HOW TO STOP SOCIAL MEDIA OVERUSE WITHOUT DELETING YOUR ACCOUNTS

Social media addiction is something I’ve struggled with for years. When I start to feel my thoughts influenced by those online and consuming content mindlessly constantly, then I know there’s a problem.

In this video and blog post I talk about the three steps you can use to control social media overuse.

Step One: Acceptance

The first step is accepting you have a problem. There’s a reason that people say this. No need to get all melodramatic about it, but you do have to accept that “Yeah, I am a little addicted to this.”
​

You need to accept it and you need to say, “I’m going to do something about this.”
​

STEP TWO: QUIT

The second step is to quit cold turkey. Don’t delete your profile. You don’t need to do that. A part that keeps people from diving in is that you’re afraid to quit. You don’t want to delete all those years of history. You don’t need to delete your account to quit.
​

Have someone close to you change your email and password. Make sure they write it down somewhere or email it to themselves. Do this for all your social media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, maybe YouTube.
​

Two weeks is a good amount of time to go cold turkey. You’ll start to really notice the habit you have when you can’t access your account.
​

STEP THREE: EASE BACK IN

Third thing is to ease back into it. This is especially important if you need it for your career. After the two weeks, have someone log you into the accounts on your computer but don’t have them give you those passwords.
​

You will start getting sucked back in. You will relapse. When you relapse, go back to step two. Try to eliminate the trigger from the relapse when going back to step three.
​

For me, Facebook has still been an issue. On Firefox you can block the newsfeed with a plugin. I highly recommend doing that if it’s an issue for you.

The key isn’t to cut it out of your life completely, but to control it instead of letting it control you. Don’t let things in your life control you. Control them.