How Apple Helped Me Fight My Instagram Addiction
It’s a vicious circle
It’s a vicious circle: I know that certain apps are damaging to my mental health. At the same time, these same apps make me incredibly addicted. Thanks to Apple and the new iOS 15 features, I have managed to fight my Instagram addiction. A comment.
Actually, I want to get up at 7:30 a.m. during the week. Since I use my smartphone to wake me up, the first thing I do is inevitably look at my iPhone every morning. In the best-case scenario, I didn’t get any notifications from friends overnight that could prompt me to switch to another app immediately after the alarm went off.
The reality is often different, however: I usually get half a dozen messages from Instagram before breakfast. “Oh, what the heck,” I think to myself every time. “I’m just going to have a quick look at what the others have sent me.”
You might think that you learn from mistakes, but especially in addiction cases, the head likes to hide the mind. Once you’re stuck in the Instagram reel trap, escaping is not that easy.
The perfidious thing about Instagram’s so-called reels is that they are short and the swipe process has no end. If I don’t like such a short video, I just keep swiping. And when I’ve found a reel that I like, it only takes 15 to 30 seconds. But the hunt for the next reel takes up more time than you think.
“What if I like the next video of all places? What if it’s even better and more fun than the one before? “I don’t want to miss that,” I tell myself, and so I keep swiping, going, going.
The limits that I have set myself (“Just swipe five more times, then you can turn it off!” (Or “Only five more minutes!”) are often ignored. I lose track of time so easily. Then, at some point, I look at the clock. It’s 8:30 a.m. Instead, I lie in bed and watch short videos with meaningless content. I feel bad because I’ve wasted my time and haven’t done anything productive in the past hour. So I start the day with this feeling and I know exactly.
Reels, TikToks, Shorts: Dangerously Successful
Many platforms offer the currently successful short video format: As TikTok has shown, Instagram has followed suit with the so-called reels, and for some time now, you have been able to watch the so-called YouTube shorts on YouTube.
They all have the same goal: to keep users on their own platform for as long as possible with the shortest possible content. Because the longer users spend time on the respective platform, the more money you can earn with it. Facebook also knows that this short video format is so successful:
“Most recently, 60 percent of the advertising revenue in the video sector came from clips in portrait format that was less than 15 seconds long,” writes Die Zeit.
Two Facebook studies that caused a stir in mid-September show that escapism can also be harmful to health. In the internal studies in 2019 and 2020, users were asked about their health and what influence Instagram has on their well-being. “Repeatedly, the company’s researchers found that Instagram is harmful to a significant percentage of young users, especially teenage girls,” the study authors write.
The criticism is not new, but as the “Wall Street Journal” (WSJ) revealed, the parent company Facebook has kept these study results under lock and key for years. Accordingly, in an internal Facebook presentation, the sentence was: “We deteriorate body image in one in three teenage girls.
And that can sometimes have life-threatening effects. About six percent of users in the US who injured themselves could directly attribute this to Instagram. “Despite this, Facebook did nothing.
The effects of social media can also be more blatant: “Every third teenage girl has a poorer body image of herself through Instagram,” quoted Die Zeit from the WSJ article. “Six percent of US users would have had thoughts of suicide because of the platform. And in general, many users would cite Instagram as the reason why they are doing badly and feel unattractive. “
Facebook is well aware of the consequences of its users. According to Tagesschau, 22 million young people use Instagram in the United States alone. That means, in the USA alone, over 1.3 million young people have thought about suicide because of Instagram.
But instead of taking the health of its users seriously, Zuckerberg dismisses the reports as a “coordinated attempt” to harm Facebook. This is quite anti-social for a social media platform. In fact, Facebook’s plans look very different:
Since Facebook is coming under increasing pressure from its Chinese rival, TikTok, Zuckerberg now wants to focus even more on young users, even if that means that older target groups can not continue to grow as fast as before.
Is Smartphone Addiction The New Smoking?
It is no coincidence that various tech companies have been increasing their delivery of digital health offers in the recent past. Apple has, for example, introduced a new feature called “Focus” with iOS 15, with which you can set when and from which app or contacts you want to receive notifications.
Even before that, there was the option of setting a time limit for apps via screen time. The problem is: It can take a long time until you realize and, above all, admit to yourself that you have spent too much time on an app and that this also has negative consequences for your mental health. It would be like leaving a smoker free to decide whether he should allow himself a cigarette or would rather give it up voluntarily.
Time limits in apps can be bypassed very easily. Even if they are a first, important step towards knowledge, such time limits do not consistently prevent us, users, from being able to use the apps longer despite the limit being reached.
If I have reached a limit, I can then set my iPhone so that I can still use the corresponding app for one or 15 additional minutes, or alternatively, I can completely deactivate the limit for one day.
Same Platform, Different Problems
The internal Facebook studies were actually more about the photo function of Instagram and the resulting disturbed self-perception of the users. My problem is another completely different one: Reels don’t (at least in my case) make me feel bad about my body, they just steal my valuable time.
What is good for Instagram is bad for me. In fact, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, himself admitted in a June 30 tweet that the four most important features Instagram wants to focus on going forward are creators, video, shopping, and messaging. The video problem is likely to be even more severe in the future than it already is.
But you shouldn’t downplay the problem, because the reels still have a bad effect on my mental health. It’s a vicious circle: If I start the day in a bad mood because I spend too much time on Instagram in the morning, it affects my work and my ability to concentrate.
Which, at the end of the day, makes me want to distract myself from this feeling, and I end up back on Instagram again. The only way to counteract this is to admit to yourself that you have a problem. Fortunately, this problem is easy to tackle.
Fight The Problem of “Instagram”: Here’s How
First and foremost, there really has to be a will to change something about one’s behavior. And where there’s a will, there is a way. Smartphone manufacturers like Apple offer the focus feature and screen time functions that, if set up correctly, are good self-control tools for us users. Apple Inc.
I set myself an Instagram time limit of 35 minutes a day with screen time. Of course, everyone has to set this limit for themselves. In addition, the focus feature helps me not to get lost on Instagram during working hours. You can also change your personal habits.
Instead of waking me up with the iPhone, mine now takes overWatch. The iPhone no longer lies next to me on the bedside table at night, but loads on my desk in the study.
I’ve tried to make it as difficult as possible for myself to tap into social media time traps early in the morning. And it really helped. Of course, there are days when I can’t keep to the limits I’ve set, but I’ve still managed to change my usage behavior for the better.
Read more stories about the Apple ecosystem on www.iphonetheory.com.
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