11 Steps to Manage Social Media Activities

It’s been a while since I shared my thoughts. I am occupied with too many things in my life right now. One main distraction I noticed that will cause problems in the long run, if care is not taken. As I am asking myself questions like, “what am I doing? Why and for who am I doing it?” Before Coshit was “introduced” to the Dutch society my life was quite busy. It was scheduled with family activities, projects, events and social outings. My to-do-list went from ticking off every day tasks. Now I am ticking less but adding more tasks on top of the existing ones. Similar to my laundry basket, which never gets empty.

“Mummy you are always on your phone”, my six-year-old said with a tone in his voice. If that is not a wake-up call, then I don’t know what is. If it’s not social media drawing my attention, my emails will. Talk less of the notifications of infamous group apps popping up frequently on my display. What suppose to be a quick check ,swooshed into hours spent staring to the phone: watching pictures, videos, reading articles, memes and sending replies in the languages of gifs and emoticons.

My son pointed out something I already knew about my excessive phone behavior. I heard Don P. say it a couple of times, but when your own child tells you, it comes as a tiny hand giving you a big slap in the face. I spent daily an average of 3-5 hours on social media and the apps. That is in between 21- 35 hours a week. Let’s not calculate the hours in months, quarters or years. That’s painfully shocking for activities that is not yielding any income or business.

For me the obvious reasons on social media was to “follow” new trends, connect or stay connected with like-minded people and being “seen”. The fact is that I am wasting precious time on lots of worthless content. If I close all my social media accounts today, I am sure that more than half of the people on my list won’t even notice I ever was there to begin with.

Can you imagine what kind of effect it will have in my life 15 years from now continuing this behavior? Will my children’s memories be tainted with my phone addiction? It’s high time I change, discipline and take full control over my online activities. That’s why I am writing about it to take the necessary steps. I made a list to break away from these patterns. Mentally preparing a social media detox and reduction of phone time and distractions.

1. Acceptance of a social media or app problem/addiction
2. Mute all forms of notifications (apps, social media, emails)
3. Keep the mobile data off when being outside with family, friends or at shops
4. Write (daily) activities and goals on a paper calendar or to-do-list sheet
5. Pick a social media detox month. Begin with deactivation of 1 medium on all devices. Start with 2 or 4 weeks.
6. Evaluate the detox/deactivation period. Write down the pros and cons of being off social media/apps.
7. Assess the results offline activities such as better sleep, sporting, breathing and direct interactions.
8. Off the WiFi before going to bed. Also, during family activities, diners, watching movie or reading a book.
9. After Detox, set up a time frame e.g. afternoon and evenings 45 minutes daily on social media and apps (set your alarm )
10. When temptation kicks exceeding your set time. Turn to offline activities such as: reading, play games, direct calls or other hobbies and duties.
11. If the old behavior returns, start all over again with the steps until you have full control of your time on social media/apps

A month ago I practiced a few steps of these rules, already my social media activity reduced to a daily average of 2 hours, which is a good indicator to continue the list. Step number 5 is the one I fear. As I am adding new activities to my life, I need to let go of activities that doesn’t serve me well anymore. So, this will be continued before the end of 2021.

Share your thoughts, if you have similar experience with social media? How do you cope with following all these new trends and apps? What works for you?

Images from:

Selfie – Chi

Chad Madden – Unsplash

Sara Kurfess – Unsplash

*Featured Image on top by Gian Cescon – Unsplash