The answer?

What you let it.

Social media is a tool.

Like any tool, it is not inherently good or bad. Its effect, either positive or negative, is up to the wielder.

Social media is not the cause of our comparison – comparison will occur regardless. One does not need to have anything more than a mental picture or idea to compare.

Analogous to training for kung fu it takes incredible discipline, and willingness to take action and take up responsibility.

I purposefully acknowledge that the master of the use of social media is no easy task. This is partly because of its incredible prevalence. And the fact that our human nature is to easily use social media as a comparison trap.

But however hard the fight to be purposeful with your use of social media may seem, I can assure you the cost of inaction is much higher.

It will cost you your happiness, your security, your identity.

Below I’ve outlined a few ways to use social media with discretion and discipline for optimal results.

1. Define what success looks like.

My goal with the use of social media is likely different than yours. For yourself, determine what your goal with social media is. That could be to routinely check in with your friends, advertise your business, and share insight with others.

Take time to outline your ideal use of social media, whatever it may be.

2. Set Metrics 

The first metric would be a time frame.

What is a realistic time frame to achieving that ideal use of social media?

To give an example, one of my primary uses of social media is to keep up with my friends.

I’ve budgeted a maximum of 3 logins, or opening of individual social media apps, a day to achieve what I’ve found to be a good balance of “checking in.”

See why it is so important to set a time frame for what “keeping up with my friends” looks like? Otherwise, I have and will justify hours of excessive use of social media.

This was a goal I set at the beginning of May, now a couple of months ago. Since then I’ve been able to eliminate the number of logins down to 2 hours on social media a week. This is the new definition of “checking in” with my friends.

Keep in mind that your actions should be flexible depending on your experience in achieving your individual metric of success.

3. Get More Specific

There are other helpful metrics – many of which depend on your goal.

Here are a few more examples to consider: metric of long-term impact, metric of short-term impact, metric of increased happiness, metric of utility to me, metric of value to me and those around me, metric of value creation.

I hope this identified some actions you can take to wield social media as a powerful tool to benefit you. Some of these actions may seem unnecessary but I assure you they are essential to having a good relationship with social media.