Social Media: How I keep my sanity

I can't help going back to the thought of the influence of social media on our lives. There are positive things of course, but the point of concern is the "noise". Tons of updates from several different sources and several different connections. Definitely fills up your mind, and even if you spend just 5 minutes on a site, there may be some posts that make you think in the background. There is definitely some noise added to your life.

If you really want to experience a perfectly calm life with a lot of focus on things you want to accomplish, then staying connected 24x7 in today's world is detrimental to it. I had mentioned many of these things in this post from many months back when I experimented with quitting Facebook.

I aspire to have a very calm life. Lately, I have been meditating off and on, and it's great to have this sense of calmness within all the time.

That said, I do not want to quit Facebook. I want updates from certain sources, for e.g., TED, Khan Academy, Seattle Moms, to name a few, and with regards to people I love the fact that I can be in touch with people who stay far away, whom I cannot get to meet as often as I'd like. I love the fact that I get to see updates that tell me something about what my cousins are up to, and how they and their families are doing. Growing up, we were a pretty close-knit family and now we are scattered all around the globe.

Besides, I also enjoy seeing cute pictures of friends' kids, learning about people's latest adventure in life, etc. There are definitely some things I am thankful for.

Moreover, I love to share some things myself, although selectively.

But with regard to the noise, how do you selectively tune out of it? There are constantly issues with people over-sharing. There is often "TMI". There may be cases where you are over-sharing, in someone's view, too. So what do you do?

I am currently only on Facebook, no other social media, so this is specifically with regard to Facebook. I do a few specific things to keep my sanity-

• Everything I post is visible to only about 50% (a little less than that actually) of my connections. Being a very private person, I generally feel like sharing things only with select individuals. This way not only do I protect my privacy, but I have to worry lesser about whether I might be barraging the news feed of someone who is not really that close to me and not as interested.
• I receive updates only from select people. It's mostly people with whom I share stuff. This keeps the noise lower and I get to focus more on people and things I am most interested in.
• As soon as I comment on a post I immediately "unfollow". This is a feature I wanted even before it was introduced, so I make complete use of it. 
• This is since almost the beginning of when I started using Facebook- I don't get Facebook related emails. I get notifications only when I am on Facebook (site or app).
• When around friends or outside doing something, I don't usually check Facebook on my phone very often, unless I am bored.
• I usually don't post about my whereabouts until I am back. I don't think anyone, however close, is really dying to know where I am or what I am doing every minute. And also, best from the security point of view, just in case, in case, the site were to get hacked/your information leaked.
• On and off when it gets overwhelming or I am dealing with some mountainous hurdle in my personal life, I even deactivate my account. The silence helps me focus better on my inner self.

So there I am. This is how I keep my sanity with social media.
And I think it works out well.