As someone who uses social media both personally and professionally, it can get really easy to get caught up in other's profiles or feeds, and experience the reprecussions of this. Our generation has been the first to integrate social media at a developmental age, and as a result, it seems like we've created a bunch of rules surrounding it. But at the end of the day there should only be one rule that matters - it's your social media - does what you're seeing make you happy?

So many people in their twenties have talked about how they have or at least have considered deleting certain social media accounts, because it's not making them feel like they're living their lives well enough. There have been plenty of articles that circulate talking about how real life is nothing like what someone may post on Instagram, and deleting social media can improve to overall happiness. To this, I disagree.

I live almost 10,000 miles away from my family and my home country. I need social media in order to maintain relationships with friends from high school, no matter where in the world they may be right now. Not to mention, I minored in interactive and social media - and have managed Facebook pages for various jobs I've worked. For me, deleting my account was never an option. Instead, I adapted my accounts to work them around my interests, and all the things that make me happy.

Most people lightly tease me because anyone who looks over my shoulder as I'm browsing Facebook will only see puppies. Literally. My Facebook is all animals - especially dogs, because anyone who knows me knows how many hours a day I'm thinking about how cute puppies are. Scattered in are some articles that my friends share, alongside their statuses, but I made sure to "like" plenty of pages to drown out what people are often ranting about throughout their days, or sharing their opinions of currently trending news articles.

Keeping up with the news is, of course, important, but it can be separated from social media. I get a lot of headlines emailed to me, or else I either go directly on to actual news sites (outside Buzzfeed, Facebook, and LinkedIn), to catch up. Liking these pages on Facebook is also an easy option though, as you'll get the news directly from the social media manager at the Chicago Tribune... as opposed to your friends sharing links.

Speaking of your friends, I decided, after high school that I was going to be ruthless about deleting people whom I don't actually use social media to communicate with. Every six months or so, I'll go through my friends list and remove people that I'm not in active communication with. There have been times when I've re-added people that have made an effort to contact me through my phone, for example. But more often than not, I've found this action leads to the most amount of inner peace as you're not going to be comparing your lives to someone you used to know, don't talk to anymore, but keep tabs on. Be like Elsa, let [them] go...

A final tip that keeps me sane amidst my accounts is to compartmentalize certain accounts for certain things. As stated, Facebook is primarily used by me to communicate, and look at cute animals in the background as I do so. My Instagram is, once again, all dogs, food, and memes that I DM my friends to make them laugh. My Tumblr has to do with more of my nerdier interests, as I'm connected with my fandoms revolving around books and TV shows. My LinkedIn is, obviously, professional social networking. Keeping different accounts for different purposes can be an alternate to needing a private, more personal Facebook account, or even a Finsta.

At the end of the day, it's your social media. It should be a feed of things that you want to see, and things that make you happy. If you're feeling upset through comparing your lives, or experiencing FOMO, there is little to no penalty to unfollowing/unfriending someone.