I regularly have people saying to me: “Pastor Dan, I’m struggling to know who to trust.”

If you’re experiencing negative outcomes related to social media–that’s definitely a thing. Social media, because of the underlying business model, privileges negative content.

Here are a few tips toward a healthier digital media strategy.

  1. Don’t use social media as your way to get news. Use an actual news source. And try limiting your news source to one, high-quality, low-bias outlet. Need help choosing? After viewing this chart, I switched to Reuters. Avoid the sources that are known to be wildly biased.
  2. Turn off the media-related push notifications on your devices. You need fewer interruptions–particularly with sensational headlines.
  3. Delete news apps that are spoon feeding you news from a variety of sources. (Like Apple News)
  4. Avoid the articles that are popping up in your feed unless you recognize and trust the source. For the majority of the time, stick to the source you choose in tip #1.
  5. Stop reading nasty comments. Sometimes you can turn them off. If you can’t–and you can’t seem to avoid reading them, subscribe to a newspaper.
  6. Email subscribe to content (and context) rich media. Your email inbox can be a sacred space where you can get rid of the noise and privilege the best voices. If you subscribe to quality websites and podcasts–you’ll experience thoughtful discourse that isn’t plagued with all the yelling, interrupting, name-calling, and illogical nonsense that makes up so much of the noisy environment in which we currently find ourselves.