Growing up with social media makes it almost impossible to imagine a world without it. When it seems like you have nothing to do, your fingers retort to mindlessly scrolling through social media apps like TikTok or Instagram. Sound familiar?
It makes it even easier to mindlessly scroll and lose track of time when most social media apps have added short, entertaining 15-second videos, such as on Instagram with Reels and the TikTok app itself, lowering our overall attention spans as a side effect
There are two main ways to quit social media, and each may work, depending on the person. One is to quit cold-turkey, delete all of your social media apps, and never look back. The second way is gradually reducing the time spent on social media and slowly letting go of it completely. If you want to try the latter, you might want to start here:
First, turn off your notifications. Notifications from social media apps might prompt you to check your feed more often, so by turning off these notifications, you are limiting the distractions on your phone.
Secondly, try setting time limits for yourself. If you tend to spend 4 hours daily on social media, try setting a time limit of a maximum of 3 hours to start and gradually decrease the time limit day by day to 2 hours, 1 hour, or 30 minutes until you barely check those apps anymore.
Now, you might be wondering, what do I do with all of the time I used to spend on social media? Remember all those hobbies and things you’ve wanted to try but never had the time to? You always had the time to do so; you were just getting distracted by those pesky apps. Now is the time to read a new book, write a book, organize your room, plan your outfits for the week, get ahead on homework, prepare for your next work meeting, take up cooking or baking, or anything you can imagine.
To address other worries, some of you may have the phenomenon called FOMO or the Fear of Missing Out, and when staying away from these social media apps this fear may increase. But what are you missing out on? Your kindergarten best friend you barely talk to anymore got a new dog? Your partner sent you a funny meme you’ll forget by tomorrow? Omg, it’s Timothee Chalamet’s birthday, this will definitely change the course of your day. FOMO on social media is pointless, if something is urgent and life-changing to you, it won’t reach you via social media, remember that.
If you’re still worried about FOMO, the key is to only check social media on your laptop and delete social media apps from your phone. That way, you aren’t tempted to check every 5 minutes or scroll for hours.
The third and final step is to delete your social media accounts permanently. Many of you won’t like this step, and many of you won’t be able to completely delete your accounts due to your job or other things, but if you have no account, what’s the point of checking social media anyway?
By quitting social media you will feel more free and clear-minded with less mental clutter, more free time, improved focus, privacy, and genuine in-person connections.
