To the one who endlessly scrolls -
We ALL do it.
You get a notification on your phone, you check it…then you see a funny video, you tag someone in it, then that leads to a black hole of endless scrolling, switching between all your apps, refreshing, double tapping, tweeting, sharing, and next thing you know 2 hours have gone by and you are still sitting at the edge of your bed in your towel, freaking out because now you only have 30 mins before you have to rush out the door before you are late.
Raise your hand if this has ever happen to you —
About a month ago I was scrolling through twitter…(this is my social media pick of poison) and the next thing I know its literally been an hour, and I could have sworn it was only 5 minutes that went by, and then right after that my notification for my “Screen Time” use came up to remind me oh how much time I have actually been wasting on all of my platforms. It made me wonder why I have become so damn attached to my phone and social apps, when in all reality about 80% of what I follow is either —
Brands who post things that I want, but don’t necessarily need because i already have like 8 pair of black boots, and that top is cute but I already own it in red.
Fitness Models with HUGE asses, a small waist, and perfect skin.
Someone complaining about the kanye + the kardashians
Someone complaining about anything.
Beauty Gurus — I dont really wear make up yet…i have every fckn palette known to man.
The other 20% was content I really enjoyed, that inspired me, that got me excited and creative, and coffee shops that I wanted to visit.
I WAS DETERMINED + HAD A PLAN
The content that didn’t bring value to my life, I was going to get rid of. That included people that I did know that used their social media to complain or talk shit about other people…I refuse to let that type of energy into my life anymore, as an empath that shit is draining AF. The rest of the content, pages and posts that I mentioned above made me feel like I HAD TO be doing this or that, or buying those clothes because she made it look cute and thinking “I could pull this off”…you wanna know where all those clothes are, in the back of my closet because its not my every day go to kinda stuff, and then if i eat a donut or Oreo’s I feel super guilty when I scroll and see a fitness guru doing resistance bands squats with the new gym shark release. It was a cycle for me, and I can admit that I wasn’t mentally strong enough yet to see that as motivation, to me it was like “well i look bloated as fck let me throw all my snacks away”. I am just being honest because I know other people go through it too.
Once I was done getting rid of all the pages, and unfollowing accounts my instagram went from following 1043 pages to 193 pages, yall…it took FOREVER.
but you have to cultivate the space you want to be in, and also i heard this quote by Jason Silvas, and he said…
“The space you design, designs you”
BUT DID IT HELP…?
Cool. I switched up who I followed, now my mental and energy was good but I was still waiting time on social media. Thats when I decided to turn off notifications and see how that would help out. It was a kind of out of sight out of mind thing, and it helped with facebook, but i was still super active on twitter. I was starting to post more positive things and I think it had a lot to do with surrounding my feed with good people who had a great message and wanted to share that with their followers.
LET’S TAKE IT UP A NOTCH
About a week ago I decided that I’m only going to be logging onto social media three times a week. They would be themed around my goals, because who doesn’t love theme. 😂 I came across a YouTuber named Muchelle B and she talked about going on social media only 2 - 3 times a week and deleting the apps so there is no more temptation and more productivity in here life. After really thinking about it this is what I came up with
motivation MONDAY - because for some reason everyone really hates Monday’s so I figured I would add some sprinkles of optimism in their day
why + what/woo woo WEDNESDAY - the name of this day needs some serious help but I figured id give the universe all the credit on this day, talk about mindset shifts I have made in my life, ask questions, be grateful AF for everything and spread that love too.
social SATURDAY. - this is my day to do whatever I want on social media, to catch up with everyone, see what the kardashian’s are up too, figure out what memes are poppin off in the comments, you know that kind of stuff
I wanted to try this out because I catch myself mindlessly scrolling throughout the day to consume my boredom. and i’m tryna replace it with productivity towards my goals. Since starting I have been more productive in journaling. When I wake up I don’t check my notifications first thing, and I use my phone way less throughout the day. Monday’s and Wednesday’s for me are used to add meaningful content to my website, post things that people can relate to on social media, and get those around me inspired…even if that means having them stop for a second to think about something they are grateful for in the midst of a shitty day.
if you made it this far…you are a real one, i know i write a whole lot 😂 So without further hesitation here is the cliff notes version of what I did so maybe you can try and implement it to your life and see if it helps you. I know some people do 30 day social media cleanses like my girl Char, but me…I could never be away from posting what comes to mind for that long, so these bite sizes detoxes really work for me.
— TIPS ON HOW TO STOP ENDLESSLY SCROLLING, REFRESHING, AND DOUBLE TAPPING —
Figure out what pages, people, and posts you really want to see all the time. It has to either bring you joy, make you feel motivated, or align with your life.
Set time limits or time restrictions for when you want to be on social media, and what hours of the day you will be productive.
Try setting your phone in a far away location once you are about to go to bed. I promise you that nothing and no one will be up at 3 am posting about anything super important .
If you cant unfollow certain people because of whatever reason, just mute them. this does wonders, especially if they tend to get on your nerves for whatever reason.
Make mindful decisions on what you are going to post. Curating your space start with YOU. You can’t solve your problems if you are apart of the problem. I just had to throw this one in there.