How To Kick Your Social Media Addiction

At this point, we are all addicts.

We are addicted to our screens. Just the least bit of idle time, and we reach for our phones. It doesn’t even register anymore. We scroll on auto-pilot.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I.

Many people marginalize their social media addiction. They think to themselves, “Well, everybody around me is constantly staring at their phones, too. So, it can’t be that bad.” Hence, they keep scrolling.

But that is exactly what you should be worried about — the fact that social media addiction is so widespread.

It is the ultimate fraud — if the dealers can convince everybody that they must consume a certain drug, it stops being a drug. If everybody is an addict, nobody is an addict.

You must be different. Admit that you have a problem. Then set to resolving it.

II.

Track your baseline.

To get a realistic idea of how addicted you are, you must track your usage. Don’t go with your subjective feelings about your usage. Get hard data.

With Apple phones, check out the “Screen Time” setting; with Android phones, check out the “Digital Wellbeing” setting. Both let you know how long exactly you have been using certain apps on your phone.

However, with both solutions, the data set is limited. The Android option goes back four weeks, while Apple only saves your usage data for the last seven days.

Hence, track your usage time in a separate Excel or Google Sheets file. This way, you can observe trends over the course of months and years.

III.

There are two approaches to overcoming any addiction. You can a) go cold turkey, or b) gradually wean yourself off.

Each approach has its merits and its disadvantages.

a) The Cold Turkey Approach

Here, you completely stop using social media from one day to the next. Of the two, it is the harder one to pull off. It requires a lot of willpower in the beginning.

The upside — you will overcome your addiction quickly. After 4–8 weeks, you will no longer experience withdrawal symptoms.

For this to work, you need to have few if any other commitments going on. Essentially, you want to create your own private rehab facility at home.

b) The Gradual Approach

With the gradual approach, you slowly wean yourself off your social addiction. For example, you start with not checking your phone for the first 30 minutes after waking up. Once that starts to feel easy, you increase to 45 minutes, then an hour. And so on.

The upside of the gradual approach — it’s easier to implement in your already busy life. The downside — it takes much longer to become addiction-free than with the the cold turkey approach. We are talking 6–12 months (if not longer).

IV.

Get an app blocker.

With these apps, you can set a time limit. Once set, you cannot undo the setting until the timer is up. Even if you deinstall the blocking app, you won’t be able to use your social media apps until the time limit is up.

Another option is to get a "dumb phone." These only allow you to make calls and send text messages. No apps and no browser.

Finally, you could leave your phone with a trusted friend. If you are going cold turkey, just drop it off and tell them to not give it back to you for two months. If you are gradually weaning yourself off, just leave it with them for a specified time each day.

V.

Find someone to hold you accountable.

There is a reason why 12-step programs make use of the buddy system. If you have someone you must report to regularly, you are less likely to fall off the wagon.

This accountability partner could be a friend, it could be someone you met at a support group, or it could be an accountability coach. I usually recommend going with someone you don’t have a personal relationship with yet; they will cut you less slack.

You can take this even further. There are now apps that allow another person to block your phone or certain apps on your phone remotely. Obviously, there should be a high level of trust between you before you opt for this approach. But it is an effective one.

The day I decided to quit social media was one of the best in my life. Within a few short weeks, my quality of life went up significantly. I had more time for important projects and friends, experienced less anxiety, and felt more content at the end of each day. Even my sleep improved.

Kick that habit. It's worth it.

Until next week,

Niels