By now we’re all in quarantine, and whether you’re with your family at home or in Gainesville by yourself, it’s a hard thing to adjust to. Online classes, missing friends and the stress of the pandemic is taking a toll on us. With so much stress, it can be hard to focus on our schoolwork or other activities, so we spend a lot of time on our phones. Now we’re becoming tiktokers and resorting to old middle school “slide up for a TBH” and “rate” to cope. I feel a little attacked now when I get my weekly screen time update from my phone.
While social media is a helpful way to feel connected to other people, it can also be bad for our mental health. Constantly reading news updates about the coronavirus and reading misinformative posts can lead to more stress. This is a good time to go through your following list to see if the people you’re following are having a good or neutral effect on you. Maybe the celebrities you love are complaining a bit too much about staying in their million-dollar homes with multiple rooms and reassurance they will be okay with this. Or maybe your high school classmate keeps posting inaccurate information that speeds up your heart when you read it. Whatever it is, take a moment and just unfollow, mute or block accounts that are inadvertently hurting you. To replace them, I have some Instagram accounts I like to follow to add good vibes and uplifting spirits to my feed.
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- @hannahgoodart
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I’ve been following this account for years now, and it has always had the ability to make my mood better. Hannah Good is an artist that is best known for her monthly pep talk posts. Each monthly post has a person next and words of advice that are relevant to what people may be experiencing during that month. Her art style is fun with light colors to keep things from being overwhelming. She makes it a point to make her page representative to show that everyone is welcomed to enjoy her art. With 660 posts, you’ll be sure to find something that resonates with you.
- @laurajaneillustrations
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This account is so nice to have to brighten up your feed when most of it has neutral and dull colors. The artist Laura Jones aims to bring “POPS of POSITIVITY” into our daily social media interaction by making art that is bright and uplifting. It’s full of spring and summer color graphs and lettering that tells us we’re great and deserve love. She talks about mental health, women empowerment and healthy relationships in ways that remind us to be loving towards ourselves in hard times.
- @girlboss
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I have so much love for this Instagram page. It’s full of relatable posts that overall is a safe place for women to come together and talk in the comments. You can always be reassured to find funny pictures of dogs, screen captions, twitter posts or empowering quotes. They also make their comments a place for followers to interact. They ask for people to share advice, positivity and just love for each other. There are no bad vibes to find on this page.
It’s really important for us to remember to be conscientious of our screen time when practicing social distancing. Too much time on our phones and computers can cause physical and mental stress. Remember to take a walk, do a puzzle, learn to knit or read a book to give you space. Take a break from the constant information overload and curate your feed to be something that brings you joy. In a time where we have little control, it’s important to do things we have the ultimate decision on.