Hello you.
I’m sure you would have read my post INSIGHT #01 Sharing Too Much where I talked about the different ways in which social media is killing our time, ruining our mood, day and probably life.
Especially now, during Quarantine 2020, with all the extra time we have on our hands, a huge chunk of it is going into these platforms that are somehow keeping us in touch with the world. But even if you didn’t read the post, I’m sure you would have thought many a times to yourself, about the time wasted on social media and yet what can you do about it? After all, it is but a functional tool in our day-to-day lives.
Don't worry. I am not recommending you to quit everything cold turkey nor I am going to tell you how to reduce your time spent. What I’m going to give you though, is an idea of how you can make your social feed work for you and improve your relationship with those apps and the people on it. I'm going to start with some practical tips and tricks and gradually move towards more deep rooted and fundamentally life altering changes and decisions. So stick to the end of the list and you can pick whichever ones you want to implement or not, that's up to you.
1. Monitor your activity
The first step towards achieving any goal is quantifying it. Most applications these days like Instagram record the screen time or usage statistics for you. Even if they don't, our mobile devices give us this data, immediately. We can begin by noticing how much time we're spending and how much is acceptable to us and then gradually try to narrow down the off-set.
2. Control your notifications
In the Settings app of most mobile devices, each and every mobile application has default setting of notifications which can be changed by you. And all those notifications about discount sales, lowered prices or subscriptions can be switched off from there. That way, even if you want your app to notify you of something, it will but without popping onto your screen at an unwelcome moment.
3. Scheduling DND and Silent routines on your mobile phones
If you've planned your day well in advance or know what to want to do and when, you can schedule the DND mode (Do Not Disturb) or Silent mode in advance. This will ensure that even if you use your phone for work/study related processes, you are not deviated and disturbed by apps.
4. Group your apps in a category and assign a unique purpose to each app
If you were to ask me what is the single most crucial step in this entire list of detox, my answer would be this. If you create folders on your home screen for apps that you use for browsing/surfing the internet (eg. Youtube, Quora, Reddit), versus the one where you connect to your friends/colleagues (eg., WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat) and separate it from the ones where you stream entertaining content (eg., Youtube, IGTV, Facebook); you will be much surprised to see how your overall engagement with the forum has increased in quality and how much time is saved.
I know most apps offer multiple functionalities but if you can narrow down their purpose to one or two objectives, you'd be good to go.
5. Never go to social media without a purpose
Even if you're just there to pass the twenty minutes while waiting for someone, just remind yourself before clicking the app these twenty minutes are for checking messages or for scrolling through the feed or posting a photo. Know your purpose and then click the screen.
6. Don't use social media to fill time gaps
This is one of the most important reasons why our time on social media is unproductive and self-harming. We use it as a background noise while eating, travelling, commuting or even while hanging out with friends. This is a predominant factor that is degrading your quality of life. You don't need to multi-task. You don't need to fill up your quite mind with constant tit-bits and information. You can instead enjoy and cherish your experiences or commit to more fulfilling sources of entertainment, information, knowledge or news. Podcasts, audio-books, playlists, short movies all exist for these moments.
7. Delayed gratification of your information hunger
On various platforms like You-tube, Facebook and Whatsapp, we don't always have the time to receive well all the messages and information we have yet, we check them and then forget them. At other times, we suddenly remember a link we had to check out or search something about someone who popped in a conversation. Not strictly to be followed always, but you can use a feature to SAVE IT FOR LATER. This way the time in your day when you're actually onto using social media purposefully, you have intentions behind your usage and that's helping you draw most benefits while saving time, avoiding distraction and keeping your productivity game on point.
8. Screen Time Restriction
A simple technique to keep you off from wasting hours on Youtube or Instagram is to simply put on a timer as soon as you start reading. You can alternatively use an alarm or a stop-watch to limit your time and notify you, or to simply build up in background and then kick you in your gut when finally you decide to check it out. There are restrictive apps also available for iOS and Android that do such tasks, but in my personal opinion, if an alarm, a timer and a stop-watch isn't enough, then do you really need another app?
9. The forbidden first and last hour
Scientific studies have proved that avoiding mobile phones and specially social media apps in the first hour after waking up and the last hour before going to bed, drastically improves quality of sleep and reduces stress levels. As a matter of fact, these hours are close to when your subconscious activities heighten. Any sort of unwanted or unprecedented information can leave us in an unpredictable or unstable emotional state and that is what we are trying to avoid the most.
10. Taking control of your feed
Every time you open your feed, it's like a roll of dice. Anything can come up from anywhere and you'd have a reaction to the stimulus. But who said that we cannot take some control? I request you today, to perform this crucial detox step. Take time out of your life and clear all the unnecessary, uneventful subscriptions, people and channels from your FOLLOWING list - on every social media app you use. Mute contacts whose stories are un-inspiring or irrelevant to you. Unsubscribe, un-follow, block and hide things that need it. It's a Purge for Purity and you have to do it.
11. Make you social media feed resonate with your life goals
Everyone has different goals and personal projects running in their life, at any given moment. Some are trying to work on their fitness, some on their craft, either you could be learning a skill or exploring art and fashion or seeking wealth. The power of social media is such that it can invigorate your journey if you include it. Follow, subscribe and add to your email lists some of the niche pages, channels, influencers or content creators that are linked to your goals. As such, your time on the apps would be motivating, resourceful, productive and uplifting.
12. Be aware of the feelings you have as you scroll through and respond to them diligently.
As you begin your renewed interactions after all this, I'd ask you to mentally note your response to each piece of information/content you receive. And respond aptly. Like what you like, select "not interested" if it didn't concern you. These apps want you to stay longer on them, they'll use your inputs to customize and enhance your unique experience.
13. Remember the concept of The Highlight Reel Effect and hence, never compare.
Knowing the fact that social media is a virtual reality of accomplishments and filtered perfection in terms of aesthetics, beauty, life style and almost everything, we need to consume the content with a pinch of salt. The way we treat movies, ads and celebrities.
14. Consume news and information from legitimate sources.
Following social media and people's stories to get latest news, isn't the best advice. It is a great platform to share your ideas but it isn't monitored or screened; hence, highly susceptible to inaccuracies and fallacies. I would recommend using legitimate news sources/websites/networks/apps for this and being watchful of what we share ourselves too.
15. Social Media Fasting
As we complete our ritual of Social Media Detox, I'd suggest periodically taking a day or two off from social media. Specially when you're not doing so well on the emotional front. Take time off and relax. Take an extra nap or a shower if there's some vacancy to be filled. Indulge in a creative time-pass activity like drawing or cooking. Watch a movie or read a book if that's what you need to heal. But stay away from social media. One on one conversations might be something, but take your time before you're ready to face the world again.
16. Detachment
At the heart of this detox ritual is the principle of detachment to the world of social media itself. There are lot of good people out there and lot of negativity too, but only if we can use it as a tool and not an end in itself, we will be detached from its' effect on us. And truly the greatest pleasure in using social media is when you're not too attached to it. That's why puppy and cute baby videos go viral so easily. That's why we enjoy memes and vines.
At last I'd just like to say, the day you do actually something you're proud of and don't feel the need to share it with the wide world is the day you're totally free of social media. You may just, but it's imperative that you don't need to share it; that you understand that a good thing is good in itself, without ever making it to your public profile.
One word-sublime