5 Ways to Cut Down on Social Media Usage

You wouldn't believe how much time you waste on Facebook. You're not alone; plenty of people don't get much value out of social media. Yet some people continue to use it more than they'd like, often to the detriment of their productivity and mental health.

Facebook isn't the only culprit. Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, and other apps and websites are also contributing to the problem. Leaving one platform for another isn't a good solution. However, not everyone wants to give up social media entirely. Try these strategies to limit your usage!

1. Turn off 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 work. By turning them off, you gain control over when and how often you open the app.

Turn off all notifications on your phone for the apps in question and turn off email alerts. Do this for any social media sites you feel you spend too much time on. Make sure to turn off badges and push notifications as well.

You'll still see activity notifications in the app when you're signed in, but you won't get notifications elsewhere.

2. Start your digital day off

Cutting out 20% or 50% of your social media time each day is difficult. Instead, try cutting out one day altogether. It's a simple concept and easy to follow.

The idea here is to create a digital day of rest. Like a religious holiday, a digital day of rest is a set amount of time each week where you cut out certain things to focus on other things. For example, you could cut out all social media every Saturday and focus on family and reading instead.

You can set rules for yourself like, 'No Internet Saturday through Sunday, except for video calls and GPS maps for getting around.' You can even skip the whole day and instead choose something like, 'No phones or laptops after dinner and in the bedroom.' Set rules that work and get you the results you want.

3. Track usage and set time reduction goals

It's hard to cut back on social media if you don't know how much time you're spending on it. For this method, measure your usage first and then decide how much to cut back. Quantifying your usage can be a powerful motivator.

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The good news is that it's easy to track your time. The RescueTime app, for example, tracks how much time you spend on various websites and apps—though it works best on a desktop PC. Apple's Screen Time tool tracks how much time you spend on your iPhone and iPad, including the exact number of minutes spent in different apps. It's located in Settings > Screen Time . Most Android phones have a similar feature called Digital Wellbeing .

4. Block, lock and delete

This method is a bit more drastic: Block websites, lock your accounts, and delete any mobile apps.

Install a browser extension, like StrictWorkflow or StayFocusd, that can block you from accessing any website you choose. RescueTime can do this too, as long as you pay for the premium version. These tools typically allow you to block websites for a set amount of time or for a total of time each day.

An even more drastic way to block access to websites is through your home router via domain filtering. If you block a major website, such as Facebook.com, no device on your network will be able to open any pages from that site.

The next step is to enable multi-factor authentication for all the sites you want to use less frequently, and then log out of those sites. This adds another step before you can get back to social media, 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 log in to them, you'll have to use your mobile browser or reinstall the app. Either way, this will prevent you from opening the app impulsively.

5. Set time limits in mobile apps

This is the least popular way to cut back on social media. Basically, you set time limits for apps (or groups of apps), and your phone will alert you when you're about to hit that threshold. You can do this on an iPhone ( Settings > Screen Time > App Limits ) or an Android phone ( Settings > Digital Wellbeing > App Limits ). Some social media apps have similar options.

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

Marvin Fry

Update 09 December 2024