do you spend many of your waking hours on social media? do you feel like it's a problem? in this world of late stage capitalism, your time and attention is actively being harvested by big corporations. it's.. not good. it also just makes you feel bad!
here are some tips that have really helped me reduce the amount of time i give to these apps & get in control of my social media addiction:
you probably know which apps you spend the most time on. however, looking at real data about usage is very helpful because time spent on social media is very deceiving. keep in mind which apps you spend the most time looking at and interacting with for the rest of this list.
2. TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS
this is probably the easiest thing to do and it makes an immense difference. it's up to your discretion which notifications you want to keep on (turning on messaging notifications but turning off algorithm and interaction notifs for example) but, the most effective way to stay off problem apps is to turn off ALL notifications.
3. TURN OFF NOTIFICATION SOUNDS
i always keep my phone on silent. i understand that not all people have that privilege but, if you're able to i would highly highly recommend. it has helped me a lot with anxieties regarding waiting for notifications. i used to experienced the phantom vibrate and check my phone obsessively when nothing would happen. you can also just turn off notification sounds and vibrations for any non necessity apps if you don't want to jump to turning off all notifications.
4. CHANGE THE PLACEMENT OF PROBLEM APPS
i actually learned this trick from facebook when they changed the UI slightly so you had to be more intentional in interacting with the app. changing the layout of the apps on your phone really helps you catch yourself when you are automatically opening up apps that cost you time and attention. instead of keeping social media apps on the homescreen, keep it on a different screen, in a folder, & if possible out of the preview window for the folder.
if you want to expand on this more, you could keep a log in a notes app of every time you reached for an app that has since moved. you can even put the notes app in its place!
my experience is based on samsung app timers so i'm not sure how it differs in different makes. i really dont like my phone telling me i can't do something so i've set my tumblr timer to the highest end of my usage data (2hrs 10 minutes). another mindfulness thing that i like about using the timers is that when i'm switching between apps, my phone tells me how much time left i have (it's currently 1 hour 21 minutes, most of the 49 minutes i've spent writing this lol). i'm just a slut for data so i really like this aspect of the samsung app timer function and it's very useful besides this point.
okay, i know this seems drastic. but it doesn't NEED to be depending on your habitual problem apps. apps like youtube, instagram, facebook, and tumblr (to a lesser extent ime) (and probably others these are just the ones i have experience with) can pretty easily be transferred to being used exclusively on a web browser. if you use firefox it will even get rid of ads which is very important for overall sanity and for safe web browsing. one of the biggest plusses to moving from an app to a web browser is that it won't automatically play your platform's version of tiktoks. it also makes it more difficult to upload items which is a plus because it will hinder you from doing so and cut back on the loop of expecting validation from recently posted content.
opening instagram without immediately being enthralled by their endless stream of reels has made it SO much easier to control my time on the site. there are tons of plusses to transferring from app browsing to web browsing.
so on the more drastic side, if you are addicted to tiktok you maybe should just delete it. tiktok is intentionally designed so you can't use it in a web browser and can only use it in the app. i will talk more about tiktok and how evil it is later in this post.
7. MOVE DMS TO MESSAGING APPS
if a hesitation to turning off notifactions or deleting apps is from not wanting to miss conversations from online friends, i understand your pain. but, if you are serious about cutting down screen time on apps that are absolutely draining your attention, talk to your friends about switching to a different messaging app. i would suggest signal personally.
your friends may be experiencing similar problems with phone addiction and even if they aren't, if they care about you, they will make this accommodation to help you in this process. i get that this is very scary but i believe in you.
8. USE TIME ON YOUR PHONE FOR OTHER THINGS
depending on your goals for how you spend your time, there are plenty of alternatives to social media / other problem apps you may have. personally i have downloaded a bunch of books on my reading list and will divert attention from dopamine pumping social media to reading. you can find tons of free pdfs of books online and if you are used to reading on your phone, it won't be a difficult transition to read longer form narratives from short text posts.
there are free art apps, language learning apps, self care / journaling apps, meditation apps, etc. that you can use when on your phone. this may seem counterintuitive, getting more apps to battle certain app addictions. but, simply weakening the habit that brings you to the apps that you spend so much time on should help. but watch out for apps that claim they are to teach or better you but have social media built into them / other tricks that keep you glued to your screen. everyone is trying to mine your attention so be wary of all apps and the methods they use to keep you engaged.
9. DON’T BE AFRAID TO PUT YOUR PHONE BACK DOWN AFTER PICKING IT UP
idk if this is a weird one or not but, you know the feeling of going into a room to do something but you forget what so you putter around trying to remember? i feel like going on your phone when you have a phone addiction is often a state of that except the majority of the time you DON’T have a purpose to go on it. so even though it may feel silly, opening your phone only to close it right after is PERFECTLY FINE.
IN CONCLUSION, phone usage is pretty inevitable in this day and age. i've considered getting rid of my phone entirely but, between the expectation to be constantly reachable from employers to QR code menus at restaurants, it just doesn't seem reasonable to get rid of my phone completely. and i will readily admit its convenience and functionality is life changing and wonderful.
however in late stage capitalism, technology doesn't only work for you but it harvests you -- your data, your habits, your time, your attention, your wants, your needs, your thoughts. even leftist spaces with good intentions can trap you (doom scrolling). when i was becoming radicalized during the beginning of the pandemic i spent sooo much time online reading about all these horrible truths of imperialism, colonization, and capitalism, and i felt it was my duty to share these horrors with other people to radicalize them. but it was so unhealthy, especially when shit hit the fan (which it was like constantly doing) because everyone was posting about the horrors and it felt utterly inescapable.
after following some of these steps (which i did in stages over the course of a few years), my relationship with social media has improved greatly and my mental health is actually significantly better. all of this is based on personal experience and observation and this post is specifically for people who want to cut down on phone usage, it's not supposed to be a preachy post that's telling people they spend too much time on their phone.
it's also nowhere near complete. it doesn't tackle addictions to games on phones nor the notorious tiktok. i said i would talk about it later and here it is. i have a chalkboard in my kitchen and all it has written on it is "tiktok is the devil". i have never seen such a commonly used app that has such a degrading effect on all of its users. and it set a precedent to all other social media apps for autoplaying videos that demand user engagement. i was on tiktok for a little less than a year and the way that it would sap anywhere from 20 minutes to over 3 hours of my time when i told myself i'd only watch a few videos was insane. as an aspiring creator i felt that i needed to hop on it to get recognition but now, i don't see it as anything more than a tarpit to trap as many people as possible in its dopamine rich algorithm. but whatever, that's just my little rant. as a social experiment i think it's fascinating lol and i for the creators it's benefited im very happy for them.
anywayy, i hope this helps someone if it gets any attention at all lol. remember no one can make the decision of how you spend your time on or offline but you. not some stranger on the internet, not corporations, no one. you are in control of your time (well besides the whole having to work most of your waking hours to survive but that's what communism is for yayy).
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