Despite the criticism that many make, in some cases with partial reason, Instagram is still one of the most important social networks of the moment. That is why it is worth taking advantage of all that valuable content that many users contribute and not just stay with the negative part. If you are interested, let’s see how to use Instagram in a safe, healthy and balanced way .
A matter of attitude
From time to time it is interesting to stop and think about how different social platforms are being used today, but not so much about how others use them but oneself. Knowing what the real motivations are and what you finally find when you access it is important to know to what extent it contributes and if something can be done to change what you do not like.
However, both what motivates you to enter and what contributes is closely related to your own attitude. If when looking for content or making interactions it is done in a toxic way, the safest thing is that everything ends up becoming a mountain of negative acts that will not benefit at all at the end of the day.
Toxic attitudes only further polarize and end up angry rather than enjoying the time spent on Instagram. So, the first thing to do is change the way you see the network and the attitude that is maintained with the publications. When you have all that clear, you can start to take advantage of the different tools it offers to improve the experience even more.
Instagram security tools
Now, you are determined to use Instagram in a healthy way, to share moments or simply enjoy those topics that interest you. How do you do it? Well, starting by making use of security tools.
If your feed has become a bit chaotic, with negative content, users who annoy with their publications or comments, nothing better than taking advantage of all these options:
- Block accounts: it is not necessary to explain much, if any account that appears on a recurring or occasional basis publishes content that is not to your liking and is doing you wrong, with this tool you can forget about it
- Block commenters: it is true that one of the attractions of social networks is their ability to connect with others and the interaction they allow, but not always everyone comments with respect and reasonedly arguing their opinions. Therefore, if one happens in your publications, you can block it. Also, because of how this option works, he will continue to see his comments towards your content, but no one else. A clear “Don’t feed the troll” that avoids being noticed and can create new accounts to continue bothering
- Control comments: another interesting option to improve the experience is to control who can or cannot comment on your publications. In this way, you will be able to hide those that are offensive to filter those that use some words or emojis that are not to your liking. Finally you can always eliminate all those that sneak in and do not contribute anything
- Mute an account: this other tool offered by Instagram is interesting because without having to stop following that profile, it allows you that nothing you publish appears in your feed
All these tools plus the rest that are already aimed at carrying out more specific actions provide the first step towards a safe use of Instagram. But to achieve a much healthier and more rewarding experience while balancing, it is important to rely on what is called Digital Balance .
Instagram digital balance
If you stop with paper and pencil in hand to write down how many notifications or attempts to get your attention throughout the day, it is very likely that you will be surprised. So much so that it is easy to think how it is possible that more than one has not ended up crazy after thousands of “just published new content in their stories”, “see the last publication”, “is broadcasting live”, etc.
These notices as well as other elements can be of great help, but you do not have to have them active at all times. What’s more, although by default everything is active, it would still be interesting to start with a completely opposite configuration where it is limited from interactions to time of use.
As this does not happen and the reason is something that we all already know (these platforms want us to use them for as long as possible), what can be done is to take advantage of the tools that they have also been offering for some time and that fall within the scope of which they call as digital balance.
These options are independent of those that the iOS and Android operating systems also offer for their part. So it never hurts to know what they offer to see to what extent they can be useful in your day to day and how to use the network.
The first thing is to know how to access the digital balance of Instagram . To do this, you just have to follow the following steps:
- Open the Instagram app
- Access your profile and then Settings
- Select Your Activity
- Finally, the Hour section
In this section you will see the time you use the daily average application and an option that allows you to manage the daily time you invest in the application and the notification settings. With these three options what you can achieve in order to improve the user experience is quite interesting.
- View activity is the most visual way to have a clear x-ray of the time you have spent consulting Instagram during the last seven days. Although here you have to take into account that it also adds the time of use when you are publishing content. So you have to know how to make the correct readings to know if it takes a lot of time because you go in to look and no longer go out or if it is because you are uploading photos, stories, etc.
- Scheduling a daily reminder is one of the most useful notifications you can receive from Instagram since it alerts you when you exceed a previously established time. If you only want to use the network for 30 minutes a day, set that maximum and when you go, it will tell you. So you will be aware of what you invest every day or when you use it
- Notification settings is the last option and in turn, within it, there are many more notifications so that you have exact control over what you do or do not want to receive. Although if you want to have full control of the use, for all notifications
How to use Instagram in a healthy and balanced way
With all this already known, what can you do to maintain a balance and healthy use of Instagram? Well, it really is very easy, but it requires that you apply the changes from day one and do not fall into the temptation to skip what you define.
The first step is to establish the maximum time that you are going to invest on the platform. Here it will depend on each one, their involvement and the number of users they follow, but we would recommend that you spend no more than 30 minutes a day. Actually in much less time you can see the feed and the stories of the people you follow, leaving you time to discover new accounts if you feel like it.
Regarding notifications, you really don’t need any active ones . At most, you could leave only those that affect live shows if you follow accounts that do them on a recurring basis and are on topics that really interest you. If not, then nothing happens if you miss it. We really miss a lot more things every day, so what difference does it make if it’s also a direct from IG.
Controlling the time of use and notifications, do a cleaning of all those accounts that contribute little or have changed their theme to one with which you are not comfortable. You do not have to stop following them if you do not want to, remember that there are the options to silence accounts. But it is important that when you enter Instagram the content you see always adds and never subtracts.
It is true that there will always be things that do not fit you at all, such as the suggested posts that the network now usually shows to hook you a little more, although they say they are suggestions to help you discover new profiles. But these elements can also be reduced if from the three-point menu of the publication you indicate that they do not interest you.
In addition, to all this we must add other options that allow you to report offensive or dangerous content. So yes, with a good attitude and taking advantage of every available tool, you can enjoy Instagram in a healthy and balanced way.
And that’s good, because there is a lot of useful content that you can take advantage of and with which to enjoy in those moments of leisure or even take advantage of all its possibilities in the face of professional topics. But if after trying you see that it does not contribute, then eliminate it.
