Let’s face it. We‘re all a little addicted to social media and are guaranteed to check our phones first thing in the morning, during work meetings in the afternoon and right before we go to bed at night. From scrolling the news feed on Facebook, checking Instastories on Instagram, or cackling at Black Twitter, we’re always plugged in.
Social media has become an integral part of our lives. We stay connected to our immediate friend and family circle as well as stay abreast of global news via our apps. We literally have the world at our fingertips. As useful as that is, it’s also fairly harmful if we don’t learn how to manage our usage.
As of 2018, 3.1 billion people — roughly one-third of the global population — use social media. Globally, the number of social media users has grown by 13% (362 million) in the past year. Internet and social media addictions continue to grow as our dependence on technology increases.
It’s that over 210 million people suffer from the internet and social media addictions worldwide. A 2018 study found that teens who spend 5 hours per day using their phones were almost twice as likely to exhibit depressive symptoms than counterparts who dedicated only 1 hour on their phones.
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Interestingly, the relationship between excessive mobile use and depression appears to be strongly linked to gender, with 58% more females than males experiencing depressive symptoms.
With that being said, as many social media apps, there are out there, there are almost just as many apps that can help curb social media dependency. Take a look at a few we thought would be the most helpful:
Social Fever that allows you take charge of your life goals by prohibiting you from wasting time precious time on social media apps that have nothing to do with the objectives you chose at setup.
The app tracks the time you spent with and without your smartphone and provides you with a grid that really maps out what your addiction looks like. Social fever also allows you to set an alarm to keep a tab on your digital time.
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Offtime was created to assist you in unplugging from the digital rat race and focus on the important moments of life. It blocks down all incoming calls, texts and social notifications for an allotted amount of time. It also haspresets that allow for exceptions for close contact and sends them custom auto-replies that let others know when you’re back online. Once you’re back on, you can take a look at all you missed via a comprehensive activity log and condensed list at any time.
3. QualityTime
Quality Time offers a deep dive into your smartphone activities by tracking usage time, screen unlocks and individual apps with hourly, daily and weekly breakdown reports. You can also set custom alerts like “Break Time” or “Step Away From This APp” which will remind you to manage and curb your addiction.
4. Flipd: Distraction Blocker
In the event, that the above apps weren’t useful, consider Flipd, an application that takes a more aggressive approach in curing your social media addiction. With this app, you won’t be able to work around the limits on social media usage. Basically, Flipd shuts down your device for a limited period and with no options for powering back up. Even restarting the app won’t help! It keeps you away from distractions by actually locking you out of the applications that suck up the most time.
Jasmine Browley holds an MA in journalism from Columbia College Chicago, and has contributed to Ebony, Jet and MADE Magazine among others. So, clearly, she knows some stuff. Follow her digital journey @JasmineBrowley.
