As of now social media has no real oversight so there is nothing stopping it from selling user data and keeping up engagement by pushing something controversial in their feed. It doesn’t care about the users mental health and just looks at dollar signs. I can see where they are coming from…

Let me preface this by saying the impact of social media is very personal and ymmv. With that said, transitioning my usage from general platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to those that target a specific usage has improved my mental health.

For example, no longer am I on r/golf as I’ve switched to https://www.golfwrx.com, I’ve replaced Instagram with shared albums to those that I’m close with, and I’ve spent more time reading blogs and responding to newsletters than on news aggregators where discussion tends to fade away almost instantaneously - the irony, I know.

The ultimate goal should be to find a safe middle. I have severe social anxiety which worsened during the pandemic, and social sites are a lifeline for me. If it wasn’t for Reddit (RIP), online games, and Discord, I’m pretty sure I would have driven my long-suffering wife crazy several times over. In fact, joining a local game store discord led me to actually going out and playing M:TG face-to-face for the first time in over a decade.

Like anything else, if used responsibly, social media can be a benefit.