I have a bad habit.
It always starts the same: I sit down to get something done, and five minutes later I find myself opening up a new tab and scrolling through Twitter. Five minutes after that, I check Tumblr, or Instagram, or Snapchat. An essay that should have taken me an hour might take me three days to complete, because I find myself unable to focus on the document in front of me.
Recent analytics on my phone show that I spend an average of 42 minutes a day on Tik Tok. A couple weeks ago, it said I spent over 10 hours on it over the course of a week. That’s time I could spend doing anything else.
I’ve started trying something new this week. With iPhones, there’s a ‘downtime’ option in settings, which turns off certain apps during certain hours of the day. For example, I could turn off all nonessential apps for any amount of time I want, but that wouldn’t stop me from checking social media on my laptop, though, which is where I primarily do my work. It’s also easily thwarted, because I can just turn it off whenever I want. Sure, it’s a pain in the ass if I log out and force myself to log in every time, but the act of opening a new tab and navigating to the website is still a break in my concentration.
But what I want to know is: why? What is it about these sites that keep me from doing my actual work? Is it in their design?
Yes. It is.
A Vice article suggests that social media sites are sending useless notifications at an increased rate to improve engagement. On top of that, these sites trigger our FOMO (fear of missing out), and releases dopamine into our systems when we get notifications and validation from other people online. We don’t want to miss anything, so we log in as often as possible. We like how it feels when someone likes our post, so we keep posting.
If it’s in the design of these sites, how do I get better at budgeting my time?
Some studies recommend a total detox. Unlike other addictions– caffeine, alcohol, drugs– there’s no physical withdrawal when it comes to online addictions. For me, personally, I find that completely detaching myself from social media works, just not for very long. When I re-download it, or log back in, I spend less time on it, but I eventually work my way back up to two hours a day.
I’ve found it best to delete these social media apps off of my phone altogether. I use my laptop far less, which means I’ll be on social media far less, but it’s still available to check if I need.
A Vice article about the use of social media notifications recommends turning off all notifications to prevent a break in your concentration.
As Jason Koebler, author of the Vice article Turn Off Push Notifications, put it, “Notifications are no longer used to notify you of anything—they’re used by apps to scream over each other in hopes that you’ll click them.”
I decided to test myself. While I was researching and writing this article, I kept a tally of all the times I stopped to check my social media feed. This included purposefully navigating off of my document and opening any notifications that popped up on my phone. I checked social media fifteen times. The sad part is that the number is probably lower than it usually is. Since I was actively aware of how many times I was checking social media, I was able to catch myself before looking at my phone and practice some self control.
In the world now, it’s hard to not have a social media presence. Sites like LinkedIn can be crucial to finding a job and making connections in a professional world. Creative jobs expect to see traces of people on the internet, that’s where people can showcase their talents for free. Social media isn’t inherently evil, it’s a tool that we can use, but it’s important to learn to manage our time on it.
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