Stop Mindless Social Media Scrolling Using this Tool
I haven’t scrolled through Instagram in 2 weeks!
The Social Media emergence over the last decade has been nothing less than phenomenal. It appears to have become a necessary tool for business as well as personal communication. Multiple social media apps have become part of our daily lives.
Our early mornings start with Twitter, a bit of Instagram with the morning coffee or tea, the Linkedin tab is open while working, a Snapchat story to highlight the evening hangout, and a glance through everything once again before sleep.
This is more or less how my daily schedule looked like and I knew it had to change. I deleted the apps for the platforms which were least productive and most time-consuming (Instagram, Snapchat), but later I found myself scrolling through Instagram on my laptop (Dammit).
Then, in a Youtube video by Better Ideas, I got the answer I was looking for. (pretty good video btw)
News Feed Eradicator
This simple Chrome/Safari extension has been a life/time saver. It removes the most addictive aspect of social media platforms — the news feed and replaces it with an inspirational quote.
By using this plugin you will still have access to the notification bar and other functionalities. This will help you to stay connected with your friends and family on these platforms while avoiding the long hours of mindless scrolling. This plugin works on -
- YouTube
- Github
Very often when we realize we are spending an appalling number of hours on social media we consider deleting our accounts. That was the case for me with Instagram.
In the last 3 years or so, the engagement factor of Instagram had depleted, at least personally for me. The number of ads had increased, the algorithm had become more trend-based rather than creativity-based, and the reels feature added to compete with Tik Tok was mostly just cringe content.
But the main problem was — it was still addictive. I don’t know why; I don’t know how but every now and then I would instinctively pick up my phone and find myself scrolling through the “gram”.
I wanted to delete my account, but I was still using Instagram to stay in touch with people through Direct Messages. I wanted to avoid 90% of the time I spent on the app but couldn't let go of the 10%.
SO, I deleted the app from my phone, installed News Feed Eradicator on chrome, and used Instagram only through my laptop. This is what my feed looks like now.
As you can see, I still have access to the dm’s, notifications, and the explore page but the rabbit hole of the news feed has been taken away. The inspirational quote is a nice touch but the empty news feed in itself will do enough to boost your productivity.
There is no denying that social media is one of the most popular forms of socializing in the modern age. However, there is also no denying that it is easily misused. When this kind of social media usage crosses the line into addiction, then there are very real problems that can come about.
In the end, we all want to remain social, but not get addicted to these platforms. I hope this article will be helpful to you in that regard.
