I’ve been wanting to spend less time on my phone for a long time, and although all the barriers I’ve put in place haven’t stopped me from continuing to use it more than necessary, I have been able to reduce, at least somewhat, my daily screen time. The bad thing about setting limits on your own smartphone is that, just as you can activate them, you can deactivate them. However, having them there can help you a lot to reduce the amount of minutes you spend endlessly scrolling through social networks, although giving them up completely requires greater willpower.
Some of these tricks, while not going to completely stop you from using social media, will make it much more uncomfortable, and by causing friction and wear, you will start to feel lazy when you think about opening one of these applications. The indiscriminate consumption of platforms like X (Twitter) or Instagram can be truly toxic, whether it is because of the outrageous political news we see on X, the images of perfect bodies that the Meta app bombards us with, or the hours that are wasted absorbed in YouTube. Therefore, you do well to have the purpose of getting rid of your mobile more and freeing up space in the day.
You already know that there is a rather drastic but also effective solution, which is to buy a dumbphone or turn your smartphone into one, but there are other less radical ways to achieve the same goal without so much fuss. We explain them below.
Remove icons from the home screen
On both Android and iPhone you can customize your home screen to the maximum, being able to display the icons of the apps you want, creating folders or deleting some. Deleting an app icon does not mean removing the app completely from the device. If you delete the icons of social network apps, you will be forced to use the search engine to find it every time you want to use it. It is a bit of a pain to have to type the name manually every time you want to enter it, and that is the point. You can also create a folder and name it with a prohibition sign or something similar to differentiate all the apps you do not want to access, although it is more effective to leave no trace of the icons.
Turn off notifications
Of course, you should turn off notifications from your social media apps. All of them. Both those on the lock screen and in the notifications menu, as well as sounds and bubbles. This will mean that, instead of checking every time you get a signal, you’ll only check the app when you remember it. Ideally, this will make you spend more and more time without thinking about the app, making you log in less and less. It will also help you to be more relaxed and concentrate more. Some features, like iPhone modes, allow you to turn off notifications during a specific time slot. You can do this too, although it’s more effective to turn them off completely.
Delete some apps from your mobile
Although it may seem absurd, there are many more people than you think who, for example, do not have the X app on their mobile. This does not mean that they do not use it; they go to their browser every time they want to log in, even though viewing posts from the browser is more inconvenient than from the app. There are several reasons for doing this; one may be to prevent the app from collecting data about your device and, therefore, about you, for commercial purposes. In other words, for privacy. But another may be that, precisely because it is more inconvenient to view the social network from the browser, you end up hating logging in a bit. Also, sometimes you get logged out by accident, and it is a pain to have to log in again and again.
Enter only from the computer
It’s a good idea not to be too radical at first, so as not to create too big a shock, and to try to reduce your consumption little by little. One way to do this is not to try to get rid of social media overnight, but instead to aim to use it only on the computer. Typically, we use the computer less time per day than we use the smartphone. So if you can stop looking at your phone so much and instead allow yourself fifteen or twenty minutes a day of Twitter or YouTube when you’re on the computer, you’ll be successfully reducing screen time.
There are also some useful social media features that we don’t want to completely ignore. For example, my friends often send me messages or memes on Instagram, and by spending five minutes a day on my computer, I can look at them, keep up to date and respond, without having to be glued to my phone all the time. It’s a reasonable solution.
Activate the Usage Limit
This is an important step, but it’s the method I hate the most. Both Android and iPhone allow you to set time limits. You can decide that you can only use Instagram and TikTok for half an hour a day. After that time, when you try to open the app you’ll be met with a lock screen. You should activate this to remind you that you’re trying to get off the hook, but it has many disadvantages. In my case, I always end up tapping on ‘Skip limit today’, which means I turn off the limit myself. Also, when I’m doing tasks with YouTube in the background, it’s very irritating when the limit goes over. The video stops, and I have to stop what I’m doing to snooze it. It’s a waste of time, and on top of that, you feel bad about yourself for skipping it. It’s worth a try, but deleting the app entirely may be a better solution.
Put your phone in a drawer
It may seem silly, but it isn’t. Once you’ve finished your work day, or the time has come when you want to start disconnecting (for example, at eight in the evening, to think about dinner, relax or read something), you can silence your phone and leave it in a drawer or cupboard. The simple fact of not having it in sight helps a lot. The iPhone, through downtime, allows you to activate schedules that help you relax at the end of the day. But, as with the time limit, they are often not very helpful. “Out of sight, out of mind”, as the English say.
Use apps like Screenzen
There are third-party apps that can help you. I’ve tried a few, and while you may get fed up with them and end up deleting them, they can help if you find a good one. For example, Screenzen does something pretty cool, which is to put a delay between when you tap on the icon and the app opening. It doesn’t limit the app, it just increases the wait time for it to open. These extra seconds are very valuable, as they are enough to make you think twice about whether you really want to enter or if you are doing it out of pure inertia. Apart from this, the app also allows you to completely lock the app, but that particular feature may be even better than the other one.
