After Apple came out with the update that told you how much time you were spending one each app daily and weekly– I was horrified. Not only was I spending too much time on my phone, but the main time sucker had been from Instagram. I was constantly scrolling through it during my downtime, whether it was on my couch watching tv or for a few minutes in between passing periods at school.

I’m not gonna lie, I love Instagram and I think it has many benefits. I love being able to stay connected with my friends and what they’re doing and I love the memes. But when I looked back on how I spent my time on Instagram, I realized that I was mainly looking at social media influencers and celebrities feeds.

After taking the time to reflect on why I spent the time doing this and how it made me feel, I realized how many of my insecurities stemmed from this habit. The sad reality is that these influential people (along with many of us) use extreme photoshopping and editing in order to present the best highlight reel of their life that they can. It’s this false image of perfection that creates a toxic and cookie cutter environment because it sends a signal that if you don’t dress, look, or act a certain way then there is something wrong with you.

For me, seeing everyone’s photoshopped bodies made me feel insecure about my own looks. I felt like I wasn’t tan enough, blonde enough, or skinny enough to meet the societal standard of beauty. I felt like my life wasn’t good enough because it wasn’t as perfect and consistently happy as everyone else’s. It seemed like everyone was just posting to compete about whose life was more perfect, and I always felt like I was losing.

But one day it hit me, Instagram itself wasn’t the problem. The problem is how people are using it. I was too busy following the wrong people who were promoting this false idealism of perfection and who were displaying the message of “the skinnier the better”. Instead of following people with this negative influence, I knew I needed to make a change to the content I was seeing on Instagram.

And that’s exactly what I did. I said goodbye to the Kardashians and all the other people who made me feel worse about myself after looking at their posts. I have started to transform my feed into one that makes me feel uplifted after looking through it by following inspiring and positive people.

My favorite account that I have started following is called @I_weigh and was founded by actress Jameela Jamil. The account is part of a revolution to change the beauty standards created by photoshop and to make them more inclusive of all body types.It also centers its content around motivating people to value what’s within and to stay confident in the potential that they have (examples of her posts on the side).

For me, this technique of changing who I follow has been really successful as it has helped me stop myself from using the app for comparison or validation. Now I find myself using Instagram less obsessively and I don’t feel any negative emotions after using it because I no longer view it as a competition. I’m using Instagram for better purposes now, to stay connected with those I care about and to laugh.

Sadly, studies have shown that the more adolescents use social media, the more likely they are to show symptoms of depression or anxiety. Whether or not your symptoms may be this extreme, you should still be cautious of how much time you are spending online. For me, simply changing my purpose behind why I was using it helped to fix the anxiety of not being perfect enough compared to everyone else. Maybe this same technique will work for you, maybe it won’t. But it’s worth a shot.

The next time you’re scrolling through your social media, ask yourself, what is the purpose behind me looking at this? How is it making me feel? Be honest with yourself. If you don’t like your answers then make those adjustments of changing who you follow or how much time you spend on it.

Because at the end of the day, our mental health should be our biggest priority. So do yourself a favor, and think before you scroll.