Social media is good for a lot of things: sharing photos of you and your friends, staying up to date on local events and hilarious cat videos. But if you want to have a healthy dating life, limiting the time that you spend on social media can be beneficial.

I know what’s probably going through your head: “But, if I don’t check Facebook multiple times every hour I might miss the #bestcatvideoever. What will my Tumblr and snapchat followers think?”

As much as social media is awesome, it also has a darkside. Too much of a good thing can lead to paranoia, insecurities and time wasted. Focusing too much on social media can also cause you to miss out on real life dating opportunities.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a few ways that limiting your time on social media can actually help your dating life.

1. It gives you more time to actually date.

When I first started online dating, I remember telling a friend, “this is so time consuming!” Trying online dating for the first time was really fun and exciting, but it wasn’t long before the process of searching for people, messaging them and then following up on those messages felt exhausting. When I took a step back from online dating I realized why I was feeling burnt out: I was treating online dating like another social media account that I had to keep up with.

Constantly Instagramming, tweeting, snapchatting and checking your Facebook timeline (just incase you missed a very important cat video) can be exhausting and leave very little energy left to focus on online dating. When you stop trying to keep up with everything and everyone all the time, you’ll notice that you have a lot more mental and emotional space to really connect with people. Whether that’s sending a thoughtful message to that cute person you met online or going on a fun coffee date – less social media, means more time and focus to actually date.

2. It gets you off the comparison train.

When you’re plugged into social media, it’s impossible not to be exposed to other people’s relationships in the form of endless cute couple selfies, baby announcements and dream wedding photos. Social media only presents one side of the story and in reality, not everyone’s life and relationship looks like something off of Pinterest. However when you’re single, it’s easy to get sucked into the belief that everyone else has a more perfect life or relationship than you do.

Comparison kills joy. When you limit the amount of time you spend on social media, something magical happens: you’ll stop endlessly comparing yourself to other people. In turn, you’ll be able to focus on your own dating life and what makes you happy.

3. You’ll stop obsessing over every little thing he or she does.

One of the downsides of social media is that it provides all the right tools for normal people to become obsessive weirdos. Want to drive yourself crazy? Follow the people you date on social media. Before you know it, you’ll be up late wondering about stuff you never would have worried about had you not seen it on social media (“Why does he have his arm around that girl in his Facebook photo? She liked the photo. What does that mean?! Hmm, maybe I’ll get some answers if I just look at his timeline from four years ago….”)

Limiting our time on social media means that we can save ourselves the agony and embarrassment of becoming obsessive stalkers. Instead of jumping to conclusions, we’re forced to deal with the people we date at face value, in real life. And that’s a good thing.

4. It will make it easier for you to forget about your ex.

It’s been said that in the age of social media, you never really break up with someone. Even if you’ve stopped following them on social media, a quick google search can lead you to all kinds of information about their new life without you. Throw in a few rides on the “comparison train” (thanks to a bunch of social media updates from people who aren’t your ex) and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. If you really want to get over someone and move on, limiting your social media use is the first step. After all, do you really need to see 10 Instagrams of your ex and his new lady friend adorably making their own wine? I’m guessing no.

5. It makes you more present.

The irony of social media is that by providing us with a real-time update of everything that’s going on in our social circle, it actually takes us away from what’s happening right in front of us. If you’re always online worrying about what other people are doing, you miss out on your own life. Stop staring at your phone and look around. You might like what you see.