Are you addicted to social media?

Source

A 2015 report (by Sensis) found that Australians now spend on average of 8.5 hours a week on Facebook alone.

24% checking social media more than five times a day. Seven in ten people used a smartphone to access their accounts. 


While the U.S. did not lead global markets in terms of amount of time spent on social media networks, it was far and away the highest consumer of monthly data, spending the most time per day on their phones with a staggering 4.7 hours. Considering that the average American is awake for just over 15 hours a day (seeing as we sleep for an average of eight hours and 42 minutes), this means that we spend approximately a third of our time on our phones. (source)

According to a CNN article from 2015, "Tweens, identified as children 8 to 12, spend about six hours, on average, consuming media. Some 13-year-olds check social media 100 times a day". (source)

If social media is a problem or becoming a problem—here are 5 things you can do  (sourced from The Conversation, 4th April, 2016). Perhaps do some of these as a family so children learn to limit their time with social media. As we have seen they are even more hooked than adults. 

1. Abstain from social media

Decide on a specific day when you will stay clear of social media. This might increase your anxiety in the short term (or longer if you are really hooked), but the time away will enable you to perform other activities. If you can do it for one day, then next time try two days or a weekend. When you get back to your social media, you can establish a better disciplined access routine.

2. Self-regulate

Set some rules that only allow you to connect to social media at specific times of the day. For example, browsing for a limited time in the evening or not browsing when in bed.This is difficult if you are addicted as addiction will always find ways of getting around self imposed rules. If you are struggling with this, get your spouse to help. 

3. Limit checks on social media

It is not a good idea to keep checking social media pages without a specific aim. The algorithms of social media feeds are designed to keep users hooked by projecting information higher in feeds, based on users’ past interactions. Think of the urge to check incessantly and consider whether it is important or can wait for another time.

4. Disable alerts and notification

This will mean that you are not constantly reminded of messages by your social media platform. Adopting a pull-based approach of your notifications over a push-based approach will lead to fewer interruptions too. This should reduce the desire to check social media constantly.

5. Remove social media apps from your smartphone

If disabling alerts and notifications does not do the trick, consider deleting social media apps completely from your smartphone. As most people access social media platforms from their smartphone, removing these apps would mean less ease of access. You will then only have access to social media from a personal computer.



Comments

  1. Great tips! The internet is a great tool, but a terrible master.

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    1. I agree - it is SO handy and useful but can really suck you in!!

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  2. This is really important. We haven't allowed our children to use social media at all - and limit their screen time to MAYBE an hour or two a week, depending whether we watch a DVD as a family or not. Sometimes we show them short little videos that are usually educational... But social media - NO. It's hard enough to limit it and keep it in perspective as an adult!
    I've been trying to limit myself more than in the past by having my laptop off during the day and staying away from my smart phone... Sometimes people use it to communicate with me and that can make it tricky - I also use it for my home business, which makes it even more complicated!!
    I have taken breaks from FB for a period of a week at a time in the past (prior to opening my businesses) and it really is a refreshing time. We can so easily get hooked.

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    1. When I was at the airport flying back home your place I looked around the area I was sitting in and everyone was focused on their phone and no one was talking - I felt really sad that we had reached that point :(

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