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Abstract

ss once you get going.</p><p id="e28a">Maybe you’re still skeptical about social media minimalism. After all, who’s to say you’re addicted to social media in the first place? How can you tell anyway?</p><p id="c5a7">You’re a by-the-numbers type of gal. In that case, let’s try an experiment. Most smartphones keep track of your usage rates. If you want to freak yourself out, take a look at how much time you spend on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, etc.</p><p id="7cb1">Assuming you’re okay with the time you spend on social media, forget about this minimalism thing. However, suppose your breath caught in your throat a little when you saw the numbers. In that case, a social media minimalist lifestyle may be perfect for you.</p><h1 id="c5d9">The following six hacks are crucial to simplifying your social media lifestyle.</h1><h2 id="a708">1. Set timers</h2><p id="9304">Technology isn’t all bad. Most of the time, it’s excellent; helpful even. For instance, most smartphones allow you to set timers on the apps.</p><p id="1946">Take advantage of the time restriction feature on your phone and give yourself a usage cap for each day. Maybe you’re currently sitting at six hours a day for social media usage. Try to cut this in half, limit yourself to three hours a day.</p><p id="9ff2">Keep the time restriction on your phone for ninety days. Once those days are over, cut three hours down to 90 minutes on social media and do this for another three months.</p><p id="7b29">The idea is to work your usage time down steadily, so you’re not overwhelmed by the decrease in social media activity.</p><h2 id="ff8d">2. Choose your top 3</h2><p id="4b46">You may not want to choose favorites amongst your kids. Still, there’s no guilt associated with picking your top three social media platforms. By doing so, you’ll free up a lot of anxiety over not being able to be everywhere at once.</p><p id="deb0">Suppose you’re like me and use social media to promote your work. In that case, social media is a necessary evil because, for the most part, it’s free to use. Ignoring it altogether would be doing you and your business a disservice.</p><p id="2650">With that in mind, I choose three platforms to engage in regularly to grow my audience and encourage rapport.</p><p id="e063">All things being honest, you probably rattled off your top three social media platforms without much effort. We all have our favorites.</p><h2 id="9010">3. Schedule engagement</h2><p id="6c5e">I’ve found scheduling my social media engagement times to be helpful. This structure focuses my purpose on the apps and helps me avoid getting lost in my news feed. I swear these apps get better every day at pulling you in and guessing the content that’ll keep you logged on for longer than intended.</p><p id="4cb2">I try my best to wait until noon for my first round of engagement for the day and give myself enough time to post content, respond to messages, and reach out to others.</p><p id="30dd">At the end of my day, say around 6 pm, I’ll jump back online and repeat what I did the first go-around.</p><p id="19f8">There are days I have to be a bit more engaged because I’m having a conversation with someone via DMs, but I’ll circle back around to this point in a bit.</p><p id="9fa5">Figure out the times of day which work best for you, and set time aside specifically for social media engagement. You’ll be surprised at how productive you can be online when your time is focused.</p><h2 id="bd19">4. Protect your home screen</h2><p id="6dfb">Protect your home screen? Sure, this may sound extreme, but social media tempt

Options

ation is a formidable opponent. When most of us are bored, we pick up our cellphones. At this point, it doesn’t even feel like a conscious effort to pick up my phone. I do it out of habit.</p><p id="4747">The last thing you want on your home screen is social media icons tempting you to open them and get lost in scrolling.</p><p id="72d9">Make it difficult to jump onto your social media apps. Remove them from your home screen and stop testing your willpower. If you had any, you wouldn’t need to take these steps towards social media minimalism.</p><h2 id="d29c">5. Turn off notifications</h2><p id="1f6c">Ping. Ping. Ping. I don’t know what it is, but receiving notification alerts is satisfying in an unhealthy self-centered way. It signifies someone has reached out and is thinking about me.</p><p id="10c5">However, once you’ve scheduled your social media engagement times for the day, you don’t need to be notified when someone likes, comments, or sends you a DM. You’re going to find out anyway when you log on.</p><p id="0ba6">So, turn off the notifications on all social media platforms. These, too, are unnecessary temptations to your newfound social media minimalist lifestyle.</p><h2 id="d61e">6. Treat DMs as introductions</h2><p id="e5be">As I stated earlier, sometimes, I find myself engulfed in a vital conversation via the DMs. In some instances, I’m planning something time-sensitive, and it requires me to respond promptly.</p><p id="2191">I find this annoying because checking social media throughout the day can be time-consuming, given the algorithms working to keep me on the platform.</p><p id="31b2">I always attempt to move pertinent conversations outside social media. I give out my email address if someone wants to discuss a business endeavor, collaboration, or meeting.</p><p id="a465">Unlike social media, I don’t feel like I waste valuable time checking my email throughout the day. I can get more accomplished planning-wise via email because I write complete sentences and pose all valued questions in one letter.</p><p id="2c77">Unlike in the DMs, people tend to adhere to grammar rules and don’t short-hand their language when writing emails. Thus, making it easier to communicate in fewer back and forth exchanges.</p><blockquote id="c8c3"><p>Do yourself a favor, and do your meaningful correspondence off of social media.</p></blockquote><p id="c116" type="7">“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” — Socrates.</p><p id="7942">It seems nowadays people hate being told what to do more than ever. So, I’m not going to ask you to give up social media. I refuse to harp on and on about how living your life online is causing you to miss out on actually living. I’m not going to do any such thing.</p><p id="71fb">Because who wants to give up so much of what they already know?</p><p id="782e">Instead, I’m going to tell you my neck has never felt better, walking around looking ahead of me. How freeing it is to not worry about posts, likes, comments, and sharing on social media all the time.</p><p id="4237">I’ll share that having a meal with a friend and maintaining steady eye contact has become underrated, and taking the time to watch the sunset has been grossly undervalued.</p><p id="c334">The truth is, I don’t think much about what I’m missing when I’m not on social media because there’s so much happening right in front of me when I pay attention.</p><p id="6ab5">Social media minimalism may not be for everyone. I acknowledge this, but imagine if it was.</p></article></body>

Social Media Minimalism

Six ways to fight social media addiction and simplify

“Simplicity boils down to two things: identify the essential and eliminate the rest…” –Leo Babauta.

In an age of social media dominance, every day seems like so much is happening. To miss a day online could feel like you’ve pressed pause on your life or fallen into the abyss.

With so much going on, and new social media platforms popping up every year, the fear of missing out grabs ahold of you if you don’t participate. To avoid being the weird guy in the corner, you sign up for everything. Before you know it, you’ve got profiles on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, Facebook, Clubhouse, Snapchat, the list goes on.

Keeping up with your online persona takes time and dedication to nurture and grow relationships. Soon, your head is in a constant bent state, and your neck is sore because you can’t tear yourself away from your phone. You’re constantly staring down at the screen, fingers flying to post, like, or comment on as many platforms as possible before you have a chance to engage in your actual environment.

Social media has turned our lives into news feeds and made us all far more self-centered than we have any right to be. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve heard; I have to post something while living in Los Angeles. People treat their lives like branding opportunities and feel left out if they aren’t engaged in the circus act.

According to Forbes, Americans spent on average 13,000 hours on social media in 2020. That’s 25 hours a week, almost four hours a day. Those are part-time job hours. Sadly, the average American doesn’t make money to be on social media.

We must critically look at our social media behavior and get honest with ourselves more than ever. Many of us have an addiction. The time is ripe to look to the other side and consider social media minimalism.

The idea of social media minimalism is to simplify your activity on online platforms to reclaim your time in the real world.

Yes, I said real world because social media is not it.

Streamlining your social media usage will free up space in your days, mind and improve your overall quality of life. I know big statement, but decreasing your online activities will transform you in more ways than you could imagine.

What could you do with all this potential free time, you ask? Here are some radical suggestions:

Read
Write
Engage in a face to face conversation with eye contact
Watch a sunset
Learn a new language
Draw
Hang out with family
Take a walk

Those were just a few simple exercises to get you started, but the possibilities are endless once you get going.

Maybe you’re still skeptical about social media minimalism. After all, who’s to say you’re addicted to social media in the first place? How can you tell anyway?

You’re a by-the-numbers type of gal. In that case, let’s try an experiment. Most smartphones keep track of your usage rates. If you want to freak yourself out, take a look at how much time you spend on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, etc.

Assuming you’re okay with the time you spend on social media, forget about this minimalism thing. However, suppose your breath caught in your throat a little when you saw the numbers. In that case, a social media minimalist lifestyle may be perfect for you.

The following six hacks are crucial to simplifying your social media lifestyle.

1. Set timers

Technology isn’t all bad. Most of the time, it’s excellent; helpful even. For instance, most smartphones allow you to set timers on the apps.

Take advantage of the time restriction feature on your phone and give yourself a usage cap for each day. Maybe you’re currently sitting at six hours a day for social media usage. Try to cut this in half, limit yourself to three hours a day.

Keep the time restriction on your phone for ninety days. Once those days are over, cut three hours down to 90 minutes on social media and do this for another three months.

The idea is to work your usage time down steadily, so you’re not overwhelmed by the decrease in social media activity.

2. Choose your top 3

You may not want to choose favorites amongst your kids. Still, there’s no guilt associated with picking your top three social media platforms. By doing so, you’ll free up a lot of anxiety over not being able to be everywhere at once.

Suppose you’re like me and use social media to promote your work. In that case, social media is a necessary evil because, for the most part, it’s free to use. Ignoring it altogether would be doing you and your business a disservice.

With that in mind, I choose three platforms to engage in regularly to grow my audience and encourage rapport.

All things being honest, you probably rattled off your top three social media platforms without much effort. We all have our favorites.

3. Schedule engagement

I’ve found scheduling my social media engagement times to be helpful. This structure focuses my purpose on the apps and helps me avoid getting lost in my news feed. I swear these apps get better every day at pulling you in and guessing the content that’ll keep you logged on for longer than intended.

I try my best to wait until noon for my first round of engagement for the day and give myself enough time to post content, respond to messages, and reach out to others.

At the end of my day, say around 6 pm, I’ll jump back online and repeat what I did the first go-around.

There are days I have to be a bit more engaged because I’m having a conversation with someone via DMs, but I’ll circle back around to this point in a bit.

Figure out the times of day which work best for you, and set time aside specifically for social media engagement. You’ll be surprised at how productive you can be online when your time is focused.

4. Protect your home screen

Protect your home screen? Sure, this may sound extreme, but social media temptation is a formidable opponent. When most of us are bored, we pick up our cellphones. At this point, it doesn’t even feel like a conscious effort to pick up my phone. I do it out of habit.

The last thing you want on your home screen is social media icons tempting you to open them and get lost in scrolling.

Make it difficult to jump onto your social media apps. Remove them from your home screen and stop testing your willpower. If you had any, you wouldn’t need to take these steps towards social media minimalism.

5. Turn off notifications

Ping. Ping. Ping. I don’t know what it is, but receiving notification alerts is satisfying in an unhealthy self-centered way. It signifies someone has reached out and is thinking about me.

However, once you’ve scheduled your social media engagement times for the day, you don’t need to be notified when someone likes, comments, or sends you a DM. You’re going to find out anyway when you log on.

So, turn off the notifications on all social media platforms. These, too, are unnecessary temptations to your newfound social media minimalist lifestyle.

6. Treat DMs as introductions

As I stated earlier, sometimes, I find myself engulfed in a vital conversation via the DMs. In some instances, I’m planning something time-sensitive, and it requires me to respond promptly.

I find this annoying because checking social media throughout the day can be time-consuming, given the algorithms working to keep me on the platform.

I always attempt to move pertinent conversations outside social media. I give out my email address if someone wants to discuss a business endeavor, collaboration, or meeting.

Unlike social media, I don’t feel like I waste valuable time checking my email throughout the day. I can get more accomplished planning-wise via email because I write complete sentences and pose all valued questions in one letter.

Unlike in the DMs, people tend to adhere to grammar rules and don’t short-hand their language when writing emails. Thus, making it easier to communicate in fewer back and forth exchanges.

Do yourself a favor, and do your meaningful correspondence off of social media.

“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” — Socrates.

It seems nowadays people hate being told what to do more than ever. So, I’m not going to ask you to give up social media. I refuse to harp on and on about how living your life online is causing you to miss out on actually living. I’m not going to do any such thing.

Because who wants to give up so much of what they already know?

Instead, I’m going to tell you my neck has never felt better, walking around looking ahead of me. How freeing it is to not worry about posts, likes, comments, and sharing on social media all the time.

I’ll share that having a meal with a friend and maintaining steady eye contact has become underrated, and taking the time to watch the sunset has been grossly undervalued.

The truth is, I don’t think much about what I’m missing when I’m not on social media because there’s so much happening right in front of me when I pay attention.

Social media minimalism may not be for everyone. I acknowledge this, but imagine if it was.