What social media presence/internet experience are you looking to quit?

[alexela64]

Feel free to delete this if it is unhelpful. I have now quit consuming short form content as a whole (finally!!) and almost completely quit social media as a whole.

I found that using timer apps like apple's Screen time, or something akin to LeechBlock, is unhelpful for me because once I start, I find it hard to stop. It needs to be difficult for me to *access* the source of the problem.

First I deleted all of the apps that had enough content that I could "instant refresh" and get new content immediately. The only way for me to access these apps now is through a mobile browser, which they are not at all optimized for and it feels really clunky.

Second, I close the browser tabs as soon as I am done with them. My object permanence is terrible, so if i have to seek it out, I often forget about it.

Third, I mentally flag when I get the urge to pick up my phone. I write up a little mental report like "why do I feel the need? What else could fulfill this urge?"

That way, my brain often goes "i want to watch a video" --> "Why do I want to watch a video?" --> "I want to watch a video because I am too tired to do something mentally engaging but I still want to be entertained." --> "What else could fulfill this criteria?" --> Cross stitch and listening to music or catching up on the single podcast i listen to

Anyways hope this helps someone. Also update I stopped having my phone beside my bed altogether now. I've just been LARPing as a 90s kid who doesn't have internet access and gets stuck in video games a lot.

[hoshizora102]

X or twitter app

I used to be use it for fandoms but I found out that some fandoms are very toxic on twitter even if you are quiet and just enjoying others will randomly attack you since they can still see what you are posting.🤷‍♀️

[WynterSkies]

I would really like to stop using Instagram Reels so much. I cut Reddit and Twitter out because I was doomscrolling too much, and I finally kicked TikTok in February of this year because of the whole "ban" thing but also I could feel it frying my attention span. I use Instagram to follow the artists I left behind when I quit twitter and have found some super cool accounts so I don't want to lose it completely, but the Reels are starting to destroy my attention span the way TikTok was. It can be fun sometimes, if my husband and I are in bed and don't have time/don't feel like watching a movie before we sleep we can watch some Reels then go to bed. I've even gotten better about not requiring ASMR to fall asleep (though I still use it to help me get tired some nights.)

I've started reading comics online, listening to podcasts and I have Libby to all allow me to have some entertainment that isn't social media. I have tumblr as well but I'm way more controlled with that since my following count means I can really only scroll for so long before I see stuff I've already looked at. It's just this stupid Instagram lol. Putting timers on myself doesn't work so I've just been trying to force myself to do other stuff instead of clicking on the app. The comics have kind of been working!