Pick up my phone. Open the Facebook app. Scroll. Like a photo. Scroll some more. Add a comment. Scroll and scroll and scroll some more. Open Instagram. Repeat…
Sound familiar?
Back in March, my husband brought my attention to an app called Digital Wellbeing. At the time, I didn’t fully understand the app but decided to install it and then promptly forgot about it. I would soon find out that the Digital Wellbeing app monitors all the stuff you do on your phone and gives you a breakdown of how much time you spend on each app. It needs some time to collect data, so it was probably best that I forgot about it.
A few weeks (months?) later, my husband asked if I had set any alarms on my Digital Wellbeing app. I honestly hadn’t even opened it up. I didn’t know I could set individual time limits for apps.
So I open up the app and…
I was shocked!
I was horrified!!
I was completely disgusted!!!
This invasive little app told me I was spending 5+ hours a day on Facebook. Now, you’re grossed out too … right!?! No wonder I did not have any time to do the things I needed to do in my life. The thing is, I don’t post that often, so I’m mostly scrolling aimlessly. Also, I am not on my phone at work. How could I possibly be on my Facebook for 5 hours a day?!?! I decided right then that I was going to set a time limit of 2 hours a day. This was a good start, constantly thinking about my usage helped tremendously in cutting back, but I still hit my 2 hours a day most days. Plus, I noticed I was spending more time on other social media apps. So not accomplishing cutting back. This is when I decided to drop it down to one hour on all social media apps. This was harder at first and I would find myself sometimes sneaking off to the computer to check Facebook once my time had run out. That is when I decided to delete the Facebook app altogether. I picked up my phone so many times the first day to click the screen where my app used to be located. After the second day of doing this, I decided to delete all my social media apps. I wanted to go a few weeks without the distractions to see what would happen.
It was a long first week, but I survived!
Did you know by week two, Facebook gets lonely and starts trying to manipulate you into logging back in? They will email you to check-in and ask how you are doing. They tell you about the things you’re missing out on. I wanted to email them back and tell them about all the things I was no longer missing out on.
During the 3 weeks, I went without social media, I also restricted the amount of television time my girls watched. Instead of electronics, we PLAYED! Inside we did board games, colored with crayons, playdoh, Kinetic Sand, blocks, and read many more books than we normally would. Outside we played in the yard, tended to the flower garden, and went for walks. After the kids went to bed, I spent more genuine time with my husband. Not just existing in the same room while we both were playing on our phones or talking at each other, but actually holding conversations with each other.
After completing my social media vacation, I reinstalled all my apps.
For the most part, I am doing much better with my addiction. I still have days that the app reminds me to put my phone down, but I have set some rules for myself to help me disconnect from electronics.
- I keep my phone on silent most of the time.
- Set timers when we do use electronics.
- Try to keep phones out of reach during family time.
The important thing is I’m spending more time with my family and I am enjoying not being tied to my phone anymore.
