3 Super Simple and Effective Steps to Cure Your Social Media Addiction

I've found 3 super simple and super effective steps to cure or lessen your social media addiction.

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What is social media addiction?

Let's break down the words into 2 parts, social media and addiction

Social media means social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Addiction refers to people feel compelled to do certain activities so often that they become a harmful habit, which then interferes with other important activities such as work or school.

In other words social media addiction means someone is compelled to use social media excessively like constantly checking Facebook status, Instagram likes for hours to the extent it interferes their daily activities.

Social media addiction is worse than cigarette or alcohol, according to researchers at Chicago University. Media cravings actually ranked above cigarettes and alcohol! And the number keeps increasing, daily.

You could be one of them, whether you know it or not. Not sure if you're addicted or not? If you exhibit 6 or more signs below, you're an addict!

1. It's the first thing in the morning. You check your status, posts, pictures, other's walls as soon as you open your eyes (sometimes when your eyes are still half-closed).
2. It's the only thing you do when you're waiting. You take out your phone when you're waiting for bus, trains, taxi, friends, anything!
3. You spend hours looking at nonsense. Be it cats getting scared by owners, babies crying, holiday pictures, selfies, blablabla...
4. You check in at every location. It's okay to check in occasionally, but if you check in every time when you reach a place, it's a bit too much.
5. You take pictures of literally everything. Food, sky, trees, roads, pets, yourself, your friends, anything!
6. You hear imaginary notifications. This is going beyond addiction. You started hearing imaginary notifications because you want those notifications so much! A new like, Ding!
7. You talk to your friends only via social media. When was the last time you saw your friends face-to-face?
8. Most of your friends are from social media.
9. It takes over every or most of your activities. You scroll through social media when you're in meeting, at work, in the toilet, when you're watching TV, in bathtub.
10. No internet means the end of the world to you. Imagine living a day without internet. If you think you will not survive, you're addicted :)

We all know how the addiction affects our lives and health. But if you don't, click here. We also know, most of us struggle to cure the addiction, but fret not. These methods I'm about to share are super simple and they're effective!

Method 1: Uninstall all social media apps from your phone!

I knew you can't do it. Me too :) So here are the real steps. Remember, ALL of them must be executed!

Step 1: Put all of your social media apps on the third screen. Lump them inside a folder. Name that folder, Social.

This creates more effort to access your social media apps. You won't be able to see them once you unlock your phone. This works like magic.

Step 2: Turn off all social media notifications!

You will no longer be bombarded with endless notifications. You will not know what's happening to your profile, feed, status, etc. No notifications means less number of times looking at phone :)

Step 3: Do your hobby! If you don't have a hobby, get one! Do something not related to social media.

Step 4 (extra): On your browser, delete all social media bookmarks.

This makes it more effort to access your social media.

I followed these 3 super simple steps and 1 month later, I look at my social media apps less than 5 times (each time less than 5 minutes) per day, and I'm feeling super awesome about it! I still use Facebook Messenger, to ask my friends out for tea :)

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