social media addiction

Social media is one that I had struggled with for a long time. However, the only one I still struggle with is YouTube. I'm not sure if I can necessarily give you practical advice because what it took for me to quit social media is to get a dumb phone. I only have text and call, so that kind of makes it easy. However, I did quit Instagram fully 3 years ago when I still had a smartphone. Honestly the best advice I can give is that you have to come up with a really good reason why you want to quit social media. What is it doing to your life? And what kind of life do you want without it? Then, delete your accounts, and live a life without it. It's easier said than done, but any addiction isn't easy to break. If you want to go my drastic route, that's your decision. If not, I believe you can be stronger than I was.

 

I am currently in the same situation as you. I feel like I'm too dependent on social media. Please also give me advice on how to quit social media

 

It's (probabltly) easier to go "cold turkey" than to cut it down to occasional/casual use.
A huge part of me wants to give up social media for good especially facebook, which has been a useless time drain (at best) for 15 years now. Not to mention the privacy issues, and the filter bubble i have been receiving most of my news from, etc. It's not good for you.
On the other hand, i have a business to promote, i sell things, i find out about interesting music events and local goings on etc. It does enhance my "offline" life enough to be worth having a presence there.
I think my ultimate aim at this point is to check facebook and other social media in a very disciplined way once per day, and once a day only. Closer to the way i use this forum, in fact. But i am not there yet.

If you are able to, try a two week fast and see how it goes. If you manage it, go for a month then two months etc. Treat it like any other addiction, in other words.
If you decide to return to it in a disciplined way, like i described above, i recommend doing so only after a period of abstinence.

 

If you're feeling some brain fog wait until it clears a bit since it's a pretty dense one.

The essential message I'd like to bring up is how an optimized algorithm molded to hijack attention span, is affecting our behavior even before we actually engage with social media.

Trying to isolate this one variable won't do much benefit if a more subtle shift doesn't happen with how you perceive enjoyment. Our nervous system was built to adapt so if we seek to feel good all the time it will soon adjust our receptors to match the stimulus and reduce it's relative potency. Soon enough one would get so desensitized to the point of losing the ability to derive joy from interacting with the things that once seemed worth their time.
Living in that void should send shivers down your spine.

 

I just blocked everything and my addiction ended

 

Yep youtube is like the last boss of social media detox

Idk when or why but i kinda remember back when i teenager youtube is not a big thing like today. Maybe because we are so dependen on smart phone for our real life question then make it harder for youtube to fully abandon

 

Everyones' capacity for quitting social media (and staying off it) is vastly different - and often, those breakthrough decisions take months or years to make with full conviction.

I remember how easy my "moment" was; I had a theme account with 10.9k followers that I grew for nearly 2 years - and I deleted it without hesitation out of spite for social media. All it caused me was laziness, lust, anger and disappointing gratification.

Still, though - this "moment" takes time to find. When you take that big stride, it will pump you full of renewed clarity - but you need the right toolkit (mental framework and meaningful occupations) to keep that clarity alive.

Just like "transmutation" in pmo, transmute urges to compulsively browse/scroll. (Instead of boring, unproductive conversations on Instagram, open a forum dedicated to internet addiction. Chat with people in there; get new insight.) (Instead of short captions and catchy visuals, go on a blog. Read long posts by experienced writers. Maybe teach yourself skills like speed-reading. Anything that stretches your attention span.)

I "figured it out" after years of predictable liking/commenting/compulsive browsing. Everyone in my friend group was doing it, so I saw no shame in it. I'd open Instagram at 9 pm, browse until 5 am, laugh at how dumb I was and go to sleep - wondering why I felt mental and physical fatigue the next day.

It's been about half a year since I deleted IG, and it was one of the fastest life improvements I've made. When things fall into place for you, you'll see a lot more priceless happiness day-to-day.

 

* Go cold turkey whenever you can

The following helped me for things I needed to check occasionally:

Only access Social Media from a desktop browser, this increases the barrier. Delete everything from your phone, or disable notifications at least (again, go cold turkey if possible, it really pays off).

You can turn your phone and computer to greyscale, meaning that everything is black and white. Colours make you use these services much more.

There is a browser plugin called Distraction Free Youtube (DF Youtube) which you can use to block the yt homepage, suggestions and much more. This makes your youtube experience much more focussed. There are similar plugin for facebook and I guess for other websites too.

You can block Social Media websites or allow them for say 20 min a day, or only during certain time intervals. iOS and Android devices should have a feature for that, and there's a browser plug in called LeechBlock which has a lot of customization features.

What might help a lot is to simply write down how much time you're spending on different sites. Just the process of consciously tracking your time can make a difference.

Try using search engines less. Talking to people or going to the library really pays off. Set some bookmarks so that you don't have to use search engines too much.

I can recommend the work of Cal Newport, he has written quite a bit on this topic (although in his books he takes some time to get to the point)