It is a fact of our modern lives that social media is a big deal. I am just as guilty as the next person of letting it take over my leisure time. Whether its snapchatting a gig or instagramming my lunch it can quickly take up a lot of time out of your day.
Increasingly as I get older, social media seems more and more stressful. Whether this is because of the instant life comparisons with others (pointing out negatives in my life), or the fact I use it as a procrastination tool (and then realising how much time I have wasted on it), social media, something that is meant to be fun, can quickly turn bad. As a masters student, living at home, I spend a lot of time by myself. I often find that when I have a spare moment, or am feeling bored or lonely I used Facebook as a way to pass time.
So I have been thinking a lot about how I can prevent social media from running my life and have decided to try and take a little break from it this weekend. How are you going to do that? (you ask me and I also ask myself!!!) So here is my list:
1. Computer apps
There are loads of apps that you can download onto your computer to stop you from looking at certain websites.These apps were originally created to stop people being distracted by the internet when they were working, but I would like to start using them to stop me from being distracted from life as well as work.
Here are some of my favourites that I have found (I personally have downloaded SelfControl):
https://selfcontrolapp.com
SelfControl is a free app for Mac OS X that lets you decide which websites to block and how long for and then you cannot turn it off until the timer has run out. Even if you restart your computer and delete the application! You can set it for as little as 15 minutes if you just want a quick break.
https://getcoldturkey.com
Cold Turkey. This is advertised as "The most complete distraction blocker available for MacOS" and apparently used by authors and journalists all over the world. It does seem to have more capabilities than Self Control, but a quick heads up: it isn't free.
2. Notifications
Another thing you can do requires no downloading- turning off notifications. I personally really like this option for my Macbook (go to the right hand menu on the top bar and click "On" to "Do Not Disturb", or my iPhone. On your phone you could turn off the notifications by app - Settings -> Notifications OR you could turn them all off by enabling Do not disturb mode. I have done this for Facebook, because I don't like the distraction of being tagged in memes all day because it makes me stop what I am doing and spend MORE time on social media. So now I only go on Facebook when it is on my terms.
3. Delete the apps off your phone
This is drastic, so maybe think hard before you choose this option, but potentially this might be the only way to stop you looking at Facebook as you're lying in bed trying to get to sleep. If so, then go for it, you can always re download them if there is some need to know information! It will also free up more space for taking lovely photos to treasure.
Please let me know how you get on, I would love to hear if anyone else has been worrying about social media.
Claudia
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