by By Jayden Jenner
The term “doomscrolling” has become ever so popular when referencing the excessive time spent on social media. Being chronically online has been proven to have negative impacts on not only mental health but also physical.
Negative Impacts of Being Chronically Online
There are several common patterns that you will notice when you are starting to be negatively effected by social media, and it is very important that you know them. Your sleep and productivity could be declining because of it. Also you might start feeling anxious when you go through long periods of time without checking your phone. Ultimately it may start to impact the way your real-world relationships are going.
Why Do You Use Social Media?
The first step into finding a creative balance is to ask yourself exactly why are you using social media. It is important that you know your motivations and reasons for using it in the first place. Think about when you are bored and reach over to grab your phone to start scrolling, what makes you want to grab it?
Setting Screen Time Limits
Many devices now offer the ability to set time limits on your phone whether it be for the whole phone itself or certain apps that you want to set a limit on. By setting a limit for your social media apps you are directly targeting what is keeping you stuck in the doomscroll. Once your limit runs up it forces you to get up and start doing something else. The downside to being able to set time limits for yourself is that you also have the power to go back and set different time limits. This practice requires a lot of self discipline.
Silencing Notifications from Social Media
A personal favorite of mine which has worked really well for me is to not allow these social media apps to send you notifications. I noticed that seeing my phone screen flood with notifications from friends, family, and news brought me so much anxiety so I completely went away from getting notifications. While I noticed some early signs of FOMO, I able to quickly adapt to this new lifestyle. This is a great option if you don’t feel it is necessary to set yourself a limit.
Designating Tech Free Times
Creating certain times throughout the day that you can completely cut out social media and being online is a great strategy. Some common times to set tech free time could be during meals throughout the day, when you wake up, and before you go to sleep. A personal one for me used to be not sleeping with my phone in the same room as me. If I compare my time sleeping with my phone to without it there is a huge difference. Sleep is a lot better without having the temptation to roll over and start scrolling and it would boost my overall mood in the mornings.
Finding Fun Hobbies to Replace Screen Time
Finding a good hobby that you can indulge yourself into is really beneficial. I have recently taken up skateboarding with my friends as an alternative to playing video games. Instead of spending time behind I screen we choose to spend it in person and outside. While outdoor activities can be determined by the weather there are other things like going to the gym, reading a book, or playing board games.
Prioritizing Health
At the end of the day we have to continue to choose ourselves, that is why it is important to create safe and healthy boundaries to live by day-to-day.
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Hey Jayden,
It almost seems that it’s harder now more than ever to be offline. Everything is designed to keep us on our phones, and with the nature of technology and phones being essential within life today, it feels we always have an excuse to be plugged in. What I have found to be most effective relates most to your point about replacing the habits with fun hobbies. Finding physical activities to do rather than online ones has been a very fun thing to do for me over the past couple of years.
-Seth Thompson
Hey Jayden,
It almost seems that it’s harder now more than ever to be offline. Everything is designed to keep us on our phones, and with the nature of technology and phones being essential within life today, it feels we always have an excuse to be plugged in. What I have found to be most effective relates most to your point about replacing the habits with fun hobbies. Finding physical activities to do rather than online ones has been a very fun thing to do for me over the past couple of years.
I really like how you explain the signs of being “chronically online” and how easy it is to understand your writing. It’s easy to forget about how mindless scrolling hurts relationships, mood, and sleep when it’s a normal habit. Most of the time, the first step to stopping a habit is becoming aware of it. You make a good point when you say that we should know why we reach for our phones.
You gave a lot of different ideas, like finding things to do offline and setting aside time to not use technology, which is great. Using skateboarding as an example makes the lessons more useful and easy to understand. Instead of getting rid of social media, the key to a healthy balance is to use it on purpose. This is a good lesson of that. The advice you gave makes sense and is useful because this is a problem for many people.
This piece is a great reminder of how easy it is to slip into unhealthy scrolling habits. I love the focus on intentional breaks and finding real world hobbies to reconnect with your offline life.
Hi Jayden! I really liked your post — you broke down the idea of social media balance in such a simple and relatable way. Your point about recognizing why we reach for our phones really stood out to me, because it’s something most of us don’t think about. I also appreciated your tips about screen time limits and silencing notifications; those are small changes that can make a huge difference. The part about setting tech-free times, especially around sleep, was super helpful too. This post definitely made me reflect on my own habits.