How I got rid of my social media addiction without losing access to social media.

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 Oh y'all, I have had the best month. My mind is clear and full of space... I am spending less time on my phone and my days are no longer uprooted by something dumb that was posted on social media. 

Yes, I was one of those people. I'll chalk it up to personality and ego. I would get sucked into posts. I'd read comments from people I didn't know and get upset about it. Forever giving "advice" on blogs to people I don't know and would never meet. I was wasting my life and my time and I hated it.

As a gym owner I need social media... its great advertising and allows me to stay linked in to our customers as well as get inspired by other pros in the business. I had tried unsuccessfully several times to get rid of the FB app on my phone, only to have a potential customer message me and have to download it all over again if I didn't have access to my laptop. 

Around Christmas I made the decision to find a way to reduce social media in my life and started looking around for a "fix".... 

I found a blog talking about why facebook was so addictive. When we first downloaded it (some of us over 10 years ago), it wasn't near as powerful as it seems to be today. It is because of the NEWS FEED that we get sucked in. Endless scrolling, getting sucked into conversations about politics, ads for anything and everything, fake news. This stuff is NOT good for anyone. 

I realized this was my problem. I had to get rid of my news feed. 

I found a "extension" called News Feed Eradicator. Basically you download it onto your desktop and it streamlines your facebook to have a daily motivational quote instead of the news feed. But it keeps all of the necessities like messaging, activity and ability to search people and pages. Here is what my desktop FB looks like today. 


 After I downloaded my eradicator extension I was appalled at how many times I would log on, only to be stopped short when I realized there wasn't much to look at. 

Next in line was my phone. 

I got rid of the FB app and kept my messenger app and the "Facebook Business Suite". The suite is the update to the old pages manager and will also link any other business accounts you have. I can get alerts and answer messages in a timely manner and even post ads, videos, and any other content via the business suite. 

To break it down here is exactly what I did..

1. I added the facebook eradicator to my Firefox and Chrome browsers.

2. I deleted the facebook app on my iphone and updated my business suite to link my gym instagram and fb to each other. I can now upload easily from any of my content creating sites like Canva, Creative Cloud and Youtube now that everything is linked. I also get messages faster than I used to and it is much easier to see activity on all of my social media accounts for my business. 

3. I kept my instagram because I found it less habit forming and without as much negativity. Plus it was easier to share my employee stories on our page directly through the app.

This process was successful and easy for me. It has been about 5 or 6 weeks and I swear I am never going back!  If you find yourself vowing to quit social media yet keep going back... try this out and let me know what you think! 

Keep thinking critically and independently, stay humble and stay hungry! 

 


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