Why Curating Your Feed Can Be Feminist — Digital Boundaries: Why Curating Your Feed Is Self-Care
Scrolling endlessly through your feed used to be mindless—but what if we viewed scrolling as a feminist act? What if curating the content we consume online became an act of self-care, resistance, and digital sovereignty?
1. When the Personal Becomes Political
Feminists have long proclaimed that “the personal is political” — our daily experiences reflect societal structures. Harnessing that idea online means recognizing that who we follow and what we absorb affects our wellbeing and worldview. (Carol Hanisch coined this phrase in the 1960s to highlight how personal issues often stem from systemic oppression.)
2. Curating as Digital Self-Care
Self-care isn't just bubble baths and affirmations—it’s also about protecting our emotional energy. Audre Lorde famously framed self-care as self-preservation and political protest. Curating your feed—unfollowing harmful content and amplifying healing voices—is a way to reclaim your peace.
3. Feminist Activism Through Digital Spaces
Recent research finds that feminist activists intentionally shape their online environment to support their mission and maintain mental health. “Make your feed work for you” becomes a feminist strategy of emotional resistance.
4. Digital Boundaries Are Self-Preservation
Digital boundaries—like muting or removing someone—aren’t rude. They are essential boundaries shaped by self-care, not hostility. Setting them reinforces that your mental energy matters.
5. Choose What Nourishes You (Not What Overwhelms You)
Social media algorithms often push content that keeps us hooked—frequently toxic or triggering posts. Choosing who to follow or mute is a radical act of self-protection in an attention economy.
6. Instagram as Activist Ground—With Limits
The rise of #selfcare on platforms like Instagram has been both powerful and problematic. Self-care has roots in Black feminist resistance—yet also risks being commodified by capitalist trends. Recognizing this tension helps to reclaim self-care as a politically potent, not commercial, act.
7. How to Curate Your Feed — Feminist & Peaceful Steps
- Audit your feed: Notice accounts that drain or uplift you.
- Unfollow or mute without guilt: Self-preservation isn't selfish.
- Follow voices that empower: Choose creators who reflect values like intersectionality, self-worth, and justice.
- Set time limits: Use tools or routines to avoid mindless scrolling.
- Reflect on your impact: Think about how your feed shapes your emotions and actions.
8. Digital Boundaries Build Emotional Resilience
Creating healthy digital borders is about emotional equilibrium. It's designing a support network—not an echo chamber—and choosing resonance over resistance.
9. From Personal Feed to Collective Wellbeing
As more of us curate intentionally, we reshape what social media can be—a place of nourishment, solidarity, and mindful connection. Our individual choices ripple outward.
Why Curating Your Feed Is Feminist
Curating isn't superficial—it’s self-empowering. By building an intentional digital space, you're prioritising your wellbeing, rejecting overwhelming norms, and reinforcing the notion that personal care is political care.