I’d ask you how you moderate your social media scrolling time. Once collapsing into bed for the night I usually decompress by catching up on Instagram, Snapchat, blogs, etc. And despite being exhausted and desperate for a good nights sleep I often stay up way past my bedtime scrolling past people I don’t know, outfits I can’t afford, recipes I’ll never make, homes that make me envious, and more! I don’t know how this even happened (cough, Nordstrom loop giveaways, cough), but somehow I found myself trying to keep up with hundreds and hundreds of accounts — many of which I didn’t really even care about. So I recently did a little spring cleaning as a baby step towards hopefully spending less time on social media. Because if there’s less content available then maybe I’ll spend less time on my phone, sleep more or maybe even just spend more screen-free time with my husband — because he’s pretty freaking spectacular. The second step was setting a 30 minute scroll limit once I dive into bed. One of my besties is doing this with me too which is nice for accountability!
Anyway, I am happy to report that I am loving my less busy social media feeds. Instead of seeing the same dress over and over I see more moments of my friends’ kids being adorable and (for the most part) am following people who I would absolutely be excited to see in the same aisle as me in Target. I still have a good variety of content to scroll though but it’s just scaled back tremendously to people, stores, bloggers, etc. who I love and never want to miss a post — and I’ve found I can do it in 30 minutes!
Now tell me how you manage your scrolling time. Do you check your social media feeds throughout the day? Or do you limit it to certain times? Or certain amounts of time? Tell me. Tell me! (Judgment-free zone here, I promise)!
Such a good topic! I work from home so I'm with my kids all time and it seems that when they're having a lot of tantrums or fighting, I end up looking at my phone more (maybe to escape?!) but I've tried to put my phone away and charge it for the most part when they are around. Usually my husband is the one to put our youngest to bed and sit in her room for 15 minutes till she goes to sleep so I usually do my quick social media update then and then I try to put it away for the night after that. I started to charge my phone downstairs away from our bedroom about 2 months ago and that's been really helpful. I just have my iPad upstairs (which I only use to read) for an alarm. It's definitely a struggle for me though, not to be checking my phone a lot so I've found if I keep it out of sight, I'm less likely to gra it and start scrolling!
Yes to keeping the phone out of the room as Jessica said! That helped me big time. I love that 30 minute idea too.
I think it's OK to scroll hahaha!! You work FT and have kids and maintain a home and if that's how you relax than great!! 🙂 I'm breastfeeding my 6-month-old so that's my mindless scrolling time. I also will scroll before bed if I can't sleep, but during the day I try to be more present in my life!!-Sarah http://www.thefrugalmillionaireblog.com
Oh man, I wish I had the answer to this… I am so terrible at social media time!! I am definitely addicted – I would like to limit it to a morning time and evening time but then I find that even those times can be used in a better way – mornings to have quiet time on my own and with Jesus and evening time extra cuddles with my husband…I need to work on this! x
Since I'm home with my kids I try my hardest to stay off social media when they're around so I usually use my down time to catch up Instagram and Facebook. I need to do a clean out though, I am following way too many people right now and with instagram's new algorithms I never see the people I want to any more!
I try to limit the same 30 min. I also go to bed a little earlier to allow for wind down time. As for social media, I don't follow anything that uses like it to know or loop giveaways. I don't agree with the sneaky tactics and it clogs my feed. I also go through my social media pretty often and purge accounts I don't like. It's helped keep the junk off my IG and pintest as well as FB and the crazy videos that are junk. I don't have FOMO and I get to spend quality time with my husband.
You will be AMAZED how much more time you have in your life without as much social media. I know its bad form for a blogger to say, but I've gotten to the point where I rarely check instagram, facebook, etc and I don't miss it a bit. Once you get out of the habit, you'll be SO glad its not sucking up your time.
I definitely need to set a screen limit – I get into bed feeling tired & then scroll through endless feeds on my phone! It's crazy! http://www.natslife6.blogspot.com
Great topic and question! I've been thinking about this a lot lately too. One thing I've heard is super helpful is to delete the apps on your phone. So you have to log onto an actual computer (gasp!) to check in. I might try this since it'll make it more purposeful, less convenience. If it works I'll let ya know!
We limit our children's screen time, so I feel like I need to walk the walk. It's a good reminder that I shouldn't look at my phone if I'm not allowing them to look at their iPads. And it gives me more time to have conversations and play with them. My husband and I also pick a show (we just finished the latest season of Billions) and we get in bed and watch that after the kids are down. That helps too! 🙂
Such a good post! I need to limit screen time more too. I feel like I don't really do anything productive, so I've been trying to spend less time and do other activities instead (like hanging out with my husband, tidying up, making things)!
I LOOOOOOOVE THIS! Great idea! I need to do some spring cleaning on my Instagram feed as well! I love the 30 minute time limit, too! I have gotten WAAAY off track going to bed much later than I should be…so this should help. Happy hump day!
This probably won't help you since you use your time at night to unwind, but I leave my phone in the kitchen and never take it into the bedroom. My husband has his phone, so I figure if someone REALLY needed me for an emergency at night, they could call him. Keeps my scrolling to a minimum and I find more time to read! 🙂
I'm currently trying to grow my Insta following so I spend a lot of time on there engaging with everyone. It's starting to get exhausting, though, so I have been backing off a bit. As for spring cleaning who you're following, that's a great idea! There are way too many people who show up in my feed that I don't even know who they are and I feel like I miss all of the stuff from the people who I do want to see. I think I feel a purge coming on!
Such a good idea to limit to 30 minutes. I'm SO bad about being on my phone around my husband. Sometimes I am laying in bed and realize we have both been lying there for an hour scrolling through our phones and haven't said a word to each other. So bad! I don't want my daughter to remember me constantly looking at my phone
This post inspired me – I spent my bus ride to work this morning cutting down the number of accounts I follow on Instagram. It's been a long time coming – my fiance occasionally asks "who is that?" out of curiosity as I'm scrolling and almost every time I say "A blogger/former blogger/celebrity/etc" and it always confused him why I followed so many people I don't actually know. Now the list is shorter and easier to manage so hopefully I can keep up with my friends/favorite blogs. We've both been trying to be better about limiting screen time when we're home on work nights – watching a show together without also being on our phones, leaving our phones in another room, etc. It's amazing how easy it is to fall into the habit of being glued to your phone all the time. What a world we live in haha!
I'm so bad at doing this first thing in the morning. Time really gets away from me when I do that, too!! I've been trying to clean out my social media feed, too.
I was so bad that I was checking facebook at redlights. Nothing has happened to keep me that busy on facebook! I started listening to podcasts so when I have down time, I throw my earphones in and listen to those. I just try to stay busy doing more productive stuff.
I use an app called Moment which logs how much time you spend on your phone–it's pretty eye opening!