To provide some background, I love social media. I love Instagram, I love Twitter, I love Pinterest, I love it all. Just like most of you reading this article, I tend to spend an unhealthy amount of time aimlessly browsing through various social media apps for absolutely no reason at all.
When I heard about the new software update for the iPhone, I knew I had to download it for one reason and one reason only, the screen time feature. I was tired of letting social media control my every second of free time. As soon as I got iOS 12, I immediately went to set limits for my social media.
At first, I honestly had no idea what the limit should be. I knew I spent a lot of time on social media, but what I didn’t know was how many hours that actually was. I started out limiting my social media usage to two hours a day, and gave it a shot.
The following day, I went throughout my morning as usual. I woke up, checked my phone for what I thought was a little bit, got ready for the day, ate some breakfast, browsed through my phone some more and then finally headed to class.
This is when I realized, not even half way through the day, that I was almost at my two hour limit. I was shocked. How could I have possibly spent an hour and a half of my morning on social media?
To be honest, I felt gross. An hour and a half of my morning was spent doing absolutely nothing productive, whatsoever. Not to be dramatic, but that was an hour and a half of my life completely wasted aimlessly scrolling.
As predicted by how my morning went, I hit my two-hour limit around midday. Now the screen time feature gives you two options once you hit the limit, you can ignore the limit and be reminded again in 15 minutes, or you can ignore the limit all together for the rest of the day.
I decided to hold out for the rest of the day and accept the limit and let me tell you—it was so extremely hard.
Ever since this day a few weeks ago, I have been trying to limit my social media usage a little more with each passing day. Instead of going on my phone for 30 minutes when I wake up, I now try to journal and then head straight for my coffee, because scrolling through 10 different apps just isn’t worth it.
And when I do hit my limit for the day, I find that I am so much more productive when my social media apps are blocked.
Even though I slip up and sometimes hit the “ignore for 15 minutes” button from time to time, it’s a work in progress that I’m striving to improve every single day. It may sound crazy to some people, but my next goal is to limit my social media usage to around 30 minutes to an hour a day (wish me luck).
I’m not saying that social media is evil and that no one should use it, but I think putting a limit on your usage is something that everyone should try, at least once. If you have been wanting to get your social media habits under control, I highly recommend giving the screen time feature a try.
After all, what’s the worst that could happen? God forbid you spend more time studying or finally have time to pick up that new hobby you have been dying to start.
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