Social Media Addiction
Tips to help kill your social media addiction and get you off your phone
If you use Social Media, you’ll know how tough it can be to put your phone down and get on with the work you need to be doing. Whether it be scrolling through your feeds, replying to dm’s or even sitting there refreshing, waiting for a notification to come up, we’ve all been there and done it, procrastinating what we truly need to be doing.
In the last few months I’ve found myself using my phone more and more, and sometimes even 6 hours a day (if not more), in which 90% of this time is spent on Social Media (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok etc). But the issue with me is how I’ve always seen it as ‘my job’ to be on Social Media 24/7, whether it be checking algorithms, posting, or simply just keeping up to date with things online.
But what I didn’t think about, was how the time we spend on social media isn’t down to pure enjoyment but how we’re always searching for social validation in the form of likes, comments, followers and dm’s etc. This, therefore, gives us a dopamine hit each time, making us want to come back for more, creating an addiction.
Social Media apps such as Twitter and Instagram etc were built from the ground up to make each of them as addictive as possible for the user. They use human psychology to their advantage in the use of social validation which creates that addiction to keep coming back. Since we were in tribes, it has always been vital to fit into the pack, and with how fast our technology has developed, our brains aren’t much different to that of hunting and caveman times compared to our technology which has clearly advanced a lot from simply just painting on walls. So we still have that subconscious belief to fit in, which you needed to get food from others and help when hunting for food etc. But now, that isn’t needed as we could quite easily survive on our own (as much as it wouldn’t be optimal, it’s possible).
If you want to find out more info on how Social Media apps have been made, how they work, and the psychology behind them, then check out the documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ on Netflix.
Anyway, I decided to write a blog post on a few tips and ways I’ve found that have allowed me to cut down the time I spend on both my phone and social media.
- Make your phone boring — Making your phone black and white, therefore making it less entertaining is one of the most useful tips I can give you. As much as it makes your phone less enjoyable to use (which is basically the whole point), it stops you from using it as nearly as much which I have found to be so, so useful. I’m not sure how you do this on Andriod, but to do this on Apple you need to go into settings, choose General, then Accessibility. Next, choose Display Accommodations, then Color Filters. Tap the toggle on and a list of filters appears. Choose Grayscale and you’re all set. I then have it set so that if I press my power button on the side of my phone three times consecutively, my screen goes black and white, and if i do it again it goes back to normal.
- Delete your apps — This may seem like an obvious example, but like making your phone less entertaining, it works very well. Then, if you want to post to social media, install the app, post, and then simply delete the app again. This, therefore, adds that barrier and a bit of friction between yourself and social media (the big timesuck). This topic of creating friction between yourself and bad habits is highly talked about in the book ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear. Check out my review of Atomic Habits here: https://www.olimaitland.com/booknotes/atomic-habits and if you want to buy the book, you can find it here: amazon.co.uk/atomic-habits
- Muscle Memory — You’ll usually have an app in a specific place on your phone, which if you move it and put something else a lot more productive in that position, such as Shortform or Blinkist (Two book summary apps), you’ll most likely find yourself doing something productive, rather than reading up on what everyone is doing in their day-to-day life every time you have those few seconds of free time.
The Hardwork — The hardest part about all of this is how you need to comprehend that it’s not about social media at all, it’s how we’ve become so obsessed with the external approval of others as though that somehow increases our sense of self-worth. We go online to seek social validation which we think will give us happiness — when in reality, social apps are a distraction and a time suck, pulling us from achieving our goals which will actually make us happy and fulfilled. So it’s a vicious cycle, pulling us from achieving true happiness which is the complete opposite of what we subconsciously think it’s doing.
And no, I’m in no way perfect myself, nor have I figured it all out. I still have my issues but the difference is the fact that I can catch myself, which is a good step in the right direction.
Seeking approval from others will never lead to happiness, the only approval you need to be happy is your own.
Again, if you want to learn more on this topic and both how and why social media apps were built to make the public addicted to them, then check out ‘The Social Dilemma’ on Netflix.
