Social networking websites were intended to bring all the friends and family members together, where they can enjoy and share their moments. However, no one realized when this social platform became an addiction that pushes you to launch it now and then. Although, you can call it the dark side of technology, this has become severe in the past few months. You can observe people going online even when they’re not able to sleep at night. Whereas, some people have reached a level where they feel uncomfortable if they’re kept out of the reach of their smartphones for a while.
When you start to see the above symptoms, this is the time when you realize that you’ve become addicted to social media platforms. Although this addiction would not kill you, the consequences are not better either. If you wish to De-addict yourself from Facebook and WhatsApp or any such social networking websites, this is the time to make a move. Today, we’re going to suggest to you the best ways to de-addict yourself from social media websites.
- Use Regular Messaging: If you’ve to communicate with your friends, you don’t have to launch WhatsApp or Facebook for it. You may switch to the basic SMS service to pass-on brief messages. The frequent launch of applications leads to spending more time on other useless messages received by groups and other less important senders.
See Also: Mobile Game Addiction: Has It Affected You?
- Track the Usage: When you realize that you’ve been wasting a lot of time on social media, it is time to analyze the time you’ve been spending. There’re various apps that you can employ to measure the time you’re spending on social media. One of the best apps to help your de-addiction is Social Fever, which is free to download. The app counts every minute you spend and lets you put a cap on time. When you cross the time limit set by you, it closes the specific app. As it is said, bad habits need strict actions to cure.
Plus, it will help you stay focused on other activities with the help of the Quality time feature. You can make entries on it for different activities such as Sleep Time, Family time, hobbies, etc. When you enter the set time on a specific day Social Fever will turn your phone on DND mode. This will help you focus more on the important things in life and keep you from using your phone unnecessarily. Although you can always get the important calls from the people you add to the Whitelist in this section. Such features and more to keep eyes, ears, and health on track are incorporated in this application. Give it a try –
- Remove the Icon: We know it is hard to remove the app, but you can remove the app icon from your home-screen. It is obvious to launch the app as soon as you’re free for a moment when you see the icon. When you don’t see the app, you don’t get the push to launch and spend time on it.
- Turn-Off the Notifications: We found this technique very useful. After turning off all the notifications from all social networking applications, we don’t get indirect pokes to launch and see what’s going on there. You may simply turn-off the notification from the desired app by visiting Settings > Apps > WhatsApp/Facebook > Notification. Apart from setting the notifications off, you may also consider deleting the background data of the app.
Overall, de-addiction is a long process that requires a lot of willpower. Here, if you get yourself a technology to help you improve, it may bring better results at a sooner date. Apart from following the recommended steps, you may also consider putting your phone on flight mode, if you’re not expecting any important call. If you know some more ways to de-addict yourself from Facebook/WhatsApp, do let us know in the comments section below.
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