Online advocacy has a lot of positives because it allows you to connect with others who truly understand the challenges of a disability and teaches you things about medical conditions you won’t learn from your doctor. Most bloggers are nice people, but anytime you put something out on the Internet, you run the risk of someone disagreeing with you and not being nice about it, which can affect your mental health. As an online health advocate, I think it is so important that you stand by everything that is written on your blog and do what you have to do in order to protect your mental health, because you are going to run into trolls who make you question your work. In my experience, people are meaner to complete strangers online than they would ever be in real life, which can negatively impact your mental health if you’re new or not in a good place mentally. How do you protect your mental health online when there are so many trolls who will do everything within their power to get you to quit? In this post, I am going to talk about a few things you can do to protect your mental health online.
Take a day off social media- Content creators have to spend a lot of time online and as long as we are content creators, we can’t decide to permanently get off social media if we are trying to make money off our blogs. Social media has a lot of positives, especially for disabled people, but there are a lot of negative accounts, and I think it can be beneficial for content creators to unplug and take a social media break sometimes. You should be excited to create content and if you are not and getting on Instagram makes you stressed, then take that as a sign to take a break. You don’t have to permanently delete your social media accounts or be offline for a year because even a few days can help relieve stress and protect your mental health. Make sure you set a time for yourself to unplug from social media and interact with people in real life. It is okay to take a random day off because your blog will still be there when you return. Take a self-care day when you need it because it will help clear your mind, so when you come back, you are feeling refreshed and ready to create.
Clean up your follower list- Social media can be positive, but it also can be toxic if you are not following the right kinds of people that support your goals, because who you follow matters. People sometimes get obsessed with the number of followers they have and will not delete people who are toxic because it would lower their follower count. I can’t stress enough how important it is to clean up your follower list and delete people who are mean to you and no longer serve you, because toxic people are hurting your mental health. Your followers should encourage you to keep creating, and if someone is not doing that and tearing you down, then you don’t need them. Cleaning up your follower list is so important for your mental health because you aren’t going to want to show up online if you are seeing troll comments every day. In my seven years of blogging, I have blocked and deleted people from my follower list who weren’t very nice to me, and it has been one of the best things I have done for my mental health. You can subscribe to my blog, but if you are rude, I have the right to delete you, and trust me, I will.
Delete or hide rude comments– My blog has not gotten a lot of rude comments and most people are nice, but I have gotten my fair share of unkind comments on social media. Most rude comments are completely ridiculous and do not affect me, but occasionally I will get a comment that I am offended by because I am human. Most people are not going to see the rude comments I have gotten on social media because I have started to delete or hide comments that affect my mental health. These comments serve no purpose to me, and I would rather have less comments than my comment section be filled with troll comments. Sometimes I don’t even read troll comments and just delete or hide them to protect my mental health and anyone else who reads the comment section. Your comment section should make you feel inspired, and if it makes you want to quit, you might want to consider deleting or hiding some comments.
Block people that bring you down- There are a lot of kind, supportive people on the Internet but there is also an equal amount of trolls, and one of the benefits of being an online advocate is that you can block people who are toxic which you can’t do in real life. If you have a follower who is consistently leaving negative comments even after you talked to them about it, then your next best thing is to block them because you don’t have to put up with toxic people, like most people who have an office job do. It is easy to create a positive space online because you can easily block and avoid people who are toxic. Blocking people is not childish, but it’s self-care, and sometimes it’s necessary to protect your mental health.
Make clear comment polices on your blog and social media– Many content creators will have clear comment polices displayed on their blog so there is no confusion as to what types of comments are acceptable, but it’s not just for your blog, and you can pin common question people and policies on your social media. Some creators get a lot of the same questions over and over again, so they pin them at the top of their social media because it can get exhausting for people with limited energy to keep answering questions that are addressed in blog posts.
Social media has a lot of positives, and it can help disabled people feel less alone but unfortunately, there are just as many trolls, and there is nothing you can do to completely stop them. You have no control over who comments on your blog, but you can choose to not respond to negative comments and block people who negatively affect your mental health. If your job requires you to be on social media a lot, it is so important that you set boundaries for yourself and do what you have to in order to protect your mental health. Social media can make some people depressed which is why we need to be able to recognize when we need to take a step back to take care of ourselves. You can’t show up for your readers and create your best work if you are depressed and are struggling to write one blog post. How do you take care of your mental health online? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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