How to stop going on facebook
When You Stop Checking Facebook Constantly, These 10 Things Will Happen
Social media can be a great tool for keeping in touch with people, making new friends, and socializing effectively. Unfortunately not everyone uses it that way. For many, checking Facebook has become almost like a job. They post for likes, see what others are doing, and become almost obsessed with knowing exactly what’s going on everywhere all at once. They play all the games and participate in all of the fads (like quizzes). This may be you or someone you know. If it is then maybe it’s time to quit. Here are 10 things that will happen once you stop checking Facebook all the time.
1. You’ll become less brain dead.
I use the phrase “brain dead” figuratively here. When you’re buried in a screen checking Facebook, you’re not paying attention to the world around you. Your animals may need to be fed or to be let out to use the restroom. You’ll do it but only after you’re done on Facebook. You may go places but still be on your phone all the time. If that happens, you’re not even experiencing what you left your house to experience. When you put Facebook down, you put your head up and start looking at what’s going on around you and you’ll be more cognizant of everything. For your hungry pets or your friends who wanted to hang out with you, that’s a good thing.
2. You’ll get more work done.
⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄
⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄
As a blogger, I’m on the internet fairly frequently (read: constantly). My greatest enemy is social media. It’s easy to minimize the tab with the blogging stuff in it and go check Facebook or Google+ for a few minutes. A few minutes turns into a quarter of an hour and before I know it, I’ve lost 30 minutes of productivity. Thanks to smartphones and improving mobile data speeds, you can check Facebook anywhere and that includes at work. When you put it down, you’ll have to do something else to keep from being bored and that usually means doing actual work.
If you do put it down then expect your productivity to go up.
3. You can focus on other things.
Being on Facebook takes up a lot of time. You can waste insane amounts of time just scrolling through updates. This is especially true since Facebook doesn’t adhere to a chronological posting format anymore. Putting down Facebook means you’ll be freeing up a lot of time. That’s time that can be spent doing other things. You can spend more time with your significant other and make your relationship stronger. You can spend more time with friends and reconnect with them on a different level. You can get on a treadmill and lose a few pounds, get back into shape, and feel better about yourself. The possibilities are literally endless because you’ll be spending time doing what you want to do.
4. You can find out who your real friends are.
Having a good internet friendship is easy. Liking people’s posts and commenting on their photos takes mere moments. Someone who comments on all of your photos and likes all of your status updates spent 45 seconds doing it but they appear as though they really care and that they’re a real friend who is interested in you.
Once you leave Facebook, a lot of that will disappear. The only people who want to actually hang out with you are people who care about you and who want you around. Leaving Facebook is going to help you find those people really quickly.
5. You will learn the word “like” has no meaning.
Audra Rundle from the Huffington Post made an amazing point regarding this. She states that liking things on Facebook is no longer a matter of actually liking the post. It’s an obligatory action to show that you have seen the post and acknowledge its existence. Many people are too close to the problem to see it directly. Taking a step away can show you just how useless the Like button is now and how few people actually care about the things they like.
⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄
⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄
6. You will feel more accomplished.
The defining characteristic of Facebook is that you’re never done with it.
There is always more to do, more to see, and more to engage with. Dealing with that feeling of “never done” all day long can be emotionally and mentally draining. Doing things outside of Facebook can fix that problem. You can finish a book. You can finish planting a garden. You can finish washing the dishes. Pretty much any task in the real world is something that you can finish. We as humans feel almost high on the sense of accomplishment. Don’t rob yourself of that feeling. Get off of Facebook and finish something.
7. You will get rid of the stalkers.
Practically everyone who uses Facebook has a stalker. That is especially true if you happen to be a woman. People can look at your photos, your updates, and everything without your permission and some people actually do that. Creepy guys will frequently browse the photos of their crushes. Creepy women will do the same thing (albeit less frequently). People you’re not friends and people you don’t want to be friends with can see your information.
Even if they can’t see you directly, they can see who you associate with. Your less privacy-minded friend may post that they’re going to the mall with you. Now your stalkers know where you are.If you leave Facebook, you’ll be totally immune to those kind of creepy people.
8. You will actually feel better about yourself.
⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄
⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄
A study was conducted and has pretty much proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Facebook makes you feel bad about yourself. There are so many reasons for this. When you post a status and no one likes it, you feel like everyone thinks you’re stupid. When you post photos and members of the opposite sex don’t comment on how good you look, you feel ugly. You’re constantly exposed to people who are happier than you, more successful than you, and who have stronger relationships than you.
How is that not supposed to make you feel inferior or utterly depressed all the time? Why would you want to put yourself through that? There’s an easy way to stop and that’s taking a break from Facebook.
9. You will feel better about the things you own.
Reuters reporter Belinda Goldsmith published a piece regarding some research that had been conducted in Germany about how people feel on Facebook. The end result was that people actually become more jealous and envious of what others have on Facebook. It may be someone posting about their new phone, car, house, or other possession. There are some who get jealous when they see people in happy relationships be it friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife, or family relationships. Facebook is a great place to brag about what you have and that means it’s also a great place to read about all the things that people have that you don’t. Like I asked earlier, why would you want to put yourself through that?
10. You will realize that all you ever were to Facebook was a piece of data that viewed advertisements.
We have no doubt that there are people on Facebook who legitimately care about you. However, we also have no doubt that Facebook itself couldn’t care less about you. To Mark Zuckerberg you are a piece of data in his giant database to be mined and exploited. Your job on Facebook is to view advertisements, spend money on Facebook games, and make the site rich. What happens to you aside from that doesn’t really matter to Facebook. You wouldn’t stay in a relationship with a person who treated you that way, so why stay in a relationship with Facebook?
I know this sounds like a Facebook bash post and it definitely is to an extent. However, social media sites were made for a reason and somewhere in the last 10 years, we’ve all forgotten what that reason is. That includes you, me, and even the social networks themselves. It’s not about finding people, or about connecting, and creating lifelong friends anymore. It’s about fads. It’s about chain-liking status updates like a smoker chain-smokes.
It’s an addiction and it’s a job and you don’t really get anything out of it. We’re not saying you should leave Facebook for good. That’s a little drastic. However, you should definitely have less of it in your life. You’re not missing much by not going on Facebook 30 times a day. We promise.
⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄
⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄
Featured photo credit: Victor Kerlow via vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com
9 Ways to Overcome Facebook Addiction
On a day like any other, I was standing at my desk working on a blog post, trying to come up with the appropriate words to write. Frustrated at my lack of progress, I turned, looked out the window for a moment then looked back to my screen.
My blog post had disappeared, but the infamous blue and white website we all know so well had replaced it.
Later that afternoon while working on another written piece, a co-worker walked into my office and interrupted me mid-sentence.
After a quick conversation, I looked back at my Word document and found a sentence that looked approximately like this:
The efficiencies of quantum mechanics determine that sevfacebook
While that sentence is 100% fabricated, the example of what happened to the end of it is 100% true. For the second time that day, I had subconsciously typed the word “facebook” without realizing it, and it scared the crap out of me.
I knew it was time for a change.
What started out as a simple way to connect with college classmates has become an all encompassing communication hub where we get our news, updates on family members while spending a heck of a lot of our time.
The
average user now spends about 50 minutes per day on Facebook.I’d venture to guess that the 50 minutes aren’t in a solid block either, occurring in small 2-3 minute chunks as notifications come in throughout the day.
These bursts create small interruptions, pulling us away from what we may be doing, eating, working on, or creating.
It’s no accident that Facebook brings us back as frequently as possible. For the company, our attention equals dollars.
Like any habit loop, Facebook is designed to work its way into our brain as a trigger-habit-reward cycle that is incredibly difficult to break.
At the surface, Facebook is a tool—not inherently good or bad—but its impact on our lives is determined by how we use it.
Imagine picking up a hammer 35 times per day and using it wherever you happen to be. When you need to drive in a nail, picking up a hammer makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, it would seem quite ridiculous.
Facebook is the hammer and connecting with friends and family is the nail. Everything else gets diminished by the hammer— our personal lives, intentions, and meaningful connections to the world.
If you feel like you’re losing the battle against the Facebook addiction twitch, there is help.
These suggestions to overcome Facebook addiction are ordered from least extreme to most, allowing you to choose the options that are right for you.
1 / Log out of the website
Make it so that you have to manually log in every time you want to use Facebook. Doing this will give you a few seconds to decide if you actually need to log on, creating intentional friction in the process. This strategy works best when on the computer, but can also work if you don’t use the Facebook app on your phone.
2 / Temporarily block the site
By using a productivity browser extension like Strict Workflow, you can hit a button that will block any websites you don’t want to visit for a specific duration of time. Once break time comes around, it will allow you to go to the sites of your choosing. Click the button again, and the sites will be blocked while you focus. These blockers help reduce the number of times you may bounce to Facebook during a focus period.
3 / Turn off all app notifications
This is definitely recommended if you’re wanting to overcome Facebook addiction. Let’s face it, it’s hard not to check when you see there are notifications.
And Facebook doesn’t hesitate to show you as many as possible to get you back on the scroll. It’s best when you intentionally decide to check Facebook, without hearing an alert that triggers your attention. Reduce distractions and the urge to check and scroll by turning off all notifications in the app.
4 / Delete the app
While you can still use your mobile browser to check Facebook, doing this significantly reduces the notifications. The app is made to be as low friction as possible and deleting it will help you avoid using Facebook when it’s less appropriate. Not having the app helps break the twitch of being able to check the site so quickly. Even more powerful is if you use the first tip and log out of the site, forcing yourself to log in on your phone.
5 / Kill the newsfeed algorithm
If you’re habitually checking Facebook, one way to reduce the desire to do so is to have no new content come up when you do. You can use a browser extension called FB Purity to automatically reorder the newsfeed into chronological order.
That way, Facebook won’t show you new content every time you open the site. And as a result, it will be much less interesting when you do visit and scroll.
6 / Block the newsfeed completely
Using the same FB Purity app, you can select an option to delete the newsfeed all together. It will show up as a blank space in the middle of your screen and won’t entice you to scroll down if you need to log on to Facebook to post something or check on one of your business pages. You can take care of whatever you might need to for work and then be done with it.
7 / Deactivate your account
Unfortunately, Facebook has made it ridiculously easy to reactivate your account. All you have to do is just log in again. But, the best way to break a habit cycle is to detox and rewire your brain from that habit. I’ve found that it takes at least five to seven days to break the initial ‘twitch’ habit cycle, so commit to at least that. Deactivate your account and log back in when you’re ready.
8 / Delete your account
You have to dig around in your Facebook settings to find this option. But if you feel that Facebook isn’t benefiting you in meaningful ways, just get rid of it. If you want to keep your content, you can download your entire Facebook history in one small zip file and backup everything you’ve ever posted. To continuing sharing with others, you can start a blog where people can find you with a quick Google search and where you can share your life updates and learnings.
9 / Throw your phone and computer into a ravine
If all else fails, find a property on which to homestead, grow your own food, and throw your electronic devices into the fire river of Mordor. There are fewer things better than some quality time in nature to help beat an addiction. Perhaps we need to take some extreme measures to ensure our own progress. Getting rid of your electronic devices is a solid move in overcoming extreme Facebook addiction.
Facebook is a tool that just like any other, should benefit us when we use it.
When used intentionally, it’s a valuable resource that allows you to connect in meaningful ways. If you feel like it’s controlling your life more than it should, use the strategies above to overcome Facebook addiction.
Free 7-Day Digital Detox
Create some much needed space in your digital life with this free 7-day email video series from Break the Twitch.
Powered by ConvertKitInterested in learning more? Check out what it was like for me to deactivate my Facebook account for 60 days, and my friend’s experience taking a social media sabbatical.
How to stop wasting time in social networks?
I have been developing my project for more than a year, a good half of the tasks are related to social networks. Here I communicate with like-minded people, podcast listeners and participants of my courses. Social networks are a special space where it is difficult to maintain concentration and observe the boundary between work and leisure.
I decided to do an experiment to better understand the problem.
In this article, I will talk about the conclusions and impressions, about why I had to do 2000 squats and what side effects I encountered.
Contents
Rules of the experiment | Day 1-10 | Blockers | Day 11-20 | Ideas from podcast guests | Day 21-30 | Messenger Franz | Day 31-40 | Social networks and hormones | Day 41-50 | How to replace social media? | Summary
Rules of the experiment
I decided that I would conduct the experiment for 50 days and divide it into 5 stages of 10 days. Here are the rules that I followed during this period:
1) record and count the number of visits to the social network every day
2) indicate the reasons for entry: work, rest (break) or violation (distracted or procrastinated)
3) do not interrupt the experiment on weekends and holidays
In addition, starting from the second stage, for each entry, except for workers, I performed 20 squats. Starting from the fourth stage, I kept track of the time spent on social networks using the RescueTime program. I will talk about it and other useful tools further.
Day 1-10
The start of the experiment was smooth. At the first stage, I simply recorded visits, put a tick in the notebook every time I opened the social network. I didn’t scold or stop myself, but just wanted to get an objective picture and determine the starting point. In the evening, I counted the ticks: the starting point - 17 times.
After a couple of days, the “observer effect” appeared. It lies in the fact that the very fact of accounting changes the attitude to the situation, the measured indicators improve. I wanted to surpass the results of the previous day, so the question more and more often sounded in my head: “ Do I need to go to the social network now? And for what? »
It's amazing how quickly social media grabs and holds attention. I went to the feed, saw a new post, and after 15 minutes you won’t remember what you were going to do. In addition, there are so many social networks that it is difficult to understand which ones to put on the banned list.
Mine had only Vkontakte and Facebook.
At the end of the first stage, I realized that in social networks I often act automatically: I open it, I see that nothing important and interesting has happened, I immediately close it and continue to do my own thing.
Blockers
On the first day, I completely cleared my feeds. To do this, on VKontakte, go to the feed, click the "List of sources" button, go to the "Displayed" tab, select the "Hide all" option and save the changes.
To disable Facebook news, you can use the KillNewsFeed plugin for Google Chrome. The desire to enter the social network “just like that” will immediately decrease. There is nothing to read!
In addition, I decided to test blockers - programs that block access to selected sites. First, I installed a widget for Chrome with the eloquent name GoFuckingWork. The thing works well, but not for long. After a couple of weeks, the “eye is blurred”, the hand automatically turns off the program.
Perhaps I would not refuse a blocker that cannot be turned off immediately. If you have to wait at least 5 minutes, then there will be a chance to change your mind and continue working. I think it's brilliant. Or maybe they already exist? UPD: as it turned out, RescueTime has a similar function, it's called GetFocused.
Day 11-20
In the second stage, I started squatting 20 times for every visit to the social network for no good reason. The threat of physical retribution worked: the impulsive desire to dive into social networks at any opportunity weakened.
Now, even while resting, I mentally asked myself: “ Do I really want to open a social network so much that I am ready to squat after this? » And yet, during the first 10 days, I did 780 squats.
However, the monolith of habit is shaken. The social network was no longer drawn as it used to be. The first call now happened after lunch, and not in the morning, and even then without much desire.
Even if he remembered the old and "stuck" on someone's page, he did not get pleasure from it. Until now, in the depths of my soul, there was a hope that in the evening I would find something interesting on social networks. And each time the hope was not justified.
Ideas from podcast guests
Gamification specialist Ivan Nefediev said that he solves the problem with the help of two mugs with coins. One mug is a personal wallet, and the other is a bank. For each completed task, the bank pays you coins, and for the time spent on social networks, you pay it.
Is your wallet empty? So, there is nothing to sit on social networks, you have to work. And if there are a lot of coins, then you can safely flip through the tape without any remorse.
Another podcast guest, Dmitry Bogdanov, uses the “liberating constraints” method. He allows himself to read the news feed as much as he wants, but only at home, only standing in the middle of the room, and only through the iPad.
It's inconvenient, and it's too lazy to stand for a long time - that's what the calculation is for.
Day 21-30
At the third stage, I complicated the accounting system a little. I continued to check the boxes, and the RescueTime time tracker analyzed all my activities on the computer in the background. The service not only monitors activity, but also processes information and then issues reports. It turned out that I spend less than 30 minutes on social networks per day. Not bad!
The week was busy, and I went to social networks only in the evening and then on business. I used to like to follow the reaction of readers to my new posts. How many likes, reposts? I used to check them every 5 minutes, but now I "let go". Moreover, the opposite effect began to develop: I didn’t want to open social networks at all. Even at work.
Franz messenger
With the help of an experiment, I wanted to figure out how to draw a line between work and leisure in social networks.
It happens that business correspondence flows into a simple friendly conversation. Or you see a link in a message, follow it... and off you go.
The objectivity of statistics suffers, work is mixed with leisure, what should I do? The solution to the problem was suggested by the RescueTime service. When I used the Franz app, it counted as a communication tool, not as a social network. It is very convenient to separate flies from cutlets: work through Franz, rest through the browser.
Franz allows you to keep chats of all the most popular social networks and instant messengers in one window. It is intended only for communication, and not for reading news, so there is nothing else besides messages.
Day 31-40
At the fourth stage, the side effect of the experiment did not disappear. At some point, it even seemed to me that I go to social networks too rarely. Meanwhile, you can’t go to extremes, because clients and podcast listeners were still waiting for my messages on social networks.
If you do not respond to a potential buyer in time, you can disrupt the deal. If you do not parse messages for several days, then it is scary to enter the social network: you will have to spend a lot of time on correspondence. I concluded that social networks should be treated like mail, that is, always end the day with InboxZero.
Social networks and hormones
Our well-being and psychological state depend on the concentration of certain types of hormones. In particular, dopamine is responsible for the search for novelty, and serotonin is responsible for high spirits and good spirits.
Why are social networks addictive? Yes, because they are a simple and affordable way to increase the production of hormones. Dopamine spurs us on with questions: “ Are there any new messages? Is there a new post in my favorite community? »
The "status hormone" serotonin makes people earn likes and get approval. Until we find another bottomless source of these hormones, social media will be hard to give up.
Yes, and is it necessary? In my opinion, it is better to simply limit the time of stay and the number of visits, as well as influence the production of serotonin in other ways. For example, instead of reading other people's posts, write your own and get the desired likes.
Day 41-50
At the last stage, the experiment turned into a routine. RescueTime showed that I devote 10-20 minutes a day to social networks. Sometimes the program didn’t even have time to register the visit — so quickly I checked the necessary information and closed the site. I quickly cut off distractions, and they happened very rarely.
Frankly, the desire to check the likes and comments of your posts has not completely disappeared. The anchor was still strong, but it transformed and moved to another location. Now I was checking to see if there were any new messages in Skype or new letters in the mail. It looks like the next experiment will be devoted to this.
How to replace social networks?
Getting off the hook gives you a better understanding of how the dopamine system works.
You go to social networks with the hope that you will find something interesting. But after a few minutes you admit that you were wrong. One has only to get rid of automaticity, and it becomes possible to adequately assess the situation.
I see a subscription to a useful newsletter as an alternative to social networks. Why waste time looking for information when you can entrust it to someone else? In addition, you should think of something useful to do in those moments when you usually open social networks.
Based on my experience, at such moments there is no energy for physical exercises, and there is also not enough energy for mental exercises. It is then that you want to flip through the news feed without thinking about its content.
Summary
50 days of monitoring my activity in social networks led me to the following conclusions.
The observer effect works
The mere fact of monitoring indicators contributes to their improvement.
Punishment increases awareness
If you have to pay, the temptation loses some of its power.
RescueTime and Franz are good helpers
It is convenient to keep track of time and draw a line between work and leisure in social networks.
Artificial restrictions discipline
To help manage distractions, it's helpful to turn on social media blockers and clear your feeds.
Hormones determine our behavior
The hormonal system is rapidly reconfiguring, but if you exclude one source, then it would be good to think about an alternative.
Complete rejection of social networks is not necessary
When work is connected with social networks, it is enough to limit the time of presence in them and parse messages in time.
How to stop using social networks / HB
- News
- Opinions
- BUSINESS
- LIFE
- journal
Support Subpop on October 18, 2019 The answer is simple - because they took possession of me.
I gave myself four months of detox from social networks, and now, through force, as if running the last kilometer of a marathon, I am returning.
Since the beginning of the year, I have hunted for bad habits. After finding each bad habit, I immediately take up its correction. So, in May, I realized that I was wasting hours of my time just unconsciously flipping through the feed and comments on posts.
Video of the day
I noticed that Facebook was the first app after the alarm, and Instagram was the last app I closed before going to bed. Every day, as if frightened, I looked through what was going on with anyone at any "non-working moment" of the day. Realizing that my attention was on social networks, I decided to try to quit this habit.
Since I'm often tagged on Facebook posts and occasionally private messages on Instagram, I decided not to delete the apps. In addition, I did not set a goal to quit using social networks, my goal is to stop automatically (unconsciously) entering them and getting stuck there for hours on end.
Month 1
The first month was the most difficult. As much as I would not like to unlearn how to access social networks automatically, an hour later I still caught myself scrolling through the feed.
In order to somehow record the results, I decided to use the internal function of the smartphone for tracking time. My starting position was 6 hours 25 minutes on Instagram and 3 hours 46 minutes on Facebook per week.
Month 2
Hey, be sure to re-read all the comments under the news
Increasingly, I began to catch myself using social networks. Also, in the second month, I realized that catching myself using it is not the most difficult thing. A more difficult task is to stop listening to your inner whisperer. A whisperer is a character who constantly whispers in the style - "you absolutely need to watch this video about stumbling cats" or "hey, be sure to re-read all the comments under the news."
In general, he justified the use of social networks as best he could. In the second month, I didn’t manage to lose much time, but at least I figured out that the most important struggle was happening with this “whisperer”. The result of the second month is 4 hours 44 minutes on Instagram and 3 hours 12 minutes on Facebook
Month 3
In the third month, things went up.
Now, struggling with myself, I have severely limited my use of social networks, leaving myself only the ability to respond to messages and comments. It turned out to be done with Facebook, completely deleting it from the top of used applications. The less you use it, the less it holds you.
And with Instagram, everything turned out to be a little more complicated. When you go to check a message on Instagram, this infection makes you quickly see what's going on in the feed or stories. The result of the third month is 1 hour 8 minutes on Instagram. Facebook has dropped out of the top.
Top Stories Digest
Free email newsletter of only the best content from HB editors
Email sent Monday through Friday
Month 4
In the fourth month, I was already thinking about returning to social networks, but decided to go a little further than the original goal. My friend opened up an interesting perspective: he noticed that the main problem is not even in social networks, but in the very design of the smartphone.
