How To Break Your Social Media Addiction

How To Break Your Social Media Addiction

When you're engaging in a behavior over, and over, and over again, and you're thinking to yourself, "this isn't even that interesting" you're officially addicted. ~ Andrew Huberman

There are a few reasons social media is addicting. It's not just an evil company manipulating you. In fact, your brain likes knowing what people around you are up to. It's from a good place. You want to check on what your friends/family/idols are doing. That's okay.

The problem arises when you start checking your phone for other reasons and fall into a wave of useless stimuli that you can't let go of. So let's address that.

When you use social media the first time, you get a dopamine hit. But the more you use it, you get less and less reward. After a while, no matter how much you try, you won't get any reward. That's why you think: "Why am I doing this?" but still can't control it. It's time to change that.

You need to change your mindset and take a tiny action in that new direction.

Action for the day

Choose the app/site that steals your attention the most. Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat (how is this still a thing?!), etc. Choose one. Mine is YouTube.

Next, choose a timeframe for not using it. Let's keep it short.1 day. You just need to realize that you can get rewarded from other, healthier activities too. So let's explore those.

What's something you enjoy doing besides using your phone? Examples: working out, hanging out with friends/family, writing, creating, reading, learning, etc. Think about this for a minute.

Okay, for today, do this thing instead of using your phone. That's enough to shift your perspective and disengage from the dopamine hits of social media. And hopefully, free yourself.

When you find yourself reaching for social media, pause, and do something else that you enjoy.

You can do it! Here's a clip of Andrew explaining this mechanism in more detail. Unfortunately, we can't watch it since it's on YouTube ;)

Have a nice weekend Reader!