Is a digital detox calling your name?
Despite the restoration of TikTok, serial scrollers — some of whom might be addicted to social apps — might still want to take a break from their perpetual media consumption.
An estimated 210 million people suffer from social media addiction, which can result in mood swings, disrupted sleep, neglected responsibilities, desire for validation and a lack of hobbies
Those hooked on TikTok, for instance, say they can’t possibly live without it, while other may find themselves compulsively checking their social media platforms to check like and view counts, or spend a majority of their day staring at their screen.
“A lot of apps are designed using what we know from psychology research to maximize our engagement and engage the systems in our brain that drive us to do things over and over again until they become habits,” Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research Director Erin Calipari told Yahoo News.
But how do you break this innate habit?
For starters, Kia-Rai Prewitt, Cleveland Clinic’s director of outpatient psychology told the outlet that the first step is to set a goal.
“Coming up with a specific goal as far as how you want to use your phone less is important,” she said.
According to Yahoo News, this can be anything from not wanting to use your phone after work or setting a certain number of hours allowed on the weekends. Having someone to hold you accountable can help, too, she added.
Prewitt explained that it may not even be the screen, but rather, a certain app or group of apps.
When she detoxed from her device, she simply logged out of her social media accounts on her phone. As a result, she “didn’t get alerted” so she wasn’t tempted to launch the app and had to go out of her way to see certain posts.
On Apple iPhones, users can limit their screen time in their settings for certain apps, or they can set their phone to “Do Not Disturb” to avoid pesky notifications without logging out completely.
Prewitt also advised people to “limit how many things you allow yourself to be drawn into.” Since “there’s always a new app or something coming out,” she recommended using one app at a time before trying a new one.
If all else fails, a cell phone can be treated just like a landline — only keep it in certain rooms of the house to be used at certain times instead of being tempted all day long.
Clinical psychologist Neda Gould, an assistant professor at John Hopkins in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, told Yahoo News that keeping your phone in another room at night is a “simple way to start to create that space from the phone.”
“Otherwise, it’s the last thing we tend to use before we go to bed and the first thing we pick up in the morning,” she warned. “Just that separation from our phone can help us detox from the phone [and] get a little space from it.”
Being attached to your phone is so “habitual for us that we’re not even aware that we’re constantly connected,” she said, so she advised intentionally embarking on a daily activity that can happen without a phone.
While safety should always be considered, she said that there are outings or activities that can be done without having a cell phone on your person. For her, this is walking to pick up her kids from school.
Gould said that people have to break out of “this automaticity of doing things with a sense of urgency.”
“When you get that email that something else has to be done, I think the question to ask is, ‘Does this have to be done right now?’” she said. “And if not, maybe you have a block of time in your day [for] addressing home stuff.”
She added: “Initially, it might be challenging to do a digital detox because you’re breaking some patterns — but with practice it becomes more tolerable and perhaps even pleasant.”