Building Your Digital Oasis: How to Craft Online Spaces that Inspire You

Social media can have so many benefits, however, unfortunately, it also comes with its negatives. It can make us feel inadequate, encourage us to obsess over how we look, cause social anxiety, result in forms of cyberbullying and also cause a decline in face-to-face communication, just to name a few.

If you’re starting to feel quite uninspired by the time you spend scrolling, then you’re in the right place, as we’re here to give you a few ways to craft your online space into a place that is inspiring and makes you feel good, bringing back the positives of social media and removing the negatives. As well as focusing more on spending less time on social media, with our advice, you can help to make the time you spend on it more productive and healthy, building friendships and also finding a friend from within by being kinder to yourself.

Follow People You Find Inspiring

The first thing we’d advise is to focus on following people that you find inspiring. Rather than focusing on someone who looks how you’d like to or lives a lifestyle that you aspire to but that is unattainable, it’s so much better to find people who stand for what you believe in, spread healthy messages, have healthy relationships with food and exercise, share information about inspiring books, are honest and vulnerable on their profile and so on.

Everyone uses social media for different reasons, however, something many of us have in common is that we can use it to put ourselves down, whereas we should absolutely be focusing on helping to encourage self-love. There are so many beautiful, inspiring accounts out there, from fitness accounts about loving your body no matter what to stunning art accounts where people find true peace through their creations, so spend some time looking for accounts that inspire you and naturally you will see more of this content on your feeds.

Spread The Love

One of the best things you can do to make your online spaces more inspiring and supportive is to spread the love. Commenting on your friend’s posts when you’re proud of them, sharing content to support small businesses that you really love and generally just sharing kindness can make a big difference. It costs nothing and barely takes any time, but it can make a huge difference in someone’s day. Seeing one inspiring quote or a small business seeing you share their content may be just what they need to make their day. As Ghandi’s saying goes, “be the change you wish to see in the world,”  and being positive and making an effort to share love will naturally make social media a more positive place.

Be Savage With Who You Unfollow

While you can add all the positivity you want to your accounts, usually this also aligns with unfollowing people who don’t bring that. The main thing to consider when deciding who you should unfollow is whether or not you feel bad about yourself after you’ve seen their content. Perhaps their posts give unrealistic expectations of how you should look, eat or live, maybe they don’t share positivity, perhaps it’s an old friend who you really don’t align yourself with in terms of your values anymore; it might be people sharing insensitive content, or simply anything that doesn’t share the kindness, joy and positivity you want to see.

So, you need to put yourself first and go through and unfollow people. While it’s highly unlikely they’ll even notice, if anyone ever asked you why you’d unfollowed them, you can simply say that you were just making your profile a bit more private.

Use The “Not Interested” Feature

If the algorithm is showing you things you’re not interested in or aren’t in line with what you want to be seeing, then make use of the “Not Interested” features. On Instagram, you can click on any post that appears on your Explore page, then simply click “not interested.” The algorithm will understand that you want to see less of this content, and then remove it. As you gradually watch more of what you want to see, you’ll notice that your profile will begin to get more and more tailored to you. Similarly, you can also select posts that you are interested in, helping the platform learn quicker what you want to see. For example, if you’re planning out your summer and want to see more wedding guest dresses, tailor your account to this. If you want to see fewer bikini photos of people on holiday that are highly likely edited, then say you’re not interested in these. These small changes can make a big difference.

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to obsess over social media and let it take over, however, it’s also an opportunity to bring joy, positivity and warmth to your life by making small adjustments. If you are finding social media to be more harmful than helpful, then we’d recommend taking a little detox, before you step back and make a few positive changes to make it a brighter place. With these tips, you’ll be on your way to creating a more positive online space that not only benefits yourself but those around you, too.