How you can get off social media. NOW.
Social media is nothing less than drugs, except more addictive than heroin or crack. They promise you more sociability in this age, where we prefer texting someone than meeting them face to face. The huge corporate companies of now spends billions on how to make their own apps more addicting. For proof to back my argument, I’m going to cite a study by Harvard University that shows that using these apps lights up the same neurons in your brain that work when you take narcotics. If that isn’t a cause for alarm, I don’t know what is. Besides this, it’s the real epidemic that shot up in the pandemic, myself being a victim. My average screen-time in pandemic 2020 was about 5 hours per day. PER DAY. That was how much time I was spending staring at a screen, and not getting anything fulfilling out of it, or really enjoying myself. I was addicted to texting apps and media sites like YouTube, and still am, though I see less than 8 hours per week spent on these apps (improvement none the less).
An estimated 330 million people in 2022 face internet addiction as one of their major problems. They face poor mental health because they don’t care about the present. They run behind that sweet sweet rush of dopamine when they swipe down on a reel. It’s bit like those hamster wheels, except you don’t own them. It’s Mr. Zuckerburg who traps you in his money making machine called Facebook. The even worse thing is that many medical organizations don’t consider the internet addiction as a real thing. However, it can be just as detrimental and affecting as any other addiction. Together, let’s show them computer nerds who’s boss by quitting their apps forever.
The day is 23rd of February. I have spent an hour on YouTube, and I have lost my own daily goal of not watching YouTube at all. However, seeing failure as a reason to become weak and quit is not how I do it. Seeing it as something to learn from and improve upon is my preferred choice. Here’s what I learnt from all my days which were wasted upon social media, including today:
1) Doom scrolling
Yup, it’s that stage where the app has you in its grip, and you can’t seem to think of anything but scrolling on that app and finding the next entertaining media. Now the sad part is that in my opinion, there is no direct solution for this except if you have enough willpower to get off the app for a break, then do something productive later on. It’s like you’re a complete zombie, you’re just scrolling down and down, searching for something that will distract you from the hardships in real life. I have spent too much time in this stage, but after a solid three or so years of just being a complete zombified YouTube viewer (not kidding), I can find that inner strength to just keep the phone down and get workin’. So, I suggest you avoid even opening the app at all, just resist. If you can’t resist the temptations for long, it’s fine. Your daily dose of willpower has just finished, and on the next day, you will have an extra 10 minutes of it. Other than that, I also recommend you to set up some kind of “Take a break” system, which it’s already on YouTube, and set it to your preferred time period. Many people including me don’t know about it, as for me, I just randomly came across it when I was going through the app for resolving an issue.
2) Ignorance is bliss…
How much time do you spend on your phone? Like, I want the exact amount, including the minutes. I’m going to bet that you don’t even know that amount. You say you just spend about an hour on video games, then proceed to sit in front of the computer for the rest of the day, without noticing how time flies away. Hence, it’s imperative that there is some type of indicator to show when it’s enough time spent on social media when you’re in consumer zombie mode. So, I’m gonna recommend one thing to you, to install one app called YourHour, one of the best apps on my tab right now. It’s absolutely free, and you can download it here:
https://www.yourhour.app/ (the website has cool visuals and explains how it works)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mindefy.phoneaddiction.mobilepe&hl=en_IN&gl=US (Android link for the download)
Unfortunately, it is not available for download on iOS devices, so I suggest some other alternative that’s free, or really just pausing and resuming a timer whenever you use your phone.
YourHour not only tracks your usage time, but also compares it against screen-times on other days with cool looking graphs. Along with that, it also rates your addiction based on its own standard system, ranging from “Addicted” to “Champion”, and plus it’s pretty fun to use.
I know that the data ain’t pretty, but it’s the truth. Weeks of abstaining from using my tab has led this remarkable (imo) result. Anyway, hope you install this app and share your data too so that we can quit this menace, together.
3) Finding better stuff to do
The reason why you hop on your phone is that your brain knows nothing else t do when bored. Whenever I felt slightly relaxed, as in I had free time, I was immediately on YouTube to “enjoy” that time more efficiently. Doing this just associates your free time with spending time on your phone again, so instead, find something else enriching to do, like reading a book or going on a walk. These will benefit you more in the long run than wasting your time on social media. Also, when you’re pre-occupied by some work, you’re less likely to waste time on these apps, so be sure to always be ready to complete that pending stuff you had since Monday. Chances are that you might be so absorbed by your work so that it won’t occur to you that I must watch YouTube to de stress. If you want to de stress, take a twenty minute nap with an alarm (cause you won’t wake up if it’s not for the alarm).
4) Dopamine detoxing
A dopamine detox is something that all of us in this modern age need to try. Our dopamine receptors are constantly fried by all the instant gratification and stimulation given to us by social media, so much to the point that it is unreal. The people living in the 1700s did not have these phones, hence those were a happier time when compared with us now in terms of mental health.
We all know that using man made GMO devices with screen is not good for us. So why not get rid of it while we still can? That’s the idea I want to give you to help reduce time wastage. Distance yourself from your mobile phone and use it only when necessary. If you can’t resist the temptations, it’s alright. The way willpower works is that you can only use up a finite amount of it in a day for a specific thing. But the next day, that capacity of willpower will be increased for you to use it much better. It may take days, weeks or even months for you to complete this dopamine detox, but when you finally achieve the state of free from addiction, you’ll be thankful that you even started.
5) Meditation
Being mindful is a skill that is mastered by very few of us. Do you notice how it feels to breathe, or how your leg feels on the ground? Chances are you probably don’t, because you’re just not mindful enough. Again, I’m too lazy to explain how to meditate so here’s another article I have published some time ago on the same.
That being said, do give it a try. Meditation is one of the five greatest pillars to build for a better you, and also the reason why I always make sure to meditate daily.
Being mindful also alerts you to when you’re using your phone and not also falling into the scroller zombie trap. Instead, your mind can work with you so that you don’t use your phone as much along with TikTok and others. It really is a boon to those who are aware of it.
Anyway that’s about it, hope you have a good time de-addicting yourself from the all knowing shackles of social media. I might not upload articles since I have taken up other fun stuff (not to say Medium isn’t fun, just that other hobbies are taking up my time), so expect 2–3 articles per month. And to you my dear readers, good luck with implementing all these steps, and good night.
Would I get sued if I copied some stuff from another website to add here? Let me know in the comments I can’t find a proper answer to this.
