The American Psychological Association released a report in 2018 saying that extended use of social networks can lead to depression.

A former Facebook executive said that social media is ripping society apart.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, said he only wanted people to spend quality time on Facebook, meaning, being active and communicating, not just swiping.

After all of this, some tech executives got together and created the Center for Humane Technology, to liberate us from technology addiction.

Social media is addicting like any other drug. Every time we get a like or achieve a milestone on a smartphone game, we get a hit of dopamine, making us want more and more.

Unfortunately, if you overstimulate dopamine neurons, they die; which could potentially lead to depression.

A device that was supposed to make our lives easier is instead making suffer by isolating ourselves from others, reducing face to face interactions (which also reduces oxytocin generation among other neurotransmitters that make us feel energized and content).

Instead of bringing us together, it is ripping us apart.

A report in 2017 showed that more than 9 million people in the UK often or always feel lonely. The UK then appointed a Minister of Loneliness. Social media is making us have less and less social interaction.

We scroll down and see other people’s perfect life (which is everything but perfect) and feel like ours is worthless.

Why you can’t put your phone down

It is simply addictive. I can’t open Instagram to search for a restaurant or any company profile without getting hooked by the feed and forgetting what I was there to do.

Just like Pavlov’s dogs, every time we get a notification on our phone (a beep or a vibration) we get excited, we know we just got a like or text, and that gives us some satisfaction, a small shot of dopamine which makes us feel good for a few seconds.

On average, we check our phones every 15 minutes. Mostly because we don’t want to miss out. We want to know what is going on with our friends and family, and we want to get those likes every time we upload on Instagram.

If we lose our phones, we get anxious and feel disconnected (which we are in some way). There’s even a word for it; it is called “Nomophobia.”

How to Start Looking Up Again

1. Turn off notifications. This way you won’t always be anxiously waiting for your phone to ring or beep. Just forget about it and go about your day like you usually would.

2. Buy a low-end phone. If you only use your smartphone for WhatsApp, Instagram, and Google search, any cheap phone will do. The logic behind this is that a cheaper phone with a smaller low-resolution screen is less attractive and appealing. Therefore you won’t be so tempted to use it as much.

An appealing phone like the last iPhone or Samsung has too many features, and it’s too tempting to unlock it and open social media apps to see what is happening.

Just have a phone for the essentials, like making calls as they used to in the good old days, making google searches and all that good stuff.

While a cheap phone does the same thing, it has a cheap screen which is uncomfortable to look at, you can’t open many apps at the same time, and overall is annoying to use because it is constantly lagging unless you are doing something productive like reading some article like this one on Google.

Also, for some people, it is embarrassing to be seen with a cheap phone, since it has become a sign of prestige at this point to have a thousand dollar phone in your pocket.

I had a OnePlus 3 for three and a half years. It finally died a month ago, and I started using a cheap Alcatel I got for free a while ago when I renewed my contract with the phone company. To my surprise, this cheap Alcatel 1 can handle everything I did in my old flagship phone, yet it wasn’t appealing to use since its screen is trash and it gets laggy when too many apps are open.

3. Go Out Without Your Phone For One Day. Just try it out and see what happens. If it turns out you were so dependant on your smartphone that you can’t take it, it would be a realization and make you want to stop the addiction.

Just put the phone down.

Try leaving your phone in the car when you get to a location. When you get to the gym, leave the phone there, or on a bag. When you get to work, put the phone away for good, just check it at launch in case an emergency happened.

If you have an important job and continuously need to take calls for work, I guess hiring a secretary wouldn’t be hard, so just go for it.

4. Make It A Game

Challenge yourself and your friends, see who can go without using a smartphone for the longest time. The one who reduces the usage of smartphones the most wins. The one who uses the smartphone the most has to buy beers for the whole group.

You can do this with your family, too; it is a healthy fun game. And it ends in a social meeting where the loser has to buy the rounds. It forces you to make physical, social interaction like we used to before.

5. Delete your social media accounts (or at least delete the apps for a while). Seriously, think about what good it does for you. If you’re not an influencer or really need to spend time in social networks for work, then you can easily go a full week without using it after it would feel easier to live without it, or at least reducing it.

If you check Instagram every 15 minutes, just uninstall the app and try to go a full day without doing it. Then a whole week, until you have demolished the addiction.

You can challenge your friends on this one too, see who can spend less time glued to the screen. You can then reinstall the app for any purpose, and find yourself just forgetting it is there. If you need to open it to talk to a friend or something, go ahead. But you’ll be less inclined to check for notifications every minute.

Overall try to reduce the amount spent watching that black screen, in any possible way. Just do what’s necessary.

Think of it as a challenge; how did people communicate before the smartphone uprising? How much face-to-face was there before? How much time do you spend on your phone, that could be spent with people you love?