Let’s face it. We are a generation addicted.

Us millenials just can’t get enough of mobile technology.

The name of this post is half-borrowed from a book that tackles that very subject.

Wi-Fi has become a daily essential (the lack of which can cause some severe withdrawals, leading to desperate purchases of flat whites just to get your mitts on some free internet).

Social media so often dictates our real lives, and that’s some scary shit.

Being someone who transformed from an anti-phone warrior, I was in a committed relationship to my sickeningly slow BlackBerry curve for much of my teen years, to a full blown social media addict.

I blame university for the addiction creeping up.

Uni gets the brunt of the blame for most young adult dependencies; alcohol, smoking, Rustler burgers.

Although I must admit that all that free time and late nights can brew some strange behaviour.

After a large bout of that free time, my heart and soul soon belonged to none other than Instagram.

I still adore it; it is one giant moodboard that fulfils all my aesthetic dreams from fashion to travel. I’ve got googly eyes just thinking about it.

But for a while I’d been using it far too much.

I have been making a major effort to cut down on my phone usage, particularly any mindless scrolling through social apps.

If like me you feel a little consumed by consumerism, or a little overwhelmed by the comparison social media can bring then here are a handful of ways to help cut down.

As a 22 year old active internet user I have found these methods useful to engage more with the real world and use my phone for the right reasons rather than as a boredom killer.

Reading

I touched on this in my post back in July, but to reiterate, reading had became a great way for me to unwind before sleep and fight the urge to aimlessly scroll social media.

It also feeds my imagination more than enough to satisfy any boredom!

If you’re looking for any reading recommendations, I have a story highlight on my Instagram @emilyrosejacko dedicated to recent reads.

Phone on Loud

My phone has been on silent since 2K8, but that has meant that I find myself constantly clicking that home button to check for notifications, which subsequently leads to an aimless skim read/look of my Insta feed.

Putting your phone on Loud for calls and texts allows you to deal with priorities/emergencies whilst being able to relax and switch off from the uneccessary yet regular checks we all obsessively participate in.

Monitor Usage with Apps

If you’re an apple user go for ‘Moment, or for android users I’d highly recommend ‘QualityTime’. They’re two phone usage tracking apps are almost frighteningly eye-opening.

They’ll challenge you to spend less time scrolling by revealing not only total usage time and amount of screen unlocks, but also a breakdown of what app you use most. Despite the somewhat irony of you having to check them on your phone!

For me the realisation that most of my sessions were less than 2 minutes made me accept that I was rarely unlocking my phone to do anything I could deem worthwhile.

I was just mindlessly unlocking and checking apps. In turn, this has encouraged me to majorly monitor and cut down on pointless usage.

Delete Apps

Can you live without it? If not, that’s pretty scary isn’t it.

If you think you’ve got a real problem with a particular app, try uninstalling it for a few days.

The separation will make you evaluate how and when you use it. This may then lead you to reach for another more beneficial activity whenever you get the urge to revisit the app, whether that be reading, listening to music/podcasts or even exercise.

All are a much better way to spend your time then scrolling through the holiday photos of someone you haven’t seen since Year 9 Maths!

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So there you have it! Just 4 simple steps towards breaking down a serious social media addiction.

If you have any top tips please do let me know in the comments!