5 Simple Ways to Cut Down on Social Media

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A friend once told me, “I can’t believe how much time I spend on Facebook.” “There’s nothing even good or interesting about it. I really should get rid of it.” My friend is not alone; Many people get little value from social media. But many continue to use it more than they would like, to the detriment of their productivity and mental health.

Facebook isn’t the only culprit. People are always throwing their hands up on Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, and other apps and websites. Switching from one platform to another () is also not a solution. Still not everyone wants it quit social media completely. If you’re in the last group, try these strategies to limit your use.

1. Disable Notifications

The quickest way to cut back on social media is to turn off all notifications for the platforms you use.

Social media sites design notifications to make it feel like something urgent and important is happening. That’s why they are effective. When you turn them off, you’re back in control of when and how often you open an app.

Disable all phone notifications for those apps And Turn off email alerts. Do this for any social media sites you find you spend too much time on. Make sure to turn off both badges and push notifications.

You’ll still see activity notifications in the app when you’re logged in, but you won’t see them anywhere else.

2. Start a digital Sabbath

It’s hard to cut out 20% or 50% of your daily social media use. From where? Because you don’t know what it feels like. Instead, try cutting out a day entirely. This is an easy concept to understand and follow.

The idea here is to create a. Like a religious Sabbath, a digital Sabbath is a designated time each week when you eliminate certain things and focus on others. For example, you can cut off all social media every Saturday and focus on family and reading instead.

With Digital Sabbath, you set the rules. “No internet from Saturday to Sunday except for video calls and GPS maps,” you might say. You might not even do this for a full day and instead choose something like “No phone or laptop after dinner and never go into the bedroom.” Make rules that will work for you and give you the results you want.

3. Track Your Usage and Set a Goal to Reduce It

It’s hard to reduce the time you spend on social media if you don’t know how much time you spend. For this method, first measure your time and only then decide how much you want to reduce it. Maybe you’ll hate what this exercise reveals, or maybe you won’t spend as much time surfing the web as you thought. Either way, measuring your usage can be a powerful motivator.

The good news is that it’s easy to track your time. For example, the app records the time you spend on different sites and apps; but works best on desktop computers. Apple’s tool tracks how much time you spend on your iPhone and iPad, including the exact number of minutes you spend in different apps. It’s under Settings > Screen Time. Most Android phones have a similar feature called .

4. Block, Lock and Delete

This method is a little more aggressive: Block websites, lock yourself out of your accounts, and delete all mobile apps.

Install a browser extension like or that can block you from accessing any website you choose. RescueTime works for that too, as long as you pay for its premium version. These tools usually allow you to block sites for a specific time period or total time per day.

An even more aggressive way to block access to websites is to use your home router through domain filtering. If you block a host website, such as Facebook.com, no device on your network can open pages on that site.

The next step is to turn this feature on for any sites you want to use less, and then log out of those sites. This adds an extra step before returning to the social network, slowing you down and making you think about what you’re doing.

Finally, delete annoying social media apps from your phone. If you want to sign in to them, you’ll need to install or reinstall the app. Either way, this will prevent you from suddenly opening an app.

5. Set Time Limits on Mobile Apps

This is my least favorite way to cut back on social media. Essentially, you set time limits for apps (or groups of apps) and your phone alerts you when you approach that threshold. You can do this on an iPhone (Settings > Screen Time > App Limits) or an Android phone (Settings > Digital Wellbeing > App Limits). Several social media apps have similar options.

The problem is, it’s not very effective or motivating. It requires you to have the willpower to stop when you see the time warning. It also doesn’t bring to your attention any new information about your habits. Finally, these limits are often easy to override.

How Will You Use Your Newfound Time?

The real way to cut down on social media is to appreciate the time you save. Don’t waste it. Instead, be intentional about what you want to do. you can learn languagefor example or dabbling in photography.