Between comparison, chaos, and small moments of light: how I gradually learned to stay mindful on social media—and what that means to me.
Sometimes I wonder how these two things actually fit together: social media and mindfulness. On the one hand, I notice how my feed can sometimes drag me down, how comparisons stress me out, and how the constant noise overwhelms me. I scroll and suddenly feel my shoulders getting heavier, my head filling up more and more. It’s a strange feeling, because I was “only online for a bit.” And yet.
On the other hand, I keep finding small rays of light there—accounts that ground me, people who write honestly about how they’re really doing. It almost feels like a small safe space.
I catch myself more and more often consciously choosing whom I follow and whom I don’t. I used to consume everything that came across my screen. Today, I realize: not every kind of content is good for me. Not every perfect morning routine does me any good. So I click “unfollow” or “mute” more often. And instead, I choose to follow people who honestly show how hard things can be sometimes. Maybe that’s the trick: not just consuming social media, but shaping it.
I don’t believe that social media is bad per se. It’s more a question of how I use it. I’ve noticed how helpful it is for me to set conscious boundaries. To ask myself: do I actually need this right now? Or am I just distracting myself?
What surprises me most is how many others feel the same way. That we don’t have to be the hustle generation everyone assumes we are. That it’s okay to take time. I learned that too through social media—from people who talk about how mindfulness can work online as well, as long as you’re honest with yourself.
I often think we should stop demonizing social media altogether. It is what we make of it. And yes, it’s loud and chaotic—but it’s also a place where I can take a quick breath. I just have to learn how to use it in a way that’s good for me.
Maybe that’s what mindfulness ultimately means to me: knowing when it becomes too much. Knowing what helps me. Knowing that I’m always allowed to start again and do things differently—offline and online. And maybe that’s exactly the strength of our generation: that we’re getting to know ourselves better and better, even between reels and memes. And that we give ourselves permission to sometimes just be.