Social media is designed to keep you hooked for as long as possible. Do you want to escape from there? Then follow our tips for less social media.
Use less social media: this is how you do it
Social media has brought us a lot of great things. You can easily get in touch with people all over the world, learn new things, stay up to date with the news and find tons of inspiration.
But it’s not all positive. Social media uses plenty of tricks to keep you stuck in their apps for as long as possible. Nice messages or videos are constantly presented via algorithms. Getting comments and likes is addictive, so you keep opening the apps. Are you struggling to reduce your social media use? Then check out these tips!
1. Turn off notifications
One of the ways social media keeps tempting you to open their apps is through notifications. They let you know when someone is live, you get a response or if you have a new follower. If you want to spend less time on social media, the first step is to reduce those notifications.
You have two options for this. First of all, you can delve into the settings of the apps themselves to control different types of notifications separately. For example, you can set that you will not receive a notification if you have a new follower, but you will receive a notification if your favorite person goes live.
You can also delve into the iOS settings and go to ‘Notifications’ to completely turn off notifications per app, or make them part of ‘Scheduled overview’ so that the messages are delivered twice a day. This way you can be sure you don’t miss anything, but you won’t be tempted throughout the day.
2. Set a limit
A next step could be to give apps a limit. To do this, go to ‘Screen Time’ in the settings and choose ‘App Limits’. Tap ‘Add limit’ and select the app for which you want to set a limit under ‘social’. You then choose a time, which determines how long per day you can use the app.
If you exceed the limit, you will receive a message across the screen and the app icon will turn gray. Unfortunately, it only takes a few taps to override the limit, so the usefulness of this option is limited.
3. Move the apps further away
If you often pick up your iPhone to have something to do, you probably regularly choose the apps that are on the first page of your home screen. You use apps that are further away less often. With that logic, you can also move apps that you want to use less often further away. This could be a few pages further on the home screen, or by placing the app in a folder. Due to the extra steps you have to take, there is a good chance that you will be less inclined to open the app.
4. Put your smartphone away
If you really like the app out of reach you just have to put your entire iPhone away. Because we always have our iPhone close by, we often grab the device when we have nothing to do. Even during a movie or series, there is a good chance that if you look at your iPhone for a moment, you will not be able to fully pay attention. Therefore, sometimes put your iPhone out of reach.
5. Find an alternative
What is the reason why you want to be on social media? Is it for social contact, to get inspired or do you just want to be entertained? Find an alternative to achieve those things. Chat with your friends, read a book more often or play a game. There are many ways to entertain yourself that are probably more useful than scrolling through social media for hours a day.
6. Unfollow your biggest pitfalls
You can make social media less addictive by unfollowing accounts that you spend too much time on. That can be positive or negative. Do you notice that you keep refreshing certain accounts because you want to receive every update? Then it may be wise to take a break from that by unfollowing that specific account and perhaps checking in once a week.
But they can also be negative triggers that keep you coming back. Think of continuing to argue with people or Facebook who you think is wrong, or reflecting on the body image of influencers on Instagram.
7. Rigorous: Uninstall the app
Do you notice that the above remedies do not work? Then delete the app from your iPhone. That’s rigorous, but you can always give yourself one moment a day to download the app again, see what you missed and delete it again. Or you visit social media via your web browser. You will then automatically notice that you have not missed much at all and it will become easier to download the app less.
More iPhone tips
-
7 tips if you want to use social media less
-
Print screen Mac: this is how you take a screenshot or print screen
-
This way you prevent the iPhone from blinding you at night
-
WhatsApp guide: these are the best tips for your iPhone
-
How to set up the new Pride 2024 watch face for Apple Watch