7 simple steps to reduce Social Media

‘The Social Dilemma’ on Netflix is quite the hot topic lately. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it; it’s full of insightful information about the dangers of those innocent little social media platforms that are ubiquitous in our lives these days.

In the movie they highlight how we can get addicted to Social Media in the same way we do to drugs, gambling and sex; receiving a dopamine hit every time we get a ‘like’ or some other notification.

If you don’t believe me watch the movie; it’s very enlightening.

It does a great job of presenting the facts in an entertaining way, so I won’t repeat that here. 

But I did want to offer some practical solutions as to how we can start to disentangle ourselves from the spiderweb of our ‘socials’.

1. Ditch the pings

First things first: go into your accounts and change your notification settings so that you're no longer sent a reminder if anyone ‘likes’, comments, tags you, or sends you a DM, etc. 

This way you can strengthen your boundaries and avoid your day being constantly interrupted by the relentless ankle-biting ‘ping!’ of notifications every time somebody interacts with you. 

Take your power back so YOU get to decide when you want to visit your socials – not anybody else.

2. Tick… tock…

Specify a certain amount of time, and a specific time each day (or week even), that you're going to spend on your social media. 

This will help to prevent you frittering away hours of precious time, blissfully unaware as the minutes go by.  

Set a timer if necessary. Preferably one with a really loud, annoying tick… 

3. Get outta there

When you’re finished doing whatever it is you need to do on there: make your escape. 

Always log out at the end of a session. 

Don’t make it too easy for yourself to be pulled back into the tempting dopamine-soaked world of Social Media by leaving it open on your devices. 

Those tempting little numbers will appear, telling you that you have notifications…

‘Look! Somebody has paid attention to you! Quick, come back and find out what they’ve said!’

Log out, and stay out, until your next allocated ‘social time’ arrives. 

Furthermore, make your password a really long, complicated, ANNOYING one. 

This is helpful for security reasons, plus it will also deter you from sneaking back for a quick peek.

Ok sure - logging out is a bit like the cyber equivalent of hiding your chocolate in a really high-up cupboard. 

Yep, you can climb up and get it, but it might be just enough of a deterrent to stop you – at least some of the time…

4. Lose the apps

Ok, this one isn’t for the faint-hearted. 

Are you ready to get rid of your social media apps from your phone? 

This is going to make it far more difficult for you to just whip out your phone at a moment’s notice and scroll mindlessly whenever you have a spare 2 minutes.

Instead, you could use a separate device such as a tablet or laptop (something that doesn’t sit in your pocket and accompany you everywhere you go) when you need to use social media.

This is a great way to start losing your addiction. It’s a pattern-interrupt: a way of breaking into that ingrained routine to stop you doing it without even thinking about it.

Yes, it may be just one step too far for most. But it’s a very effective way of cutting right down on your usage.

5. Detox your newsfeed

It’s a good idea to spend some time cleaning up your newsfeed so you can streamline your time on your socials and not waste it viewing pointless activities.

Ask yourself who and what you really want to keep up to date with. Then hide anything else. 

The idea is to keep your newsfeed as relevant as possible, so you can maximise the time you spend on there.

6. Dear Diary

Are you the type of person who feels the need to constantly update your status? Are you really that sure that everyone is on the edge of their seat waiting to find out what you’re having for dinner?

If this sounds like you, then try this little exercise:

Get yourself a journal.

Yes, an actual book with pages made from paper!

Whenever you feel the urge to post a status update, instead of posting it online, write it down in your journal instead.

Write it at the top of the page, and leave the rest of the page blank – for your OWN comments. (Oh, ok then, if you must, draw a picture of a thumbs-up or a heart..)

Have a think about this status update: why have you decided to highlight this particular aspect of yourself and share it with the world?

How does it make you seem? Funny… healthy… sad… adventurous…political… popular…?

What are you trying to achieve by portraying yourself in this way? Write down any thoughts that come up about this.

Imagine you are reading it as somebody else’s status. How would you react to it? Would you click ‘like’? What comment would you make?

Remember that YOU are the most important person in your world. Other peoples’ opinions and judgements are immaterial. Unfortunately however, Social Media is perfectly designed to ‘train’ us to judge, ‘like’, or criticise others – and ourselves too.

By getting into the habit of journaling in this way, each potential status update becomes an exercise in internalising your locus of evaluation and discovering juicy insights into how your mind works.  

7. Escape the Cell-Phone Cell

Social Media is designed specifically to get you to share all kinds of information about yourself: what you’re doing, where you are, what kinds of things you like, what you look like – etc, etc. 

Apart from the obvious (huge amount of) money that these organisations make from the sharing of your personal information, there are those who see a more sinister side of it. 

It is, after all, an excellent self-surveillance tool; just like Bentham’s Panopticon, it “induces in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power” ( - Michel Foucault, 1975, 'Discipline and Punish').

Have you ever noticed how it can almost feel like an interrogation when you upload a photo to Facebook?  The endless stream of questions often make me imagine I’m sat in a police cell with a bright light shining in my face.

– ‘Where are you?’ ‘Who are you with?’ ‘What are you doing?’ ‘how are you feeling?’ Tag your friends – NOW!

It even encourages us to tag strangers who happen to be in the background of our pictures... now that’s just weird.

If you're of a certain mindset, these invasive practices might cause you just enough anger to sit up, log out, and as they used to say in Why Don’t You – “go out and do something less boring instead”.

So there you are – 7 quick and easy ways to give up, or cut down on your Socials and get back to Real Life. 

But wait a minute - what can I do to replace that dopamine void?

Well - I'm glad you asked.

There are plenty of natural ways you can flood your system with the kind of feel-good chemicals that Social Media draws upon to pull you in.

Listen to music... have a massage... stroke your pet... eat a healthy diet... sleep well... walk in nature... get some sunlight... meditate... exercise... fall in love...

Do you have any good ways that help you cut down on your social media? Let me know in the comments.

And please like and share this article – go on - I could do with a little dopamine hit... ;)