Define your relationship with social media
It ‘s not you; it ‘s me. I made a mistake and did not set clear boundaries. I should have told you I want to keep it casual. Honestly, I feel us spending time together is getting too time-consuming. I need more space to work on myself and my self-development. You understand? I still want to see you, but not so often. Are we OK going forward? — me this time convinced that attempt no 451 will work.
Well whatever, girl. You know there is no running away from me. I know you. You always come back. — The answer is cocky, confident and a bit threatening. That confidence is what got me hooked in the first place. After all, it is powered by sexy algorithms, which worked hard to show me the world as if it was tailored-made just to me. Would you blame me? Few can say “No” to that.
That is how I would envision my imaginary breakup attempt with my social media. Maybe attempt number 451 is an overstatement, and it all seems too dramatic, but I have been working on curbing my social media consumption for a while.
For me, the first impulse came from trying to hack my productivity. Looking back at my day I would always feel like I am missing an hour or two to work — time I could use to work on those projects you always put on the yearly vision map, but somehow they never graduate to become tasks on daily to do list. So I set myself on a mission to investigate where exactly I am doing with my productive hours. Social media were a likely suspect. After reading John Zeratsky post on social media as Infinity Pools of Distraction, I felt motivated and inspired. It was time to act and take control.
Here is the list of strategies that overall helped me estimate, analyze and finally curb my social media addiction. Of course quitting social media altogether is always an option. I admire those who went down that path. But I am honest with myself — I just want to enjoy benefits of social media without them taking control over me. It is me finally setting the boundaries.
Step 1: Estimate scale of the problem
Last year Facebook happily shared data, that users spend on average 50 minutes each day on its Facebook, Instagram and Messenger platforms combined. That number got topped by YouTube this year, which prides itself an hour-per-day statistic. So we already located two missing hours and I haven’t even mentioned Twitter or Snapchat. But this is all average user data. What is your number? To find out install Chrome extension like RescueTime to analyze how much time you spend on social media websites.
Tracking your social media usage on mobile is more tricky: looking at battery usage is irrelevant, and we often check social media apps on smartphone subconsciously. The best way would be to take a closer look at social media activity when on-the-go and in a limited time frame. Answer yourself when and how often you post/like/comment. Then consider the hours that you are awake and away from your desktop computer. To make this process easier you can download an app Moment that tracks your overall smartphone usage — you still need to calculate the social media usage on your own.
Step 2: Limit the exposure and fight FOMO
What do you feel when you see a new Facebook push-notification on your phone? How often you almost automatically open the app in Fear Not To Miss Out on anything? It is such a smooth process you don’t even notice it and no wonder. Social media apps are engineered to get us using them as frequently as possible. Advocacy group Time Well Spent goes as far as to accuse Silicon Valley product designers of exploitation of people’s psychological vulnerabilities. Watch this and consider how familiar does it look.
This short clip showcases to only the problem but also gives a glimpse of a simple solution. Fight the dancing pandas of the world by turning off push notifications on mobile. Next step is to limit in-app notifications; this is especially the case for Facebook, which automatically turns of “follow” option for all new friends and liked fan pages. It is a more time-consuming task, but well worth it the effort. You need to unfollow manually liked pages and the same for people. Being selective is key. Just ask yourself do you want to be notified of this person/brand each and every post.
Step 3: Make access more difficult
It a busy day at work. You should be working on that product presentation. But you decide to take a quick coffee break and maybe check your social media for like five seconds. 15 minutes later you are still falling down the rabbit hole of your high school friend’s photos from her Hawaii vacation. Does it ring a bell?
As people, we often reward what we consider virtue by indulging ourselves with vice products or behavior. Think chocolate cake after diet. This phenomenon is called licensing at it has implication for example in store design, but can also impact our productivity habits.
Unfortunately just being aware of that mechanism does little to help. A simple hack is just removing access to those distracting elements in the first place. Installing productivity plugins that block social media sites works great for desktop, but mobile again is not that easy. I knew removing apps or login out of them was not a viable option, so simply hide them out of my sight. I moved all social media apps to the last screen of my phone and put them into a social media folder there. It takes me additional three swipes to get there. A small obstacle, but enough to decrease my usage.
Step 4: Eliminate the biggest time stealers
Even if you follow those elaborate strategies and some point you will need to face the truth and cut your losses. Some apps will just have to go if you are really committed to increasing your productivity. For me, it was mobile apps from YouTube and Facebook. It has been almost 3 months now with out them. I calculated that on average I gained 45 minutes a day — time I am now able to put into reading (now averaging 2–3 books a week).
What about the other usual suspects? Instagram safely hidden away in my social media folder rarely get my attention. LinkedIn app lasted just couple months on my phone — it overly marketing character did not suit me needs. Twitter remains my biggest past time. I tried to delete its mobile app, but I lasted without it only 2 weeks — so more work to be done here. Snapchat could potentially become a problem, but its not very likely due to external factors. In mine and my friends’ demographic Snapchat addicts are few. So far my attempts are friend streaks have bit quite pathetic due to limited response. Instead Snapchat became my preferred gossip and news destination thanks to its cooperation with The Economist, New York Times, Vogue, National Geographic and Mashable.
I set out to make some changes in my relationship with social media beginning of 2017. So far this has been my journey. This is hardly an universal approach, but I hope you find it helpful. Feel free to share how
you manage your social media usage?
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