The Best Way to Use Social Media

Social media has its upsides, though it likely has even more downsides. Just because it's available doesn't mean we need to be a part of it. If we do choose to engage, however, there are healthier and less healthy ways to do so. Dr. Robert Waldinger and Dr. Marc Schulz, directors of the now famous Harvard Study on Adult Development, offer four very helpful suggestions to engage more safely in what could be considered a somewhat dangerous practice. 

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It’s a fact of life, isn’t it? Too much of a good thing (even eating and exercise) can become bad, or a neutral thing used the wrong way (laughter) can be harmful. A very common default position among believers is that because some stuff gets abused (think alcohol), we should become total prohibitionists.

By now we have all seen alarming studies about the damage too much social media is doing to our and our children’s brains. It’s frightening. But Dr. Robert Waldinger and Dr. Marc Schulz, directors of the now famous Harvard Study on Adult Development have a different take. Their book The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness requires a good bit of work to read, but it’s proving to be a fruitful exercise for me, so you’ll likely see a few blogposts of mine that feature insights from it.

While admitting the horror of passive use of social media, Dr. Waldinger notices a potential good: “Social media and virtual interaction are here to stay, and they are likely to evolve in unpredictable ways. As we watch the way societies all over the world cope with these technological changes, is there anything we can do in our own lives to magnify the good and mitigate the bad?