An experiment in curbing my Facebook checking

Wellbeing Mindfulness
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Hi all, I just stumbled on this site today and am in love :slight_smile: I am so happy I am not alone in my concern about these issues! I have been experiementing in my own life with how to regain some of my mental focus and wanted to share in case it is helpful.

First of all, I have a flip phone and have not gotten a smart phone yet. Even with flip phones, my husband and I find ourselves texting a lot, but it is nowhere near the distraction of a smart phone. A few years ago, I got an iPod touch. It’s been great for lots of things—depositing checks online, taking photos, checking email, etc. BUT, latefly I found myself checking Facebook a lot … like ALL the time. I am the kind of person who loves to go to the mailbox to get mail, and I feel like Facebook tapped into that on an extreme level. I was contantly checking for those little red flags, etc. etc. I have struggled with what to do about this for longer than I care to admit.

I didn’t want to go cold turkey because there are a lot of people on Facebook I want to keep in contact with and there are groups I have joined that I get a lot of support from, like mom groups, etc. So I struggled and kept checking a lot more than I liked.

Recently I have made some changes that have really helped curb the checking but also allow me to enjoy the good things I get from Facebook. First off, I uninstalled the app off the iPod touch. Then I installed an app that blocks me from checking Facebook on Safari. I started checking Facebook only on my laptop instead.

I have found Facebook a lot less interesting to use on my laptop. I usually check in the morning and in the evening and I can batch my tasks on it so I don’t get nickled and dimed all day long. One big thing I have noticed is that on the iPod I got into this thing where I would scroll and scroll and scroll, looking for something (anything!) interesting and I find that scrolling like that on the laptop just isn’t as much fun. The other thing I do is keep my laptop on a charger in a cupboard. I notice when I just leave the laptop out after using it I am a lot more apt to jump on and check Facebook, etc.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this since I have struggled for years to find a way to participate on Facebook without succumbing to checking it all the time, and this seems to be a really nice way to get back some balance.

I am so happy to have found this site!
Kristen

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These are some smart changes! I also wanted to just mention the Facebook Demetricator, which takes the numbers off of facebook - making it less rewarding to check over and over. For example, instead of saying “73 people like this” on a post, it will just say “people like this”. I believe it’s available as a Firefox/Chrome extension and for iPhones too.

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Hi @kristenannie, good measures! I am not on Facebook, but was spending quite some time infinitely scrolling the LinkedIn app. I decided to just uninstall the app, and go from the browser instead.
To anyone that is considering a similar move: I can say it really helps. In the browser some functionality is missing (like bookmarks… probably on purpose), but you’ll get over it soon enough :slight_smile:

Thx @afuchs, I added the Facebook Demetricator to Humane Tech :blush:

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Hi @kristenannie – what did you use to block Facebook on Safari on your iPod touch?

Thanks,

James

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Did the same for facebook, for me the result is not a complete success to be honest, but at least a first step in the right direction I guess;)