GRAND RAPIDS — Social media is a love, hate relationship for a lot of people. On one hand, it's a place to connect with family and friends, but it has also become a place filled with a lot of emotion surrounding what is happening around us.
Your feed once filled with cute babies and recipes is now filled with political memes and comment sections that have people attacking each other and that can have an impact on our mental health.
We talked to local moms and a mental health professional about it and how to clear your mind and remain positive.
"You almost are in like a slump for the next hour or two because you're mulling over the comments that you read. You just are surprised by how much hate or I don't know, passion that people have. It's overwhelming, really," said Christina, a local mom.
Andrea, another mom, offered her insight.
"I have learned to just kind of scroll by things, but when I read them, what I see is a lot of general just disrespect for people," she said. "It seems like people can't voice their opinion or say whatever it is they're talking about, and have an intelligent conversation. It seems to be very one side or the other, and not very nice, just very nasty."
Both moms say they have stopped following certain sites that have become a common place for finger pointing and arguing and try to limit how much time they spend online, but it`s still hard to avoid.
Cherie Rucker is a Grand Rapids based behavior specialist and offered some advice. The first thing she suggests is to look at the amount of time your investing online.
"I think that quitting social media is a hard thing to do," she said. "I wouldn't advise to go cold turkey, but turn those notifications off and set a realistic goal to evaluate how much time you spend on social media a day."
Then its time to cut down your screen time and take back some control.
"Don't feed the trolls," Rucker said. "If you know people are trolling your page and want to poke at you, the best thing you can do is not respond sometimes. No response is the best response and then un-follow."
If you are interested in speaking with behavioral health specialist Cherie Rucker, she does have an office in Grand Rapids on 44th Street.
You can call her office at 616-777-7399.