The average person spent seven hours a day looking at screens last year (source: DataReportal), and two-and-a-half hours of that was on social media. These numbers are growing staggeringly as we become more reliant on — or addicted to — our phones. If you want to reduce screen time and clean up what you see on social media, we’ve got the skinny. Here are eight easy tips including apps, screenshots, and video tutorials for minimizing damaging content and managing your screen time.
1. Establish tech-free zones and times.
Some spaces and experiences don’t need phones, tablets, or computers. Maybe it’s around the dinner table, in the bedroom, for the first 30 minutes after waking, or (dare we say) at a concert. Establishing some essential boundaries around technology is a significant first step. Even having a phone face down or in your lap at the table can be distracting and anxiety-inducing for you and others.
Make it harder by leaving devices in the other room or your bag. Sleeping in a different room than your phone is a rising trend. If that’s out of the question, plug it in across the room or somewhere you can’t reach it. There is a way to allow calls from certain people to filter in while in “Sleep” and “Do Not Disturb” mode. We’ll get to that shortly.
2. Delete the apps you don’t use. Organize the ones you keep.
This one’s as simple as it seems. Every few months or so, go through and simply delete the apps you don’t use or the ones for services you can easily access from a computer. It’s always shocking how many apps we download, use once, and never use again. Then, categorizing your apps into easy-to-find folders can give a sense of order to your phone, much like organizing your computer desktop into neat folders.
3. Make it more challenging to override screen time limits.
We can see not only how much we use our phones but how much time we spend on each app. Screen Time is built into all Apple devices and allows you to set app limits, schedule downtime, and view screen time activity. You can also choose different limits per day. For example, maybe give yourself 45 minutes of Instagram and TikTok on Sunday but 20 minutes on Monday. And an hour of phone email during weekdays, but none on weekends. One study showed that limiting social media can help with depression and loneliness.
Here are five more third-party apps that help manage screen time.
- Opal (a super customizable screen time app that measures focus, blocks distractions, and uses AI to automate your daily schedule)
- Google Family Link (good for moderating kids’ screen time and content)
- Freedom (blocks distracting websites and apps and helps you stay focused during dedicated offline time)
- Forest (gamifies lowering screen time by growing virtual trees when you stay off your phone for a set time)
- RescueTime (uses AI to automate workday schedules, among other features)
4. Customize Apple’s Focus modes like “Do Not Disturb.”
For the times when all you want to do is turn off your phone and focus, but you feel you still need its essential functions, consider turning on Airplane Mode to block all internet and cellular functions. If someone like a child’s caregiver still needs the ability to get in touch with you in case of an emergency, set up a “Focus” on Apple products (“Do Not Disturb,” “Driving,” and “Sleep” are a few examples).
These easy-to-customize and easy-to-turn-on modes minimize notifications and interruptions during certain hours. You can select people and apps whose notifications are silenced or allowed. Here are a few examples, and click HERE for Apple’s complete how-to.
- During “Work Focus” mode, make it so that only notifications from coworkers and work-related apps come through.
- During “Do Not Disturb” mode (on vacation, over the weekends, or from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.), ensure that all work-related apps or coworkers cannot bug you.
- During “Sleep” mode, make it so that only calls or texts from immediate family members will break your phone silence barrier.
Here’s how to create a custom Focus:
5. Turn off pesky badges and banner notifications.
Nothing makes us want to pick up our phones more than unseen notifications. These notifications are designed to feel like an unchecked item on a to-do list. When we don’t see them, we are likely to feel inclined to remove them, and the only way to remove them is to open the associated app. Unless you turn them off altogether. On your email and Facebook apps, the aggressively red notification bubble refers to the number of unread emails or notifications you have. Still, on many apps, these are rarely more than marketing messages.
Head to “Settings” then “Notifications” to pick what “Notification Styles” are allowed for each app, if any. For me, all badges, banners, and sounds are fully turned off for every app but calls and iMessages/texts. Even my email. It’s made my phone feel clean and bare, not filled with the dread of the unseen. When I need to dedicate time to seeing what I have missed on an app, I do it because I want to, not because I am incessantly nudged. Here’s what my home screen looks like.
6. Go on a huge social media purge!
Moving onto social media, there are more negative sides to mindless scrolling beyond the amount of time we do it. Social media has become a hotbed for sensitive content, irresistible comparison, and clickbaity ads that prey on our vulnerabilities. Start by doing a massive unfollow. If you feel the ick when you see an account or an influencer, assess if they add value to your life. If they make you feel inferior or triggered, unfollow them without a second thought. Perhaps you create a parameter that if you haven’t seen or spoken to the person in over three years, unfollow them.
You can also find your “Least Interacted With” list on Instagram and unfollow them if you see fit.
- From your Instagram profile, tap “Following.”
- Tap “Least Interacted With” under the “Categories” tab to see the accounts you interact with the least.
- Unfollow to your heart’s content! The list will automatically refresh as you unfollow!
7. Filter recommended content on social media.
When it comes to content, the algorithm feeds us tons of suggested content from people or brands we don’t know. If you want to see less suggested content about, for example, weight loss or suicide, there are a few settings to turn on.
Here’s how to see less sensitive content on Instagram.
Here’s how to filter your recommended content by keyword on TikTok.
8. Consider a digital detox.
Consider a more comprehensive digital detox if you feel too attached to or at the mercy of your device. This could be for three days or three months. It can look like many things but works best with a little structure and accountability. The first step would be to define your goal. Maybe it’s to not open TikTok when you’re bored. Perhaps it’s to stop checking work email first thing in the morning. Maybe it’s to get your daily screen time average below two hours daily. Define your goal first.
Then, tell some friends and family members about what you’re doing. We are less likely to break pledges when we have vocalized them to others. If you need an extra step, have a trusted friend change your Instagram or TikTok password for you and keep it during the cleanse. Next, pick a duration. The longer, the better, especially regarding social media, but you can start small. Delete the Instagram app from your phone and pledge to keep it that way for two weeks or a month. Maybe at first, you let yourself check it from a desktop only (it’s just not the same!). You’ll likely relish the serenity you feel on day 30 and may not even want to re-download it.
It’s wise to have some alternative activities to pick up when you want to pick up your phone. Surround yourself with fantastic new books. Get a challenging new puzzle. Start to plan your next trip. Walk with a friend or call a friend while walking. Put together one of the trendy new miniature bookshelf scenes. These things require intention and attention, but the outcome can yield excellent results over time. To wrap this up, this creator’s tips are powerfully helpful, especially turning off “Raise to Wake” and “Tap to Wake.”
Here’s to more togetherness, cleaner phone usage, and reduced screen time this year!
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