6 Ways to Reduce Your Social Media Use

How addicted are you to your phone and social media? If your answer is anywhere between ‘heaps and extremely’, it might be time to set some boundaries to reduce your social media use.

It doesn’t have to be anything drastic, like swearing off smartphones (unless you want to, then go for it!), but here are 6 Ways to Reduce Your Social Media Use to help you be more intentional when it comes to your social media use so you can have more time for the more important things.

6 Ways to Reduce Your Social Media Use

1. Consider deleting your social media apps from your phone

If you have a bad habit of reaching for your social media apps on auto-pilot you might want to consider disabling or deleting your social media apps from your phone. This might mean that you can only use your social media from your home PC and this might go a long way to putting a barrier between you and your phone addiction.

You can also do things on your home PC, such as disabling your Facebook newsfeed which can help you limit distraction when using social media and eliminate some of the ‘noise’.

2. Set a timer as a boundary for your use

If you want to avoid blowing time checking your social feeds and be more intentional, it might be a good habit to implement time limits on your social media use.

You can do this, by agreeing to a time you will allow to use the app on your phone or computer, and then when your timer goes off on your phone, or watch (I use my FitBit for mine) you know that you have used up your allocated scrolling time.

You can go a step further with this and set time blocks when you are and aren’t allowed to use your phone. Perhaps you are only allowed to use it on designated break times, or you only want to check it on the train ride between 7 and 8 am or 5 and 6 pm, you can choose to disable your app outside of these times.

Plugin Self Control will also allow you to block access to pages on your computer for a period of time, or all together! Of course, you can turn it off when you wish, but it’s another excellent barrier option to help you be more mindful of your time!

3. Find new things to do

Instead of aimlessly browsing social media put your phone down and do something else. We’ve all had access to our mobile phones for so long that we don’t even know what life is like without them. Let’s try and remember and do things that don’t involve scrolling our phones.

You might do the following which will go a long way to using your time in a better way.

• Read a book (these are some of my favourites*)
• Go to the gym
• Go for a walk (leave the phone at home!)
• Text, email or call a friend
• Declutter a space in your home
• Ask a friend to come to meet you for lunch
• Watch a new vid of a favourite Youtuber or a doco on a topic that is important to you

4. Be more selective of who you follow

When was the last time you reviewed your followed accounts or friend list? Unwanted accounts that don’t add value can take up valuable space in your news feed, so you don’t get to see the posts you really want to. This means you stay on the app longer and spend more time on there. Good for social media companies, but not so good for you.

Not to mention the negative impact when you follow particular accounts whether that is people you no longer want to associate with or accounts that make you feel worse about yourself. If you aren’t learning, feeling inspired, or being entertained it might be time to unfollow some accounts.

Take a few minutes to sit down and unfriend/unfollow people who don’t add value to your life or news feed. This is a great time to unfollow family, friends, acquaintances, etc whose posts don’t add much to your online experience. If you have any negative nellies on your social media, be sure to unfollow, or unfriend them as well. I’ve had to unfollow a few people due to their negative posts and have felt all the better for it.

Once you have minimised your social media lists, your feed will ideally be more relevant and show the people’s posts you want to see.

If you are a member of too many Facebook Groups, it might also be a good time to reassess how many you actively participate in and leave any others that don’t add any value to you.

5. Resist the urge to share everything

I’ve made a conscious effort over the years to reduce posting on my social media and restrict it to the things I really want to share and want to look back on. A picture of my plate doesn’t really cut it anymore and takes me away from just enjoying the moment. I prefer to reserve my posts for those things I really want to remember such as photos of a trip or a photo taken on a special occasion.

This year, see if you can limit how frequently you post on social media.

Enjoy your amazing breakfast without sharing the photo. Walk out the door without taking a selfie of your outfit. Resist posting that 3rd post today about your dog, cat, car, meal, etc. Maybe keep the sharing for just the big stuff like your birthday, or a holiday rather than posting multiple times every day about what you are eating, wearing, what you are doing, who you are with, and so on. Of course, it is great to keep friends and family updated with what is going on in your life, but let’s try and make an effort this year to post with more intention.

6. Implement a Social Media free day each week

The Minimalists have a challenge ‘Screen Free Saturdays’ which is another way to limit your social media use. It doesn’t have to be a Saturday or even a whole day, but if you can a time during the week to go without your phone and social media it will go a long way to giving you some of your valuable time back. Even if you can make your own Screen-Free rules such as no phones after 7 pm or before 9 am. Whatever you like! Any attempt to reduce your social media use will make a positive difference!

Photo by Rahul Chakraborty on Unsplash

How do you plan to reduce your social media use? Let me know in the Comments!