Say goodbye to social media addiction with these tips.
What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? You most likely reach for your phone and open social media to check what other people were up to when you were asleep.
All things aside, this is never a good way to start. This way, you waste the best time of your day mindlessly scrolling social media apps.
If your days start like this, then it’s high time you should do something to eliminate your social media addiction. Agree, it’s challenging. But it won’t be impossible. Thus, to help you conquer this seriously bad behavior, we’ve shared some practical tips in this guide.
Without any further ado, let’s see how to channel your energy, time, and efforts into something better.
How Is Social Media Addiction Affecting Your Overall Life?
Excessive use of social media can have many effects on your life. If you’re reading this guide, you most likely be feeling some negative impacts on your life, such as stress, anxiety, etc.
Several reports on the internet also mention that social media addiction can increase the risk of severe mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, etc. For instance, during the research, Jamie Zelazny, an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, found that teenagers who use social media for more than 2 hours are more likely to get serious mental health problems, like stress and suicidal thoughts.
One of the most significant effects of social media is that it lowers your self-esteem, as you start comparing your life with what others have portrayed on social media, a picture-perfect version of themselves while hiding their real life pitfalls.
Besides, it badly affects your sleep patterns and makes you unproductive. Surprisingly, it also impacts your “real-life” relationships, as you end up interacting more with your “digital” friends while ignoring the living in your immediate surrounding.
You can now understand how excessive use of social media can impact your real life. Lastly, we’ll conclude this section with an accurate saying, “too much of anything is bad.” So though completely ignoring social media isn’t possible in this digital age, at least, use it wisely.
Tips to Get Rid of Social Media Addiction
Find Your “Why”
If you’re addicted to social media, there is a reason for it. So, sit in a silent environment, and ask yourself why you use social media so much. Once you find the cause, limiting its usage will become easy.
Delete Social Media Apps
Deleting social media apps from the device will take a lot of courage, and not reinstalling them takes even more commitment 😃.
But once you do this, you’ll be happy and feel like you’ve conquered the entire battle easily. And you’ll still be able to access social media on your PC.
But you won’t always have your desktop or laptop with you, which will limit the exposure to them.
Set Time Limits
Another effective way to get rid of social media is setting time limitations.
If you currently spend “X” hours every day on social media, try limiting it to half of it or even less. To fix time limits, you can use your smartphone’s productivity features.
Learn New Skills
You might have noticed that you always use social media when free or bored.
So the next time you feel having some spare time, try doing something different such as reading books, gardening, outdoor games, cooking, workout, etc.
This will keep you busy, and you won’t be pulled in by the constant urge to scroll through the digital space.
Engage in Real Life When Possible
If you use social media to communicate with your friends and others, you should start meeting them in real life when possible. This will not only help you strengthen those bonds, but’ll also help you get rid of your social media addiction.
Don’t Compare Yourself to Others
One of the most significant drawbacks of social media is that it compels you to compare your life with others.
Because of this, you make perceptions that people in your following list are living a luxurious life, and you need that gadget, jewelry, clothing, vacation, etc., to match their standards.
This makes you miserable and push you to try to achieve or do things that you wouldn’t if not for that social media post. And if you do succeed in that needless endeavor, you take pride in showcasing it to your connections, repeating this vicious circle of comparison.
Bottom line: Life is a race where you don’t have any competition but yourself. So, don’t get swayed by what others are doing.
Turn Off Notifications
Notifications from social media applications, like Instagram, are like food cravings. The more you see them, the more you want to engage.
Thus, it’s better to keep the notifications off (or at least for some time) for your social media applications, so you never get that non-stop craving to check in over and over again.
Keep the Phone Away
Keeping your phone in another room is one of the most effective tips to avoid using social media.
Harvard Business Review conducted research to learn about social media usage behaviors across devices. They found that phones are the primary cause of addiction, as they’re always with us.
Sarah K. Peck, who conducted this extensive research, also said their laptop wasn’t the culprit for their addiction, as she spent most of their time working on it instead of using social media. Thus, it’s better to be away from your smartphone whenever possible.
Don’t Have Your Phone While You Sleep
A report by the National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information, says that 70% of people use social media on their smartphones after getting into bed.
And, out of those 70% of users, 15% use it for about an hour or more. Thus, it becomes essential to keep your phone away while sleeping.
Make Someone Accountable
You might have someone in your life who is accountable for something. Then, why don’t you make the same person responsible for helping you quit social media?
Share your problem, and they might want to help you in winning over this addiction. As a result, you’ll slowly get used to living without social media apps on your phone.
Use Social Media as a Reward
Another great way to deal with social media addiction is to use social media as a reward. By reward, I mean, if you consistently work for several hours on something daily, you can use social media for 15 or 20 minutes and then return to work again. This will ultimately reduce your social screen time and motivate you to work more.
Think About Your Goals
Have you ever thought about how using social media several hours a day for no reason affects your goals?
If not, take out some spare time and think about them. You’ll find out that the time and energy you should put into achieving your goals is actually getting wasted by mindlessly scrolling social media apps. As a result, you’re drifting away from your life goals.
Make Your Feed Boring
Believe it or not. But an engaging social media feed is one of the most common reasons for getting addicted.
So, an unorthodox way to eliminate social media addiction is to unfollow all the interesting people from your social media account. This will make your social media feed dull, reducing the temptation to use every time.
There are more like you!
According to ScienceDirect, around 210 million people worldwide are addicted to using social media. Not only this, but this is also becoming the cause of mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and others.
So if you’re also addicted to social media, it’s better to get rid of it before the situation worsens. Thus, to help you get rid of it, we shared several practical tips in this guide which you can also share with your friends and family.
