sharing them. Feel free to share the workbook, but if you don't want to, then just share about the new habit that
you have picked up. You can share about
the new activities in the form of pictures along with a little
bit of description as to why you picked that
particular activity. I'm here to cheer you and will look forward to see
your class projects. Please do share them. Now without further ado, let's move on to the
first step. [MUSIC]
3. Map the Behavior : [MUSIC] Ever wondered how you develop that habit of refreshing Instagram when you just checked
it only 15 minutes ago? Or how in the middle
of a conversation, you just grab your phone, even where there isn't
any notification or how one let me
take a quick break in the middle of work
ends up being as a watching content
that you didn't even want or need in the first place. Why do we do that? Well, it's because of a
reward-based learning system. This system involves a trigger followed by a behavior
and then a reward. Over time, our brain then learns that when we experience
a certain trigger, certain behaviors
can make us feel better and when done repeatedly, this loop turns into a habit. Interesting, right? Now that you know how
a habit is formed, let me share with you another important insight
regarding this. The most motivating
way to reward a behavior is on a
variable ratio schedule. It means that the reward
is delivered after some of the behavior and
not all of the behaviors, thus making the
reward unpredictable. The easiest way to understand this, though, is
true a slot machine. The machine has an
average win ratio, but that doesn't guarantee a
consistent rate of reward. Because of that, the players
keep pressing the button, hoping that the next
one will be off. The uncertainty leaves
them wanting for more. It is this variable
ratio schedule that social media
heavily relies on. As we post, scroll, or swipe, we are rewarded or
not with likes, comments, retweets,
followers, and matches. Sometimes we hit it big
and sometimes we don't. Just like the slot machine, there's always some
sort of unpredictable reward out there. Now, this anticipation of reward releases
dopamine in our brain. This dopamine not only
acts on the areas of our brain that are involved in pleasure and reward seeking, but also motivates us to
repeat those behaviors. That is why it is
so hard to put down our phones and distance
ourselves from social media. How do we stop ourselves
from chasing this dopamine? How do we change our
social media habits that are not serving us? Well, this is where mindfulness, the practice of
paying attention to the present moment with non-judgmental
awareness comes in. Mindful awareness is deeper than noticing the habit itself. It is about focusing
on the trigger, behavior, and reward, all the components of the habit loop that
we discussed earlier. But paying attention
to these elements, we can shut our brain out of that automatic mode and
create some space for change. To build that awareness and to understand your
social media habit, in this first step, you are going to track your social media behavior
for the next few days. Just do your regular routine. The only thing that
you need to make sure is that you track it from the reason you picked
up your phone to the content you saw
and most importantly, what you felt after you
kept down the phone. You need to be curious
about each and every step. We're going to do that through the good old pen and paper. Now to track your behavior, you can use the workbook
or you can copy the format and use it
in your own journal. I would suggest
recording everything for at least three days out of which one of the days should be
a weekend or a holiday. Now, if you want, you can gather notes
up to a week too, it is entirely up to you. Now, let me tell
you about each and every section that you need
to fill in the tracker. Every habit has a trigger that prompts you
to do that action. It is the element that makes you go for an automatic choice. Now a trigger can be a
specific location, time, emotional state, your action immediately before the behavior,
or the people around you. Triggers can also be
thoughts, sights, sounds, physical sensation,
sense, or taste. In my case, some of the
triggers that I wrote are, boredom, after an argument, phone on the table
while doing work, while trying to express
myself or share my work, waiting for a bus, and etc. Now, if you find it difficult
to know the trigger, then as soon as you get the
urge to check your phone, ask yourself the following
questions; where am I? What time is it? What's my emotional state? Who else is around me? What was I doing right before
I picked up the phone? All these questions will help you find about
your trigger. Once you know your trigger, you can write it down in
your tracker and then keep using whichever platform
that you wanted to use. In this section, you have to
make a note of which apps or websites you visited after picking up the phone
and what you did. Did you post something
on your feed or went to check a message from a friend
or just started browsing, or did all of it one
after the other? Even if you started with one platform and
ended with another, do write all of it. Like in my case, one of the entries I made was, started with Instagram to reply to the comments
of my latest post, then saw some other posts and started liking and
commenting, etc. In another instance, when
my trigger was stressed, I wrote that I just started
browsing Instagram, saw loads of reels,
and then from there, move to Facebook and then
again back to Instagram. As you saw, this section is about writing an account
of what exactly you did. Sometimes it can be short, sometimes it can be long. There might be times
that you will not exactly remember what you did, but write as much as you can. This information is important as it will help us determine the quality of the reward we are getting as we move
ahead in this exercise. This section is quite
straightforward. All you have to do is just
write down the minutes or the hours you spend after
each social media session. Because of our phones
and technology, most of us do have
a clear idea as to how much total time we're spending on social
media in the day. But what this
information here will do is that it'll break
it down further. It will help us
see the time spent on different sessions
throughout the day. It will also help us find
out the correlation between different triggers and the time spent on a particular
social media platform. For example, after I
did this exercise, I realized that whenever
I was angry or confused, I spent way more time on Instagram and hopped
from one platform to another compared to when I just wanted to post something
or message someone. Now the next thing that you
need to track is the need. Now the need or the craving is the motivational force
behind every habit. Most of the times, what we crave is not
the habit itself, but the change in the
state that it delivers. We watch TV or play
video games because we crave change or
escape or relaxation. Similarly, we impulsively check social media not just
because we enjoy it, but to distract us from stress or anxiety or to meet
some other kind of need. We cannot change a
bad habit unless and until we know the underlying
reason behind doing it. That is why after each and
every social media session, whether it's five minutes
or 15 minutes long, make sure to write the need
in this particular column. Now I understand that identifying a need can
be difficult sometimes and that is why I have provided a list of some key
needs in the workbook. Take the help from them and see what matches
in your situation. Identifying needs in the
moment can get difficult sometimes because the emotions themselves cloud our awareness. Feel free to finish this column
at the end of the day or whenever you are comfortable
and while you write them, make sure that you're honest to yourself and don't
judge your answers. There is no right or wrong here, we're just collecting
information and we don't have to label anything
as good or as bad. We do things, we perform habits because we get
some sort of reward. That is why it is very
important to know the reward we are getting
after our online outing. After you have finished
scrolling or posting, take a moment to think
about how you're feeling. Do you feel inspired, happy, angry, envious,
bored, or lonely? Did the action improve
your situation? Ask yourself these
questions so that you can really understand
what you are feeling. Most of the times we jump
from one activity to another and might fail to notice the little
shifts in our mood. But for this
particular exercise, do try and make a
note of what you're feeling after using
social media. Once you do that, make
sure to color it. You can color the positive
feelings or mood with one color and the opposite
one with another color. The times when you cannot pinpoint the exact
mood or feeling, you can just indicate
it with color too. I experienced a mix of positive and negative
emotions and made sure to record and
color-code each one of them. I request you to do the same, because the more we
understand about our mood, about a reward,
the easier it will get to make wise choices
about social media. Go ahead and for
the next few days, spend some time to
really know your habit. Made sure to fill
in all the columns. Also, carry the
tracker with you so that you don't forget
to fill in any detail. A clear idea of your
reasons and your mood is essential to move forward in this mindful social
media journey. Please map your habit
and once you do that, join me in the next
lesson. [MUSIC]
4. Break the Spell: [MUSIC] Welcome back. Now
that you have filled up your tracker and have more awareness about
your social media habit, I'm hopeful that you are
ready to break the spell, so let's get started. Now we will do this
exercise in two steps. In the first step, we're going to look at
the information, the data that we
have collected to understand what we are
really getting from a habit. In the second part, we will define what
we really want. The first question that we're going to
explore together is, what do I get from this? Before you write your
answer in your workbook, thoroughly look at
your reward column. Take a moment to
analyze and consider how many times did you
use the positive color? How many times was
it really worth it? Did it really fix
problems or led to another problem such
as lack of sleep, lack of socializing, comparison
with others, and etc? How do you feel when you look at the outcome of the
reward column? Do you want to bring some changes in the way
you use social media? There is no right or
wrong answer here. All of us are different
and everyone will have a different reason
or a situation when social media may
seem right or not. Put back your curiosity hat and non-judgmental lens and then write what you're feeling in the workbook or your journal. For me, this question
prompt really worked as it gave me the
reality check I needed. Even while filling
up the tracker, I could sense where
it was going. After all, most of the time my reward column was
of the negative color. But seeing it all
together in the end and then writing
about it made me 100 percent aware of what I was getting and what I
didn't want any more. I realized that there were very limited occasions when I actually enjoyed
using social media. Another important realization
was that whenever I use social media to overcome
a negative emotion, well, no surprise here, all it gave me was a temporary
relief or distraction. Nothing sustainable,
nothing really rewarding. I also noted that
whenever I used social media for a
very long duration, it either made me feel irritated
or exhausted in the end. In the past, whenever my son or my husband would pinpoint
about my phone usage, I either ignored them, argued with them, or just give some random reason
to justify it. I think this happens
with a lot of us. We don't like to be
told about a bad habit. But I feel when we
reflect on it by our own, when we write about it, just like we did in this case, we end up being honest. The resistance towards the habit lowers and we end up
making space for change. The wonderful part is
that this gradual shift towards change doesn't
happen by being forceful. It happens by being mindful. You can ask yourself this question every
time you are done using social media and you don't have to write the answer
each time in a journal. Just gently check in with yourself after you are
done using social media. These little check-in
sessions will help you become more and more aware of the
reward that you're getting. You will learn to see the
rewards that are giving you a temporary relief and the ones that are truly
adding to your life. By introducing a moment
of self-awareness, we can make the whole process an intentional one rather
than an automated one. With that thought, let's move on to the next part
of this lesson. Now that we have created a
space for change by having a deeper understanding
of what we are getting out of a
social media habit, it's time to define
what we want from it. Just like the way we have
a check-in system to know the reward value after we
are done using social media, we need to have a
check-in system before we start
using social media, or for that matter, even
before we pick up our phone. How do we do that? Well, we can do that by setting intentions for each and every social media
platforms that we use. To set intentions, you can
ask yourself questions like, why do I use social media? What do I hope to get out of it? What do I want to find out? What do I want to
give through it? How do I want to feel while
and after using social media? Take the help of these question prompts to understand
your true intention. To give you some more idea, here are some examples of intentions that can be
used for social media. Connect with family and
friends, express yourself, have something to do
when you are anxious, get inspiration from
artists you admire, build an audience,
participate in an online community,
learn new skills, watch funny or
entertaining videos, network for business, find an escape, get recognition for your
work, make a career. For example, my
intention for Instagram is to share art and
mindfulness-related content, build an audience, and connect
with like-minded people. For Pinterest, it is to find inspiration and ideas,
and Facebook is for keeping in touch
with acquaintances and to get information
from Facebook groups. For YouTube, my main
intention is to learn. There was a time when I used to refer to both Instagram and YouTube to learn about things like home decor,
cooking, and etc. But because of this exercise, I've stopped using Instagram
for those purpose, so for any
learning-related things, I refer to YouTube. Because of this little
shift in intention, I've ended up saving a
lot of time and energy. So spend some time
defining your intentions. It may seem like a small step, but I feel that once you do it, it can give you a
lot of clarity. Another important
thing to note is that your intentions don't have
to be grand or heavy. It can be entertainment. What matters is that the
activity you are doing on that particular platform should serve a purpose that
aligns with your own. Once you become aware
of your intentions, you will have a sense of
direction and because of that, you will know when to check-in, what to share, who
to connect with, and how to best
connect with them. Do spend some time figuring out your intentions and writing
them down in your workbook. Also, your intentions
can change over time. Rather than making it perfect, just go with what feels right at the moment and if it
doesn't work out, you can always write new ones. The next time you get this urge to check your email
when you're bored, just ask yourself if it is intentional or why am I
doing this right now. This why will stop you from
falling down the rabbit hole. Before we end this exercise, I just want to say that though the act of stopping
to notice and not letting yourself be swept up by emotions is powerful, it does takes time. You will have to
do this over and over until it clicks for you, but it can and will
click eventually. Now there are some other steps
too that you can take to complement this practice
and help you move further on this mindful
social media journey. One of them is to replace the unfavorable behavior
with a favorable one. Join me in the next lesson, where we will hunt for better and rewarding
alternatives. [MUSIC]
5. Alternative Behavior Hunt: [MUSIC] Our habits are like an old-fashioned cassette tape. We cannot erase the behavior
without overriding it. Even when we have
taken an inventory of all the times social media wasn't as rewarding
as we thought, just trying to stop it
on the shear basis of mindfulness and
intention won't work. Most likely we will
fail and fall back into the old patterns
because our cravings, our needs will be unmet. That is why it is
important to look for healthier behaviors that we can replace in place
of the older one. A behavior that can not only
help in meeting the needs, but is also more rewarding
than the previous one. Once again, bring out
your tracker and focus on the needs section and highlight the needs that even after
using social media, did not give you any
positive rewards. As you shortlist the needs, here is one important
thing to consider. Some of the times,
your needs might have the possibility to be
met by social media, like when you're
using it to showcase your work or to
connect with people. But then because of
other reasons like excessive time spent or using it at the wrong
time of the day, it could be turning into
a negative outcome. For situations like these, we will be establishing
boundaries in the next lesson, so feel free to leave
them out for now. Once you have
shortlisted the needs, you can write them
in the workbook. Use a different page for
each individual need. You can write them exactly as you had written
in your tracker or you can consolidate similar types of needs
and write it as one. Feel free to write as
many needs as you want. The goal of this lesson is to find an alternative
behavior that can actually meet your
needs rather than just aggravate it or give
you temporary relief. Like in my case, I had three major
recurring needs that I was trying to
meet with social media, but it wasn't working
out the way I thought. The first one was
relief and escape. The need to zone out or
just escape for some time, especially after an
argument was one of my recurring needs
behind social media. The next on the list is
the need for reassurance. Now, I use social
media for inspiration. Even though most of the times it has been a positive experience, while doing this exercise
I noticed that many a times those inspiration
seeking sessions went really long. It was interesting to realize that it was
my underconfidence, the need to be absolutely
sure about what I was doing or writing depending on
what that activity was, what's the reason behind my
excessive social media use. The next need that I wrote in the journal is the
need for stimulation. I've spent hours scrolling
through social media not because I felt it was
the best use of my time, but because I was trying to
meet my need for stimulation. Even though social media
and phones are one of the easiest way to
get some stimulation, I wanted to break
this dependency and that is why I wrote
it down in the journal. Now that the needs have
been written down, it's time to find the
alternative behavior that can actually help to
meet these needs. What new behavior will you execute in place of the old one? Well, that can range from taking a walk to
listening to music, to reading, to meditation, to playing an instrument. There are many, many options. It is absolutely personal and depends on the needs that
you have shortlisted. I cannot tell you
exactly what to do, but here are some steps
that you can take as you look for better and
healthier alternatives. The first and the
most important thing to consider is that your new routine should actually meet the needs that
you have written down. For example, in my case, to meet the need of
relief or escape, I decided to opt for
walking and music. For my need for reassurance, I decided to journal. Now, just because I
have written music and long walks as an
alternative behavior, it doesn't mean that I
haven't done them before, but then, previously, I didn't make a
conscious attempt to replace social media with
music or long walks. That is why writing it down in the workbook and
treating it like a plan changed the way I
approached listening to music or taking
walk as an activity. It became more intentional. When you decide
your new behavior, don't worry about
it being unique. The goal here is to replace social media with a healthier
and better alternative. Old or new, it doesn't matter. Now you are going to use
this alternative action to break a deep-rooted and
an enticing old habit. Try to pick something
that is easy and you enjoy or enjoyed at one
point in your life. It can also be something
that you've been wanting to do since
a very long time. The less the resistance,
the better it is. For example, to meet my
need for stimulation, I have shortlisted reading
as my new behavior. It is something that I
enjoyed for a very long time, but I'd stopped lately. I started with fiction
as that's more fun. I also took the local
library subscriptions so that I could
access more books. Similarly, if you want
to journal or draw, then start with a
small size book. The less space, the less intimidating
it'll be to fill it. If your need is connection, then go to a meet-up or join a class that is of
your interest area. Maybe take a friend with you. In short, when you shortlist
your new behavior, get creative, make it appealing, make it easy for you. Now, the next thing to consider is that your new habit should be something that works for
you rather than against you. That is why substituting
social media with Netflix isn't a good idea, but don't get too ambitious. Do remember the
previous point of it being easy and something
that you enjoy. For example, doing five-minutes
of deep breathing is a good starting
point rather than committing to a long
meditation session. Of course, as you
get comfortable, you can increase the duration, increase the intensity of
that particular activity. The last thing to
consider while choosing the alternative is that it should be something
that you can measure. As it is a beginning phase, the measurable the activity, the easier it gets
to sustain it. Also, the brain doesn't work well when you give
it ambiguous terms. For example, I will go
for a walk when I'm stressed rather than
going on social media. It should be, I will
go for a 10-minute walk whenever I'm stressed. Based on these points, do write down all the
new actions that you have come up with for
each of the needs. In the column below it, write down any steps
that you might have to take to facilitate
those actions. Do remember to write
the reward too that you are going to get from
each of the new routines. If you're not sure about the
right fit, then experiment. You don't have to
fix only one option. Once you have filled
up the plan sheet for each of the
individual needs, you can do something to
remind yourself about it. Now, those visual
reminders could be a post-it on the
fridge or the mirror, a printout on the wall
in front of your desk, a screensaver on your
phone or your laptop, any other object that you
will see throughout the day that will remind you to follow
through with that action. In my case, I started carrying a book every time I stepped
outside of the house. Whenever I had some
time to kill and I opened my bag to take out my
phone, I would see the book. That visual cue
reminded me of my plan that if I needed
stimulation, I should read. The visual reminder to
work on my need for reassurance was a journal and a pen near my bedside table. Based on what your
new alternative is, figure out the
visual reminder that will help to keep your
habit in front of you. All this planning
and detailing will ensure is that when
the need arises, you will not have any excuse and it'll be easier to
follow the new habit. Over time, that new routine will start getting stronger and a new and a better habit will be formed in place of an old one. As you make that shift from the old behavior to
the new behavior, remember to be compassionate
towards yourself. There will be times, especially at the beginning, that you might fail and fall
back into the old routine. But when that happens, instead of talking
negatively to yourself, you can gently
remind yourself of the plan and then get
right back to it. Don't wait until the next day or the next Monday or the
next month to start off. Just like it took
several repetitions to form the old habit, the new habit too will
take many repetitions. Aim for small steps
instead of perfection and slowly you will
start seeing the change. Yes, once you find
your treasure, your new behavior, to replace the old one, don't forget to post about it in the project
gallery section. I think it will be
very inspiring for everyone to see the
various things that can be done to meet
different needs instead of a one-stop
social media. Now, let's move on to
the last lesson which will close all the
loose ends and help us move smoothly and efficiently on the mindful
social media parts. [MUSIC]
6. Change the Environment : If you're trying to eat healthy, a common piece of
advice is to avoid having any junk
food in the house. If the cookies are right
there on the table, you will probably
take one or three. But if they are on the
shelf of the supermarket, you're unlikely to eat them. Similarly, we do
need some rules, some changes in our environment so that we don't give
in to the temptation. We need to establish some social media boundaries
so that we can draw the line required to sustain our mental and emotional energy. Now there isn't one solution
that works for everyone. Just like the way our triggers and our intentions
are different, so will be our boundaries. But to give you a clear idea and to help
you pick up the boundaries, I have divided the boundaries
in three categories. Let's start with the first one. There are various
ways that you can set time boundaries when it
comes to social media. You can set the time of the
day you want to use it, as well as a number of hours. You can also figure out the
days of the weeks that you want to completely cut
off from social media. If you are not sure as to what's a reasonable amount of time to spend on social media each day, then you can get the
answers from the tracker. You can take into account all the time you spend
on social media wherein you have
a valid reason to login and then come
up with a number. You can also consider your intentions behind
using different platforms, then ask yourself,
how much do you actually need for each
of those platforms. You can have different
time slots for work and personal use in case you manage and run
different accounts. Now, this time limit
isn't set in stone, so just see what
works for you right now and you can always
adjust it later. You can also ask someone close to you to get a
different perspective. Once you come up with a number, make a big deal about it. With that, I mean, pluck a slot in your
schedule for it. Just like the way
you would schedule other important activities
in your day or the week, schedule your social
media time too. Give it 100 percent
attention and importance. Instead of quick bites like
one-minute in the elevator, five-minutes while waiting
in the line for coffee, or 15 minutes before
taking a bath, have a hearty, long-lasting
snack and make it count. While you're using social
media all that should matter is you and the content
that you are browsing. In my case, I have scheduled daily time slots for
YouTube and Instagram, and weekly once for
Facebook and Pinterest. Now sometimes if I have a specific need and I
want to login into any of these platforms outside of
my time limit or my day, then I just login to the particular need and
logout immediately. No scrolling, no liking, no messaging if it is
outside of my schedule time. The interesting part is that because of all of
these time limits, I've actually been
able to do much more. I've been more focused
and thus more productive. Give these time
boundaries a try. Now let's move on to
the next boundary. When it comes to setting
space-related boundaries, there are three
aspects to consider. The first one, which I
feel we often overlook, is the mental space we are in while browsing or
consuming content. Most of the time we
use social media as a quick fix when we are stressed or going
through a bad mood. It might feel good initially but then after the initial rush, that stress comes back. Also during that
mindless scrolling, we might see some
content which adds to our anxiety and makes us feel much worse than we were
feeling in the beginning. That is why even if it is your designated time
slot and you know the reason why you're using
that particular platform, if you are in a bad
mood, then take a break. If it is not time-sensitive, you can always come
back to it later. It may seem little but to drive my point further,
here's an example. Suppose you have to go for a party and you're
very excited for it. But right before you
enter the venue, you have an argument with
your partner or your friends. Now, would you like to go inside and meet everyone right away, or would you like a minute
to gather your thoughts, calm down and then enter? Well, it's the same
thing here too. When you take care of
these little things, not only will you safeguard
your mental peace, but will also prevent any negative or rude interaction
that can happen online. Another aspect when it comes
to space is physical space. The space in your
house where you will use or not
use social media. For example, you can
decide that you will not use your phone
while on the bed, or on the dining table, or in your work area. Or you can also do
the opposite and decide the spaces where
you will use social media. Like in my case, the
only space that I use my phone when I'm at
home is my living room. After I'm done browsing and interacting at my
designated time slot, I keep the phone away. This physical distance helps in breaking the habit
of reaching out to the phone just out of
impulse and without any reason. The final thing to
consider when it comes to space-related boundaries
is picking up the device. Just because these platforms are available for desktop,
mobile, tablets, it does not mean
that you need to use it in all these devices. Like in my case, I use Instagram only on my phone and iPad and never
on my computer. All these practices
may seem very simple or even
insignificant on their own, but the thing is that
the speed at which phones and social media
have come into our lives, we didn't get the chance to think about these little things. That is why we need to
go back to the basics. Instead of doing a detox or completely
deleting everything, we can do these little
changes to bring in a more balanced and
mindful approach. One of the important steps in making the shift
from mindless to mindful social media is to make our online experience
interesting, fun, and valuable. We can do that by setting some
content-related boundaries. The people we follow
online are essentially the people we're hanging out
with in the online space. Just like the way we have clear boundaries on
the people we like to hang out often with and the people we want to
avoid at all costs, we need to have
similar boundaries for the online space too. Go to the list of
people, brands, and pages you follow on all of the social
media platforms, look at every single one of the accounts and ask yourself, why are you following them? Are they bringing you
inspiration, motivation, making you laugh, challenging your mindset or contributing
to your growth? Think about what things
you wish to see, unsee, and what you want to feel when you browse
through your feed. Based on these pointers, you can easily decide whom
to follow and whom not to. Do try some spring cleaning of the various social media
platforms that you're following. It will be a relief to declutter all the
negative things and people and it will also make your social media
experience uplifting. Much of our lives these
days is intertwined with our social media presence and social media does a
wonderful job too. It has helped us
to connect and get educated in ways that was never possible
before the Internet. But just like social interaction in life outside of the Internet, if we don't navigate through these online spaces with our health and wellness in mind, we can get stuck in unhealthy and emotionally
draining habits. At the end of the day, you can follow 50 or 500 people. You can spend one
hour every day, or just few hours
over the weekend. You can be active on one platform or five
different platforms. But the point is that you should be the one who
is deciding that. Go forth and make the boundaries that work for you
that aligns with your intention so
that you can keep using the good parts
of social media.
7. Final Thoughts: [MUSIC] Congratulations,
you did it. Thank you so much for
staying through this class. I really appreciate the time and attention that
you have given. I hope that the exercises
in the class have enabled you to build awareness about
your social media behavior, and I've provided you
enough steps to bring the shift from mindless to
mindful social media use. The thing to remember is that a mindful social media practice is less about how much time, and more about how that
time is being used. It is important
to be intentional about each and every
aspect of social media, or even technology
for that matter, so that it can add to your life and not
take away from it. Your digital self is an
extension of your real life, so treat it with care
so that you can have a meaningful and gratifying
social media experience. Do try some or all
of the exercises that we did throughout
the class for some days, and see how it works for you. Please don't be hard on
yourself for doing them. Also, don't forget to
share your thoughts, your experiences about
these activities. I understand that sharing all the parts about the
workbook can be uncomfortable, so share the ones that
you are comfortable with. One of the things that I
really encourage you to share is the images
of the new actions, the alternatives
that you have picked up in place of the old ones. Suppose the image
of the new book that you bought,
or your playlist, or you while doing
yoga or dancing, I would love to see them. I'm sure it will inspire and
give ideas to others too. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to post in
the discussion board. You can connect with me by
following me on Instagram. You can also follow
me on Skillshare so that you would be updated
on future classes. But yes, as we discussed
in the boundary lesson, click on the "Follow" button, only if my content aligns with your
intentions and your needs, and only if it
adds value to you. Thank you once again
for taking this class. I wish you well on your
mindful social media journey. Do remember that it takes
time to rewire old habits. Give yourself please as you make these big
little changes. Take care, and see you
next time. [MUSIC]