Here’s how you can nail a social media detox

If you find yourself scrolling mindlessly through your phone, you may need a break

With a pandemic in full swing, an average person’s screen time, be it a laptop or a phone screen has gone up exponentially. What more could we expect? We sit around the house, glued to the laptop for work and then perhaps, for some unwinding over WhatsApp, Instagram or Netflix.

Even before the world locked itself down, we’ve been puppets to social media and if you find yourself scrolling mindlessly through the same three or four apps every hour, you may be in need of a thorough social media detox. It may sound a hard feat to undertake but if you keep yourself in check, you might just ace it.

As compiled from The Indian Express, here are some tips that can help you.

1.     Stop comparing!

One of the biggest stressors to come out of the boom of social media over the past decade is the need to compare our lives to everything we see online. What we fail to realise is that people, including us, have carefully curated social media personas. We only see what the other person wants us to see.

So stop comparing your life to that one friend’s who shows off their latest tech or biggest spend. We all go through bad patches; we just don’t like advertising them as much as the achievements!

2.    De-clutter your phone

Smartphones carry a nifty little feature where they not only record your screen-time but also monitor which apps you access most. This means that you can find out which apps are taking over your life more than others and chuck them right out!

You might find this feature in your phone’s general settings perhaps, and after you uninstall some of those apps, you’ll have tons of free time that you didn’t even realise before.

3.    Be present

In this quest of yours, you need to frequently ask yourself ‘Do I connect better with people in real life or just online?’ Chances are, you might find it easier to talk to people online now, after years of being behind the screen. This should be your constant reminder to make the right changes and live in the present.

Also make it a habit to monitor the time you spend on your phone – set a time limit, and adhere to it.

4.    Go grey!

Yes, it’s possible and it helps so much more than anything else! If your phone has a colour adjustment feature, change it to colourless and go grey-scale. It will dim the lure of flashy and colourful apps, keeping you from picking up your phone every other hour. What more do we want out of our detox, right?

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