Have you ever been self-aware of your phone usage? Have you taken the time to examine your app usage statistics? I became acutely aware of this a few years ago – specifically, four years ago – when I noticed that my hobby of reading books was fading and I seldom watched movies & tv series filled with dialogues and debates (house of cards are one of the series that I loved but now, looking at my netflix list, I mostly watched action or mistery) .
While I don’t fully blame social media, it has definitely shaped my habits. It began when I started watching TikTok regularly. Initially, I realized that TikTok was not just about dancing, karaoke, or gossip; it contained a substantial amount of bite-sized knowledge on virtually any topic I desired.
On Instagram, I post photos and expect reciprocal interactions, which feed me with my dopamine hits. However, TikTok impacts me on another level; I find myself constantly consuming content, constantly!. When YouTube began altering video suggestions on its homepage, I felt disconnected from its content and only used it when searching for specific topics. It’s frustrating how they’ve compromised a winning homepage layout, apparently for advertising purposes. TikTok, on the other hand, caters perfectly to my preferences and less intrusive ads. I can request to exclude certain topics from my For You Page (FYP), and they are removed unless they become extremely popular, such as a scandal involving a celebrity. Only then might they appear on my FYP if others with similar tastes with me engage with the content.
This led to my intensive use of social media, accumulating over four hours per day. It seems unbelievable, but TikTok does tailor content that perfectly matches my interests. After a year of this routine, I began to notice:
- Mindless scrolling: I find myself aimlessly moving through social media feeds without a specific purpose or intention, which often leads to a significant waste of my time and diminishes my world around me.
- Shortened attention span: I’ve noticed that my ability to focus on a single task or activity for extended periods has decreased, often as a result of letting myself in frequent digital interruptions. This impairment in deep thinking reduces my overall productivity.
- Focusing or comprehending certain things require a longer attention span: Engaging with or understand complex tasks now require sustained mental effort, such as reading a very long documents or following detailed manual instructions. This struggle decreases my effectiveness personal contexts, where I want to learn new stuff or improve my wellbeing.
But what I hate the most is how quickly time seems to pass. I often feel that hours can feel like minutes when I’m absorbed in digital activities, leading to a distorted perception of time. Planned activity postponed, many activity cut timed short, as time quickly pass. This results in feelings of dissatisfaction with how I spend my time.
The issue mentioned is actually generational; we are likely to see a generation that behaves very differently from previous ones. However, this article focuses on the methods I have employed to improve my condition and the insights I have gathered during my research in tackling this.
Upon researching, I learned that this phenomenon is common, driven by dopamine addiction and the instant gratification from social media feeds. Over time, this can alter our behavior. As suggested by Guardian Constant craving: how digital media turned us all into dopamine addicts (https://www.theguardian.com/global/2021/aug/22/how-digital-media-turned-us-all-into-dopamine-addicts-and-what-we-can-do-to-break-the-cycle), breaking this cycle is essential for change.
Desiring to change, I have set new goals: to read more books, more designing, learn new things and watch longer, more contemplative movies. Here are some steps I took to improve my situation:
- Reduced Social Media Usage:
- Schedule Specific Times for Social Media: I limit my social media interactions to specific, one short blocks of time each day. I allow myself no more than 10 minutes if I am using social media for my personal, but if the social media activity has a purpose (work, learn certain things etc) I set aside necessary time strictly for that related tasks.
- How to limit it? Use App Blockers: I have installed apps like LeechBlock for my firefox that help limit or track my social media usage. I set these apps to block access to social media sites after a certain amount of time (you can also set during specific hours of the day). For my Android, I use the built in wellbeing app, that limit usage time of an app.
- Other things are I also curate my feeds: I unfollow or mute accounts that trigger mindless scrolling or don’t add value to my wellbeing. I focus on following pages that provide news updates, insights, and other information beneficial to my life and career.
- Wrote More Articles & Design: Researching for both of this activity gave me an immense feeling of satisfaction. I do this by:
- Establish a Writing & Designing Routine: I have dedicated times each day or week for my writing/designing sessions. This could be early in the morning, during lunch breaks, or late in the evenings, depending on when I feel most creative.
- Set Clear Goals: I determine what I want to achieve with each writing/designing session, whether it’s completing a certain number of words, finishes certain design or finishing a section of an article.
- Prepared an apps just for writing: While I use MS Office for work, for writing I always research for a better app that focused mainly in writing, right now I use Joplin (https://joplinapp.org/) because WordPress WYSIWYG editor for my website just isn’t cutting it – it’s super clunky and distracting. Joplin, on the other hand, is great for dumping all my materials in one place without the fuss. Before Joplin, I used Notion, which was too distracting and gimmicky for my taste, and Obsidian, which had issues with titles as it didn’t allow special characters back then.
- Read More Books and In-Depth Articles:
- Create a Reading List: I have made a list of books and long articles that I want to read in advance, for books I only use BookFusion https://www.bookfusion.com/ & Kindle. I prioritize them just based on my interests and for the relevance to my personal and professional growth are not the first prioritazion, I want reading to be an enjoyable experience, and reading what you like is the first step to explore that matter.
- Dedicate Time for Reading: Like with writing/designing, I have set aside specific times in my schedule dedicated solely to reading. This could be during a commute, before bed, or early in the morning.
- For the summarization app/website, like blinkist, I seldomly use for main reading because sometimes in reading I prefer diving into the full tex to get those hollistic experience. But for research before buying books, I use blinkist intensively.
Now, one might wonder, will breaking the cycle of endless scrolling and instant gratification impact my career as a digital marketer? To be honest, the initial phase was tough. The anxiety of fear of missing out (FOMO) was real and quite unsettling. I worried about staying relevant in a field that evolves at the speed of light.
But here’s the kicker: I didn’t quit social media cold turkey; I just got effective about it. I’ve dialed back considerably, yes, but I still keep my finger on the pulse. I carve out specific times for social media to catch up on current events, and use only to glean what’s essential for my personal and professional growth, and to not feel out of the loop.
This approach has surprisingly turned out to be more effective. I’m engaged, selective, and intentional with my digital interactions. As a result, I’m more focused, and up-to-date rather than just swamped with information overload. This strategic shift hasn’t just preserved my well being, it’s boosted my productivity and allowed me to rediscover passions like reading and design that truly enrich my life. Who knew that a little bit of discipline could go such a long way?
