The Scroll That Never Ends
We've all been there. You open your phone to check one notification and suddenly it's two hours later. Your thumb is tired, your eyes are strained, and somehow you feel worse than when you started. You've absorbed everyone's trauma, witnessed three arguments, and seen enough hot takes to last a lifetime.
For Black users, the digital experience comes with an extra layer of complexity. The news cycle hits different when it's your community in the headlines. The comments section is a minefield. And the pressure to be informed, engaged, and vocal on every issue affecting Black people can feel relentless.
It's time to talk about protecting your peace.
The Unique Mental Health Challenges We Face Online
Racial Trauma on Repeat
Viral videos of violence against Black bodies. Comments sections filled with racism. The constant need to defend our humanity to strangers. These aren't just unpleasant experiences—they're exposure to racial trauma, and the effects are cumulative.
Research has shown that exposure to racism, even vicariously through media, has measurable impacts on mental and physical health. Your stress response doesn't distinguish between witnessing something in person and seeing it on your screen.
The Pressure to Perform Activism
Social media has amplified Black voices in powerful ways, but it's also created pressure to perform activism constantly. If you're not posting about every issue, are you complicit? If you take a break during a crisis, are you abandoning the cause?
This pressure can lead to burnout, guilt, and a complicated relationship with the platforms that are supposed to connect us.
Comparison and the Highlight Reel
Beyond the unique experiences of Black users, we also face the universal challenge of social media comparison. Everyone's life looks better than yours when you're seeing their highlight reel. Add in the specific pressures around success, appearance, and representation in the Black community, and the comparison game becomes even more complicated.
Strategies for Digital Wellness
1. Curate Ruthlessly
Your feed is your digital environment, and you have more control over it than you might realize. Mute, unfollow, and block liberally. This isn't being petty—it's self-care.
Ask yourself about each account you follow: Does this add value to my life? Does this support my mental health? If the answer is no, let it go.
2. Set Boundaries Around Traumatic Content
You don't have to watch every video. You don't have to read every thread. Being informed doesn't require traumatizing yourself. Trust that if something is truly important, you'll hear about it—you don't need to seek out the most graphic version.
Consider: What do I actually need to know versus what am I consuming out of habit or morbid curiosity?
3. Schedule Your Social Media
Endless scrolling often happens when we use social media reactively—picking up our phones whenever we're bored, waiting, or avoiding something. Try scheduling specific times for social media instead.
Maybe it's 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening. Whatever works for you, the key is intentionality. When you check social media on purpose rather than on impulse, you're more likely to use it in ways that serve you.
4. Create Tech-Free Zones
Designate spaces and times that are off-limits for your devices. Maybe it's the dinner table, the bedroom, or the first hour after you wake up. These boundaries help ensure that your entire life isn't mediated through a screen.
5. Practice the Pause
Before posting, commenting, or engaging in a debate, pause. Ask yourself: Is this worth my energy? Is this going to make things better? Is this person actually open to hearing what I have to say?
Not every battle is yours to fight. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is log off and live your life.
6. Find Your People
Having genuine community—whether online or offline—makes a huge difference. These are people you can be real with, who understand your experiences without explanation, who can help you laugh when things are heavy.
Quality over quantity. A few genuine connections are worth more than thousands of followers who don't really know you.
7. Take Real Breaks
Not a "detox" where you post about how you're detoxing. A real break where you step away from social media entirely for a period of time. A day, a week, a month—whatever you need.
These breaks help reset your relationship with technology and remind you that life exists beyond the screen.
When to Seek Professional Support
Sometimes digital wellness strategies aren't enough. If you're experiencing persistent feelings of depression, anxiety, or hopelessness—whether related to social media or not—please consider seeking professional support.
Therapy is not a sign of weakness. In fact, given the unique stressors Black people face in America, regular mental health support can be viewed as essential maintenance, not emergency care.
Resources like Therapy for Black Girls, Black Men Heal, and the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation can help connect you with culturally competent mental health professionals.
A Community Approach to Digital Wellness
This isn't just about individual choices. We can support each other's digital wellness as a community:
- Check on your strong friends—the ones who are always posting, always engaging, always fighting the good fight
- Normalize taking breaks without judgment
- Create spaces where people can connect without the pressure to perform
- Share positive, affirming content alongside the serious stuff
- Celebrate Black joy as loudly as we address Black pain
The Goal Isn't Disconnection
Let's be clear: the goal isn't to abandon digital spaces entirely. Social media has genuine benefits—community, information, connection, opportunity. The goal is to engage in ways that support rather than undermine our wellbeing.
You can be informed without being traumatized. You can be connected without being consumed. You can use these platforms without them using you.
Your peace is worth protecting. Your mental health matters. And logging off sometimes is a radical act of self-care.
How do you protect your peace online? Share your strategies with the community.
