Long story short, don't stress yourself when it comes to quitting social media especially cold turkey but what you can do is that implicitly quit social media.
You might ask how is that even possible ? and why you need social media ?
what you can do is, create other accounts for your social media, a kind of "alter ego" social media where you can express your true self when it comes to what you wanna do and achieve as personal goals.
What i would do to achieve that :
1. log out or deactivate your actual accounts.
2. create the alter ego accounts
Now the important part is what follows :
3. Immerse yourself in your interest :
You wanna read more ? download ebook and use your phone as a digital book
You wanna sleep well ? make your phone GREY (activate the greyscale on your phone to make it boring - schedule it for the evening)
You wanna learn a new hobby ? here comes your alter ego social media, where you will use the algorithm for your own good, where you will search and interact only with what you are interested in !
You wanna avoid scrolling and walk more, work out more, etc.. ? use a permanent focus MODE where the home screen is empty and only have one of your music players, hide the rest of the apps, make that phone a digital music player only.
you want study tips ? use youtube for your benefits, and only use it in navigator mode, never the app.
slowly but surely you will start getting bored of your phone and then quitting the usage of that device will be more easy and relevant and soon you will find yourself barely touching it.
4. detaching from your phone : you will soon be picking a book rather than your ebooks because it's more healthy for your eyes, using your study tips with music in the background (here is where you will be using your phone as a music player only again) etc...
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I recently quit a drug I was addicted to for years, and soon after started quiting major social media platforms using the same lessons I learned from getting sober!
Your brain is great at eventually returning to a natural baseline. But until that happens, You'll need replacement(s) to tide yourself over
Here are some options that have been helpful for me:
1. Coloring books + music. It might seem very childish, but its super fun and relaxing without putting you at the mercy of the algorithm or ads!
2. Frame reading as a scrolling replacement. Find some breezy, fun reads to start out with. Short story collections are good for this because its more digestable to read 15 stories over 400 pages than 1 story.
3. Going on walks *and leaving your phone at home*. It's exercise(always good), it puts you into the real world, and its an activity that can last pretty long.
4. Accountability to others. Tell your supportive loved ones that you're quiting social media. It gives you purpose, you're now doing it for yourself *and* others.
5. Phone calls. Bored but don't want to scroll? Call someone! Just put them on speaker and pretend they're in the room with you, just chat!
6. Last but not least, physically hang out with people *with your phone turned off*.
Jan 19, 2025
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By reading the title you might ask how such thing is possible ? if you want to increase your attention span, first thing to do is to let go of your phone right ?
Well yes and no.
Your phone can definitely be used in your favor !
- On your phone, set up a Focus mode where only important apps can be on your home screen once you activate it.
- Depending on the apps, use them wisely and try your best to search what interest you the most, for exemple :
Youtube : search video essays about subjects that interest you
Audible : to be able to listen to books
Spotify : to listen to your songs while reading a book or an E-book
- Set the greyscale, less colors = less interest to hold the phone
- A focus mode with only the note app on the home screen, start typing on that screen your thoughts, give up to boredom - yes, you should give up and accept the boredom you created on your phone in order to increase the attention span-
- Do not Disturb can be your friend, with less noise -notifications- you would be less interested in visiting the apps.
With those baby steps, you could eventually start detaching yourself from your phone.
As an alternative, use social media on your laptop and you will discover how less interesting are they on the desktop version, Tiktok desktop version is hard to navigate on site, instagram desktop version is boring, replace that navigation with articles to read, video essays on youtube -yes, video essays again-
And lastly -the hard mode- is to go out with your phone, however keep the wifi/mobile data OFF :), set a focus mode titled -digital camera- with only the camera app on your home screen, that way you can enjoy your walk and use your phone to take pictures.
Jan 14, 2025
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I like to let my phone dieā I often donāt charge it overnight, and try not to plug it in during the day. If youāre able to access work/school through only your laptop, let your phone die, or leave it on the plug in another room.
I also delete most apps from my phone for periods of weeks, and minimally use social mediaā if this works for you, it can feel very liberating, and makes me feel much less constantly accessible (which I think is a good thing).
Something that helps me is thinking about the flattening of correspondence; before social media, if you wanted to communicate to a friend, it was one-on-oneā you might write a letter, or call, or email, but what you were doing was conversational and relational. When we use social media, we flatten a lot of individual relationships into one relationship between us and our āaudience.ā Instead of sharing a thought or comment intended for one person, and designed for them to reply and continue the correspondence, we put out press releases on our own lives: āthis is what I had for breakfast,ā āthis is a meme about my mental health,ā and we become part of a passive audience in our friendās lives. We end up feeling like weāve just seen our friends, because weāre āviewingā their lives, but actually apps leave us feeling very isolated and anti-social. Try deleting your most used social media apps, and also schedule a walk/movie night/coffee with a friend.
Outside of radical deletion, pick an audio book to listen to, and pair it with a hands on/tactile activity: you could load the dishwasher, or draw, or try embroidery.
Jul 29, 2024
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I canāt find the Creator and i am mad about it because i wanna credit the one who made sure to put this for free.
Iāve found this website RetroPrint where they show the details of how you can make a Windows 95 customised theme on your phone (with over 800 icons app to choose from 27 of them are already made for the modern apps like netflix twitter etc - some graphics for the widgets too And 3 sounds.)
Jan 30, 2025
If there is one style that literally calms me is stippling.
The endless dots, the slow process, the nuance effect, the final results.
I just love it and appreciate it even more when i spend hours/days to finish one.
Jan 13, 2025
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The fact that i can stay in bed warm with my phone or laptop and music in the background as i watch my favourite movies/series/youtube vids with a warm tea is simple enough to make me grateful for wherever i am today.
Worrying about what I should wear to work is a beautiful thing because itās a privilege that sadly some people canāt afford :(
Complaining about to cook is a beautiful thing because someone somewhere sadly canāt even afford/have access to a simple bread piece.
Literally feeling the warmth of the sun while standing waiting for the bus is a beautiful thing to cherish and be grateful for.
Jan 11, 2025