This is inspired by all the people that leave unconscructive comments all over the internet ("Nobody cares"; "I don't even know who these people are"; "5 minutes of my life I can't get back", and so on and so forth), but really is dedicated to those that don't but feel like their time on social media (or on their phone in general) can get a bit out of control sometimes. Like a great con artist, it lures you in, makes you stay and get cosy, then leaves you with nothing. Being human just like everyone else, I'm too familiar with this trap... after a long time of letting it dictate my downtime, I've tried a few things to take back the steering wheel (I still go visit obviously, but I'm driving myself there thanks). Here's where I'm at currently:
1. Decide which medium is meant to serve which purpose, then unsubscribe/unfollow ruthlessly
Every now and then I'm loathing that we have to be part of so many different social channels to get the right(-ish) mix of content and connection, but then I also realised that nothing should stop us from continuous content finetuning on each channel. Just like each social media platform is meant to serve a relatively specific purpose, we don't go to everyone we know and/or like for everything in life either.
I decided that Facebook is mainly for staying in touch with friends, family and acquaintances (and keeping tabs on who's now got children); Instagram is for creative inspiration (and memes involving funny kids and animals), and Twitter is solely for following a few artists and recording some of my random fleeting thoughts that no one needs to know about - so I've "cleaned up" accordingly. I've unsubscribed from all newsletters I hardly ever touch, and if it's from a business I do like I go follow them on a channel that suits (I've actually moved a lot of them onto my LinkedIn follow list). It also pays to spend a few extra seconds and untick all marketing boxes when signing up for something online, or hit unsubscribe as soon as you do even just an internal eyeroll when a newsletter arrives.
This works for me - depending on your preferences, you might want to go for a bit of a different strategy. The point is to work out who and what to "follow" for what purpose; don't let FOMO or worrying about what anyone thinks about your movements stop you from seeing/reading/watching/participating in what you want to be involved with. Particularly with individuals we personally know, it should be about whether we like them enough to invite them for coffee, not whether we follow each other's every online move. (If you wouldn't even want to go for coffee with them - good sign you don't need to bat an eyelid about the decision.) If exiting the social media scene isn't something you desire (I salute the ones that do, but I certainly don't want to) but all your feeds are saturated with things you scroll right past without a second thought more than things that grab your attention, this could be a good first step to get some better value out of your downtime screen time.
2. Curate your own news
I personally have only used Feedly, but there are so many content aggregators out there you'll surely find one that works for you (google "news apps"). This is an excellent way to keep up with news, websites and blogs you enjoy reading by having all sources saved in one place, rather than getting distracted by newsletters (some of which you can now unsubscribe from if they're only feeding you links from their main site) or waiting for their turn on your social media feed. Again, it promotes content consumption with intent - read what you want to read when you want to read it, rather than giving in to dem click-baits and feeling frustrated about it after. Even if it's a trashy/useless site you like to indulge in every so often (I'll own right up to it, I'm a sucker for pop culture), don't feel shy to link it to your news app - at some point you would've caught up on all the new posts, rather than close one screen only to be back on that endless chain of noise.
3. Listen to podcasts
I find it rather mindblowing how much quality content there is out there in this format - whether you want to keep up with news and commentary, get deep into specific topics or genres, learn about something new or simply be entertained, you'll find it and it's all bloody free! What I love so much about podcasts is that while they don't have to be about any intellectual topics at all, each episode goes for a long enough period of time (comparable to a TV show episode) to provide you with solid insight and thoughts to ponder on. I do wonder whether it's because one is engaging by listening only or because it's one finite conversation at a time, that it doesn't feel draining either (think movie vs. jumping around on YouTube). It's certainly much harder to get distracted or lured into the next thing because there is obviously no recommended content for you to click on; moreover, perhaps because you can just get up and do something else while it's playing, it doesn't seem to have that anchoring effect that social media has either (unless you're listening to Serial, then you'll be sitting there for 12 hours with your mouth agape, listening to every single word). Obviously I'm a huge fan and would recommend it to everyone as a radio alternative or as low-impact, low-commitment entertainment where you can even shut your eyes... I've fallen asleep listening to podcasts before, and thanked myself for getting some rest rather than ending up feeling more dazed and confused after some lazy social media bingeing.
4. Collect items/topics of interest to revisit at a later stage
So often I come across content where I go "ah I'll look at this when I'm free", then I just never do and go on social media instead (to probably think the same thing about new stuff I come across there). For me, scrolling time is essentially "miscellaneous" time - anything goes, just talk at me and let me wind down a bit here. Start collecting these "I'll look at this when I'm free" items in a centralised spot and introduce a bit of deliberate miscellaneous time here and there - at least you'll be getting into things you're moderately interested in without exerting too much effort, until your brain wants memes and late night comedy videos again. There will be functions on your news app to tag or flag articles to read later; start a note on your phone; or if you're a freak like me and need every single thing in your life categorised, start a new folder or document on Evernote.
5. Make it a teeny tiny bit harder to mindlessly distract yourself
Man I get it, sometimes we just want colours dancing in front of our eyes; sometimes looking at dumb shit online that makes us mildly lol is more comforting than staring out the train window into the dark. While it's important to know how to sit with our thoughts or daydream sometimes, we've needed entertainment and engagement from the moment we were born (especially when we're tired and grumpy) so purposeless screentime is only natural. However, just like we were told as kids that too much TV is unhealthy, it's undeniable that too much passive/subconscious media consumption makes us feel lethargic, gets us involved in crap we never wanted to/should be part of in the first place, and too often takes us away from the things we could/should be doing - even if it's simply a quick snooze to refuel for the remainder of the day. Our brain is lazy by default (I'm not saying this, Daniel Kahneman is in Thinking, Fast and Slow), and hardly anything we do in life is easier than clicking on that social media app and getting on that infinite scroll. So do help yourself and put in place some small hurdles: leave your phone in a different place/room when you need/want to get things done; delete some of the apps and use the browser version; turn off notifications. Treat it as a treat, and invest some time to refine your feeds so that it's actually a bit of fun rather than just whatevs. Own your guilty pleasures and consciously give yourself that free pass sometimes, as you'll be done after a much quicker dose of it than scrolling through your social media channels until you happen upon one of their posts, go down that rabbit hole and then return to scrolling. Don't get annoyed at a lame post and make a salty comment - just unsubscribe and head the other way. As they say, don't hate the game... just change the players.
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