Social Media Is Designed to Waste Our Time
Most people interested in tech are aware that social media platforms are specifically engineered to manipulate human weaknesses to make people addicted to their platforms. The goal is to suck you in and keep you in as long as possible so that the platform receives advertising revenue. In a very real sense, we are the product, not the user.
The recent issues regarding changes with Twitter have highlighted this problem. While many tech writers and podcasters are busy adding to “outrage culture” and making “the sky is falling” predictions about Twitter, very few have asked the more important questions — “If we want to use social media for specific purposes (keeping in touch with family news or following someone whose work we value), how can we gain the benefit without falling into the social media trap?”
A Tool To Regulate Our Social Media Time
In his recent post in 24 Letters, Joe Moyer highlighted his use of Screen Time, a tool built into iOS and iPadOS. By using this tool, we can bring discipline to our use of social media. This tool not only (provides) us with information on our usage of apps, but also includes a way to set a time limit by categories of apps or specific apps.
Joe uses the timer to limit his use of social media platforms:
I have a fifteen-minute limit set for social applications. Once triggered, the app Icon disappears from Siri Suggestions and isn’t readily displayed in search results, the two ways I access the most used apps on my iPhone. Additionally, the icon is grayed out wherever it is shown with a small hourglass icon, acting as a not-so-subtle reminder that the time is up.
By using this tool over a period of several months, he now normally ends his social media sessions before the timer even shows up. Rather than getting sucked into mindless social media, he has used this tool to help him regulate his intentional time.
Joe suggests that if you recognize a need to regulate your use of social media apps, you set timers for yourself:
If you are on a specific app more than you’d like, check your usage. If the number you see makes you uncomfortable, set a limit. Then, when that hourglass icon comes onto the screen, it offers you a momentary break from that dopamine machine, and you can make a better-informed choice about what to do with your time.
Over the past months, I have greatly reduced my time and participation in social media apps. However, every once in a while I still get pulled in and resurface 30 minutes to an hour later wondering how and why I wasted all that time.
I’m following Joe’s advice and have set 15-minute timers for social media apps like FaceBook that I use. Here’s how to set time limits:
- On your iPhone or iPad, go to the Settings App, and tap on “Screen Time.”
- Tap on “App Limits.”
- Tap “Add Limit.”
- You’ll be presented with a screen showing categories of apps. If you want to place limits on a specific app like FaceTime, enter it in the search bar on the top.
- Tap the check circle to the left of the app name, then tap “Add” in the upper-right corner.
- Tap “Next” and it will bring you to a screen where you can set your time limit.