Tips for your social media and technology diet

In a season of social distancing, a steady diet of social media and technology connects people to family, friends, jobs and more.

Danielle Halliwell

Just as people can monitor their food diet to aid their health and happiness, Indiana University East faculty encourage people to monitor their social media and technology diet – for the same reasons.

“The analogy of food makes so much sense,” says IU East Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Danielle Halliwell, who studies interpersonal relationships with focus on how people use technology to communicate and maintain relationships.

“Some food you eat makes you healthy. Other foods make you sick and are toxic for you. Technology can be the same way,” Halliwell says, citing the writings of MIT professor and author Sherry Turkle in the food-technology analogy.

“No one is saying to stop eating, and no one is saying to stop using technology. Use moderation and use the diet of technology consumption that works for you,” Halliwell said.

Beth Trammell

Halliwell and IU East Associate Professor of Psychology Beth Trammell, a licensed psychologist and director of IU East’s M.A. in Mental Health Counseling Program, offered do’s and don’t’s for technology and social media and consumption during this “new normal.”

DO

• Keep yourself ‘socially distanced’ without being ‘socially isolated.’

“Video-based things give us the social connection when we can’t be socially together,” Trammell says. “There’s nothing that can replace the face-to-face connection we get when we are having a conversation with other people. Since we can’t be in the same place with them right now, things like Zoom, FaceTime, Houseparty, WhatsApp – all of those things give us the benefit of social human connection when we wouldn’t necessarily get it. We can still be cautious and socially distanced without being socially isolated, and that’s how technology plays into this.”

• Have a specific reason to be on social media

“Ask yourself, ‘Why am I logging in to this? Why am I scrolling through this news feed?” Halliwell says. “The benefit might be just to escape, which is fine. But if you don’t have an answer with a clear benefit, you need to re-evaluate that behavior. And if the answer is ‘this stinks’ – don’t keep doing it! You are in control. Make the best of the good things and try to avoid the bad.”

• Consider your audience when making a post

“I tell my students to be thoughtful posters,” Halliwell says. “Step outside of your own shoes and think, ‘How will people receive this,” Halliwell says. “A person posting on social media has responsibilities. Be thoughtful, think about audience, think about how people are going to read what you post.”

Even when posts are motivated by good intentions, Halliwell emphasizes that it’s important to consider how others will interpret our messages. She cautions that, “What you write can turn people off or offend when you were ‘just trying to help.'”

• Focus forward

“As a psychologist, I often tell people, you can’t keep talking about ‘the way things used to be’ or ‘I wish we could go back when things were this, when things were normal,'” Trammell says. “Because it’s not ever going to go back to the same. All of us are going to be changed by these things. If someone experiences a breakup and wants to go back to when things are normal – it doesn’t operate that way. Focus forward to what is life is going to look like for you, your family, your community, rather than thinking about past and wanting it to be how it was.”

DON’T

• Compare your situation to others’ situations

Halliwell points out that scrolling through social media and keeping up with how others are coping with social distancing can – sometimes unknowingly – cause us to make unhelpful or unhealthy comparisons.

“Negativity can seep in that we don’t realize when we see people and think, ‘They’re handling this so much better than me,'” she says. “That social comparison – that’s a potentially negative thing. Staying up to date with important information is a positive [outcome], but getting information that makes us feel poorly – sometimes that’s a hidden negative effect.”

• Inform to frighten

“Sharing things that aren’t fact-based are not helpful, and anything fear-based is probably not helpful,” Trammell says. “You might be thinking, ‘Everyone needs to know the risk,’ but there are ways to do that without being fear-based.

“Sharing lots of information about the coronavirus, one might think is helpful, but if that is all you keep posting and all you keep seeing, particularly if it is fear-based or things like the death rate, if someone if posting lots of information like that, they might be causing fear response in people seeing it.”

• Characterize all social media and technology use as all-good or all-bad

“As a user of technology and as someone who studies it – it’s good and bad,” Halliwell says. “It just depends on how you use it. We are experiencing this unprecedented time with isolation and social distancing, and people are thinking, ‘Is (social media and technology) good for me or bad?’ There’s no right or wrong. It’s how you use it. What’s good and healthy for you maybe isn’t so great for me.

“We’re grappling with something that we haven’t seen anything like it in our lifetimes, and we’re lucky to have this technology and these connective tools at our disposals. Imagine doing (social distancing) without technology and social media. Imagine not being able to talk to other people, to family and to see how people are dealing with this. Use the technology and social media for the good it can do and make the most of the benefits while eliminating some of the negative effects.”

Halliwell received her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. She received her Master of Arts in Interpersonal Communication and Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her research interests include communicative-sensemaking during times of relational disruption and change, the role technology plays in interpersonal relationships and communication in online support groups.

Trammell received her Doctorate in School Psychology, Master of Counseling Psychology, and her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Ball State University. She completed her doctoral internship with Hillcroft ABA Clinic in Muncie. In addition to teaching at IU East, Trammell is a licensed psychologist at Still Waters Professional Counseling, LLC, in Muncie, and she is a member of the American Psychological Association. Her research interests include parent training, diagnosis and treatment of childhood behavior disorders, and effective teaching strategies that impact student and faculty expectations. She presents research and clinical expertise at regional, national, and international conferences, as well as offering free workshops within the community.